curious george birthday party

I recently threw my son’s first birthday party and decided to throw a Curious George party. Check out all the details of the party!

Decor:

I chose yellow, red and aqua blue as my colors. I moved away from the standard blue because the aqua blue gave it a more modern twist. I wanted to use the blue and red chevron patterns throughout the party also to keep the modern look. For the center pieces on the kids tables I had yellow pails and just added small monkeys in there. Very easy but looked super cute. I also printed up food labels myself with a chevron paper backing to match everything. I just bought scrap paper from Michael’s and glued them together.

Food:

• Veggie/Cracker/Chips with a hummus bar: Hummus is such a healthy choice for snacks and you can find so many different kinds. I put out spicy red pepper hummus, pine nuts hummus, plain hummus, cilantro lime hummus and white bean hummus.
• Fresh basil, mozzarella and tomato salad: Rather than making the skewers I just made a tray of this salad and sprinkled some balsamic vinegar on top. It was very refreshing to eat 🙂
• Monkey kids sandwiches: I used a monkey cookie cutter and made the PB & J and Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches.
• Taco Stand: We hired San Diego Taco Company to make fresh tacos and quesadillas for kids. This was a big hit and really took the burden off stressing about all the food for the party. For you local San Diego followers, this place is awesome!

Drinks

• Juice for kids: I served fruit punch and fresh lemonade in drink dispensers for kids rather than juice boxes. I served them in these great beverage containers with the stands. They are totally worth buying if you like to throw parties. I set up fun polka dot and stripped straws for the kids to use.
• Adult Drinks: With tacos comes margaritas and sangria. We just bought the pre-made mixes and put them in beverage dispensers also. If you use this idea, make sure you label this ADULTS ONLY.

Desserts:

• Mini monkey cupcakes: We had the basic chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and I bought these awesome monkey toppers from amazon. They were perfect for mini cupcakes.
• Smash Cake: The smash cake was in whip cream icing rather than fondant. Way less sugar and it was easier for him to eat. I kept the cake very simple with just chevron lines to match the decor.
• Main Cake: I also did a main cake again in whip cream icing and kept it simple. It just matched the decor of the party and I used my leftover monkey toppers to top that cake.
• Donuts Pops: These were the hit of the party and super super easy. All I did was buy donut holes from a local bakery and threw them on a Popsicle stick. Kids preferred this even over the cake because food on a stick makes everything so much more fun!

Party Activities

• Bounce House: We rented a simple bounce house for the party. This is always a great way to keep the kids entertained without having to watch over them the entire time.
• Magic Show: We hired a Kids Magician Adelaide. My 1 year old actually liked to sit and watch it. The best part was that there was a bunny at the end. Every kid could not step petting it.

Favors:

• Each kid got a cute stuffed animal monkey with a little sign and some banana candy on it. We used yellow, blue and red ribbon to make little bows around the monkeys. We set these up in my son’s red wagon and made a chalkboard sign that said “Adopt a Monkey”

To conclude, it was a very successful party and I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. Something to note is that Cutting Edge Creations has a commercial princess combo bounce house and jumping castles for sale if you’d prefer to get something you can reuse for other events, but for us renting was a better option.