It's hard to imagine my little man is ONE. He's quite the little monkey getting into just about everything, so it didn't take much to finalize a monkey themed party. Over the summer I received a
1st Wishes catalog in the mail. As I was flipping through it, I came across a
Mod Monkey birthday theme - fell in love instantly! I thought the turquoise and yellow looked stunning together. As August was approaching, I quickly discovered my time disappearing! Getting my husband ready for deployment, visiting family, and enjoying what summer we had left together. Seeing so much on my plate, I was completely amazed when my friend Amber, over at
Photography by Amber offered to work on his invitation for me! You can usually find us chatting on Yahoo Messenger together, passing photos back and forth, discussing projects and such. So within a short while, over popped this STUNNING monkey themed invitation in the perfect coordinating colors!
It was now time to plan a monkey party!
As I did a little internet research, I came across some amazing monkey theme party ideas.
This blog is where my ideas stemmed from - Hostess with the Mostess. She has an amazing post for a Mod Monkey baby shower!
I was totally sold on the idea of using simple frames for table decor! I found these chunky wood $1 frames at Michael's. Perfect for the occasion. I painted each one, front to back. With my computer on the fritz, Amber worked on the graphics. Between the two of us - the frames were a complete success! The frames are in his room as decoration now.
The next big plan was the banner! What's a party without a happy birthday banner?! I can't say exactly where I found the idea for the banner - you can find them all over blog-land, but what a fabulous idea! I'm all for making things myself. I used my
Cricut machine to cut out the circles, as well as the letters and monkey's. -I used Mini Monograms for the letters, circles and squares. New Arrival for the monkey's. The circles are in two layers, the bottom layer is a 4inch circle, and the top is a 3.5inch. I added the googly eyes to the monkey's to give them that added touch of "cuteness". I'm quite impressed with my first attempt of the banner!
The favors were simple, but in perfect monkey theme. My daughter had fun picking everything out. I needed to plan for kids of different age groups, so it deemed pretty difficult at first. I was at the point of giving up and tossing a couple bucks in a bag - ok! not really, but you can see my frustration. Then, I was at Joann's one evening picking up a new craft project for my daughter, when we just happen to spot some monkey stuff! With a purse, and small child in one arm, I loaded up the other with all the monkey supplies! The store closed in 10 minutes, so we were in a hurry. Thankfully Cass was there to help, and spot the goodies.
We decided to go with 3 items per favor. Each favor had a $1 wooden monkey cutout from Joann's, along with a .25 pack of crayons (thanks to Walmart during their back-to-school supplies). - I wanted to go with markers, but Cass wanted crayons for more color options. Plus, with the smaller children, crayons might be a bit easier in the clean up department. For the 3rd item, we went with a $1 monkey yo-yo from Joann's for the boys, and a wood beads monkey necklace kit, also from Joann's for the girls! I already had the paper lunch sacks on hand. The monkey decoration matched the banner, and was cut from the New Arrival Cricut cartridge.
Here you can see these amazing little wooden craft projects made great decor as well! Another $1 Joann craft project. I used markers to color them. I
love to color! Here I have a girl, with a cute bow in her hair, as well as a boy monkey hanging from a tree - perfect for my son!
Balloons because EVERY party needs balloons, and what monkey themed party doesn't have barrels of monkeys! - Scored a deal on those...Walmart decided to clearance them to $3 one afternoon.
Mid August, I found out my son had a peanut allergy! Quickly, I realized that put a HUGE damper on my party planning in the food department! Are you aware how many foods have nuts, are contaminated by nuts or processed in a facility with nuts? Well, I didn't....until recently! I decided it was best to make his cake myself. This way, I would be certain what he was eating. A 1st birthday party isn't the time to be experimenting leaving possible reactions.
I made a simple 6 inch white cake for him, for the rest of us - cupcakes! I so badly wanted a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter frosting - I've been drooling over this idea for months! So, you can see where the peanut allergy stepped all over my grand plan! No worries though, I learned about a product called
SunButter from my son's allergist appointment, however...I didn't have time to order online. I called many local locations listed on their website, but no such luck. No one seemed to really know much about the product. I mentioned my frustration on Facebook, then before I knew it a friend took off in search of the product for me. Again, no such luck. My Mom, who lives in Texas just happen to be shopping at Target when she spotted a jaw of
I.M. Healthy soy nut butter. She so kindly dropped one in the mail to me, which arrived just days before the party!
So here we have a half chocolate, half colored white cake, with I.M. Healthy SoyNut butter frosting - recipe found
here. Now, I know what your thinking....SoyNut butter - no thank you! But, I'm beyond impressed with this stuff. My guests even commented about how it tastes just like peanut butter! Really impressive stuff! I've got to hand it to I.M. Healthy! I can't imagine ever going back to a peanut butter. The reason for the half and half cupcake is I wanted a bit more color than brown and tan. I had so much fun back in April making
these pancakes for my daughter. I couldn't resist another attempt at coloring food. Perhaps they are not the most lovely looking cupcakes - I never claimed to be a baker, but for an amateur - not too shabby!
#1 shaped brownies! These were a hit. Fun to eat, and fun to make. What's a 1st birthday without some food shaped as a #1.
The birthday boy amazed at the balloons. I'm totally
IN LOVE with his shirt! Again, another idea found in blog-land which I can't exactly pin-point where the idea came from. I battled with finding the right size shirt, preferably one of color. White seems boring to me, personally. I found these great little pocket tee-shirts at Target for $5. Then, I stumbled on this fabric one day when I was heading to the baby section of Walmart. It just-so-happen to be sticking out as if someone was thinking about it....but instead of pushing it back, they just left it sticking half way out - Thank you lazy Walmart shopper! I purchased some Curious George fabric and was on my way. I'm no seamstress what-so-ever! I know how to sew, but more so just the basics. Which really, is all you need for a project such as this. I believe it look me 3 attempts, because I wanted my sewing line to be as straight as possible - that's the perfectionist in me. I printed the matching #1 from his invitation, cut it out, and traced it to the back side of the fabric.
Cake! The most exciting part of the birthday party. I wasn't too suprised when I realized he DID NOT like his cake. He's one of those kids that doesn't care to have sticky fingers. Sadly, he cried after touching all the icing... His, "Help! Mom...I'm sticky" pose.
Heart-broken, I decided we would have a cake take 2 the next day. SUCCESS.
*Most of the photos from the party were taken by a good friend who did an amazing job! Thanks so much.
