Monkey Birthday Ideas

Family Fun Magazine's site has a lot of good ideas. We have done several party things from their site.

http://familyfun.go.com/

I don't know what you've bought so far but you might try The Dollar Tree nearest you.
I went to the one in Rockwall and they have party plates and cups and ect. It has a Luau theme to it but it has fun palm trees and swinging monkeys on them and they are in blues and greens.
I think they are adorable! Perfect for a boys 1st birthday!

Hi J. - Not to sound corny, but I saw on the Tori Spelling show (yes I was just flipping channels)on Oxygen that she had a monkey party for her son. You might find some ideas from that if you go on line to Oxygen. They hanged stuff monkeys from the tree. You can also serve frozen bananas on a stick. They also have the little entertainment monkeys that can ride bikes and do little tricks. There is also this website. http://www.kids-birthday-party-guide.com/monkey-birthday-.... Sounds fun! Enjoy! C.

goto: www.orientaltrading.com for favors/decorations etc...

All I can think of is Curious George (if they still have that stuff). Try party city - they have a wide variety.

I LOVE planning parties!!!

Here are some ideas that I just thought of...

yellow and green streamers (tree and bananas)

A blow up tree from oriental trading that you could hang pictures of his first year and plastic bananas

You could place different books about monkeys around...
five little monkeys jumping on the bed, etc...

You could go with a curious george theme

you can get monkey and banana clipart and run it off on cardstock to stick in different places

I would definetly fix a goodie bag with a banana inside -
with a tag that reads "Monkey See, Monkey Do! Here is a banana just for you! Thank you for celebrating our monkeys 1st birthday!!!"

You could also make trees out of paper bags and construction paper and hang monkeys around your house

Hang vines and attach pics to them in different lengths above the table with the cake.

Oriental Trader has lots of decor for monkeys

Invitation -

We're going bananas over _______ turning one

Our curious little monkey is turning one and it promises to be lots of fun!

We're hanging from our tails for fun, because ________ is turning one!

SOOOO many possibilities!!!

If you need help on the invites I do some on the side :) Just let me know!!! I can even add a photo...

You can see one I made for my son at www.thewrightsofpassage.blogspot.com

Happy Planning!

I had a friend who did a monkey b-day party for her son. It was the cutest thing! She served fruit kabobs...with bananas & strawberries and marshmallows.... On the tables...for decoration, she had found those Nerd candies...but took out only the banana ones....
She made a monkey cake and had monkey plates...I cant remember all the details...but it was SO CUTE!

I am doing a monkey theme for my daughter's first also. I found some cute little monkeys that grow when you put them in water at Hobby Lobby for party favors and I am making a cake sort of like the monkey cakes on this site http://www.thepieceofcake.com/Birthday/index.html I got her invitations from vistaprint.com. They have a little brown monkey hanging from a tree holding a present and are done in red and yellow. I also saw that orientaltrading.com had some monkey head cups with straws that I think might be cute. I'll need to decide by tomorrow if I'm getting those. If you like the neon monkey or surf monkey theme, they have a lot of that stuff as well as inflatable monkeys. If you happen to come across any cute monkey mylar balloons let me know.

Happy birthday to your little one,
HB

I did Curious George and went to Party City because they has EVERYTHING. You could also get just a safari them too. Good luck and happy b-day to your son

We threw a monkey themed shower for a cousin this summer. We made monkey cupcakes. You can see photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/beehappybee/Monkeycupcake

I also bought monkey lollipops from oriental trading company.

Hi J.! AH! I was just telling another mamasource mom that I miss those days- it goes by SO quick- mine are 13 and 17 and I loved the all out bday parties!- I have the PERFECT idea for you!
A woman named Regina does Make your own stuffed Animals- She brings the party to your home-
Noahs Ark-
animal workshop ###-###-####
____@____.com
www.makeyourownstuffedanimal.com
You can request just monkeys!
I would go with a banana theme for desert- maybe choc covered bananas and of course the cake will just be so much fun! Cakewise---Opulent cakes in Colleyville (ask for Donna) does a great job and Cookies in Bloom (ask for Johnnie) in Grapevine can do a monkey cookie for the favor. They are way too cute!
Tell them D. from Party Angels sent you! I have a host assistant service- We clean - tend to the food- bring out desserts- make sure guest are tended to- whatever it takes to lessen your stress and keep you in the party and out of the kitchen-Its a unique concept that is really taking off. We would love to be of service to you- please keep us in mind for any kind of event- personal or business- we do it ALL. The uniformed, professional-friendly-meticulous-amazing staff of mine would love to be there to help you enjoy your own Party!
Opulent-###-###-####-Donna
Cookies In Bloom ###-###-####-Johnnie
OH! - Favor could also be - barrel of monkies game!

D.
Party Angels
www.partyangelsus.com
registerd on mamasource
____@____.com
###-###-####

You've had lots of responses, I just wanted to say we used the Oriental Trading Neon Monkey stuff last year when our twins turned four, and it was SO CUTE and decent quality. The monkeys are lots of colors so it works for boys or girls.

