Monkey See, Monkey Do Party

My littlest guy turned two this past weekend. We affectionately call him our little monkey for a variety of reasons. One is that he has always preferred to be tightly wrapped around Mama (from the get go). He snuggles in so well he must be part monkey. The second, most obvious reason for the nickname, is that he is loves to climb and jump and swing around--just like a little monkey.

I won't lie. I like a good party. I don't ever have a hard time coming up with ideas. I usually have difficulty narrowing my party plans. I really try to let the kids' interests and ages dictate the theme for their parties. This year, Parker is a little mimicker, hence the theme....

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Here's the jist of the party (desperately trying to keep it simple but unable to completely reel myself in.):

The invitations are from Mew Paper Arts.

We opted for a simple park party so the kiddos could run and play.
(Translation: Easy set up, easy clean up. No real 'activity' needed.)


Mama: "Parker, How old are you?"
Parker: "No!"
Mama: Yeah, that's about right. Two, huh?!

I fell in love with the designs at Poppy Seeds.
This little tee was custom made for my birthday boy.

For party favors I simply gave the monkey barrel game with a label. I just used a stamp and added that to the center of the label. I also enrolled my big kids as host and hostess of the party by having them greet our guests with a hand stamp. As I have learned through the years, all kids love body art. (Naturally, Anna took the job a little too seriously and almost booted a Dad since he refused the stamp. "All guests must have a stamp!" We may need to work on this a bit more.)

I had fun monkey music playing on this and then gifted the CDs as party favors. The playlist looked something like this (Can you say eclectic?!):
Day-O (Harry Belafonte)
Mickey's Monkey (The Miracles)
The Monkey Dance (The Wiggles)
Boots the Monkey! (Dora the Explorer)
Brass Monkey (Beastie Boys)
Monkey (George Michael)
Monkey Around (Broadway recording)
Monkey (Counting Crows)
Monkey Man (Toots & the Maytals)
Monkey Man (The Rolling Stones) -these are not the same song
The Monkey Time (Major Lance)
Code Monkey (Jonathan Coulton)
Proudest Monkey (Dave Matthew Band)

The kids enjoyed the park (and it was a nice gathering overlooking the beaches of San Clemente, not bad for a late November morning) but we did pull them together to give them a little more sugar. I like a pinata but am no fool. I use the pull kits for pinatas (the kiddos pull the strings hanging from the bottom of the pinata instead of going crazy on their friends with a bat. Um, no thank you.).

Since we had a morning party our food was light. We served deviled eggs, banana muffins, banana, monkey bread, Starbucks, OJ and chocolate milk for the kids. Parker has a gluten sensitivity so I made monkeys on a vine (chocolate rice krispie treats) instead of cupcakes.

I came down with a nasty case of the stomach flu the morning of the party so if I look a little green, I was! I had to let go of my display (even though I had an awesome tree planned with a paper around a vase, green balloons and bananas...). Also, I had little monkeys all around and used yellow and green tableware.

The sparkler #2 'candle' is my new favorite birthday must-have. I. love. them. (They are much more spectacular at night.)

This was a fun party to plan. I really love the vendors I found on Etsy and would recommend them as superior quality and very easy to work with.