Especially the little plush monkeys that match were a huge hit...they're the size of beanie babies and my kids still play with them. We hung them off the light fixture over the food table and had a honeycomb palm tree as the centerpiece. Also got a "Barrel of Monkeys" game and we hung balloons from those instead of ribbons...everyone loved playing the game, too.

Banana cupcakes are great with the kids, even banana muffins with a little cream cheese frosting! Or maybe banana smoothies...

That is so funny! My son is turning 1 in a few weeks and we are having a monkey themed party as well! Here is a link to a party website where they have a cute monkey party kit. http://www.birthdayzbyshindigz.com/catalog.cfm?caid=754128
www.orientaltradingcompany.com also has a "neon monkey" party kit for $19.00 as well as tons of accessories to go with it. You can also Google "monkey theme birthday party" and that brought up tons of related websites including how to make monkey face cup cakes. Good luck and have fun with your little monkey!!

Target has a lot of monkey items in there outdoor dining section (usually by the dinner ware stuff). I saw monkey serving trays, placemats, napkins, etc. It was really cute.

J.,

My triplet sons turned 1 in June and their party was monkey themed. Here are some cute invites (I used the monkey business theme):

http://www.paperstyle.com/is-bin/Invitations/monkey

I went to Target and they have their plastic summer stuff on sale and they had a line with monkey's - i got some bowls, towels (for the kitchen) and a cute door mat for my front door.

I served cupcakes and the lady made chocolate cupcakes with monkey faces on them.

Lots of complements!

Good luck!
T.

We used a monkey theme when my twins turned one. We found inflatable bananas that we hung from chandeliers. We also made our house look like a jungle using streamers and a fake tree. In addition, we hung the monkeys with long arms whose hands and feet velcro all around the house. For food, I used a monkey cookie cutter to cut sliced cheese and other foods. Moon shapes work well to look like bananas, too. Have fun - it's a blast to plan!

Check out www.firstwishes.com for party stuff for the first bday.

J.,
Don't know if you have a cake already but I make cakes on the side and recently did a safari themed cake with some edible animals on top. One was a monkey:-} it turned out really cute. my website is www.freewebs.com/sweettemptationbakery I have my business listed on mamasource and have a few reviews. Thanks for looking and congrats on your son's first birthday!! What an exciting time!

Our shop is full of sweet paper things for a chunky monkey birthday party. Invitations, return address labels, cupcake cartons, cookie envelopes, shiny labels, etc ~

give in to your sweet cravings + shop our charming little paper bakery 24/7 at www.sweetpapier.com

http://sweetpapier.com/chunky-monkey-birthday-boybrsingle...

you could string plastic bananas (from a craft store) and make a sort of banana garland to hang as a decoration! Also if you have artificial trees in your home you could incorporate them and hang a stuffed monkey in it. Have fun, sounds like a great theme that you could really go apes with!!

Oriental Trading Company has a lot of monkey decor...cheap.
Have fun!

Martha Stewart had some really cute and easy decorations and a monkey cake on her show awhile back. Here's the link but it's loooong!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.e2...

Or just go to marthastewart.com and search "monkey"

http://www.pbs.org/parents/birthdays/curiousgeorge/index....

This is Curious George from PBS. It has everything!!!
Its really cute stuff too

GOOD LUCK

My husband and I do cakes on the side and a customer is having a monkey/jungle party as well. We're doing a cute cake for her, with a monkey face on it and zebra stripes on the sides of the cake. Instead of party bags, you could buy white paper sacks and draw zebra stripes on them or buy monkey or jungle stickers and let the kids decorate their own party bags, they're cheaper and also would provide an activity for the kids invited. I'd also suggest putting plastic green tablecloths on the tables and make it look like a jungle, you could even put little bunches of real bananas as the centerpieces, that way the kids would have a snack, too. I've seen paper plates and cups with monkey faces on them, too. Butcher paper is farely inexpensive, you can tear long stips of that and crumple/wring it and make it look like "swinging vines". Hang them from the ceiling or drape them over the tables. Good Luck, I hope it's successful!

You've gotten a lot of great ideas! We did this theme for my daughter's first birthday. Her invites said, "Anna Banana is turning one, Let's monkey around and have some fun!" We had a pin the bananas on the monkey game (from Oriental Trading Co.). There's a book from the Five Little Monkeys series... Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake. Good luck!

We had a monkey birthday for my daughter's first in June. I copied the graphics off a website to make her invitations ( http://www.amyadele.com/party-invitations/boys/monkey-par... ). I added butterflies and ice cream cones to the invite because we had a make your own sundae party with an ice cream machine for the kids.

I bought monkey hats for the kids with velcro backs. That company doesn't sell them any more, but oriental trading has something similar: http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.d... . I gave them these hats to pick up the candy from the pinata. We had a butterfly pinata with the pull strings, but I'm sure they have those in monkey form too. I put monkey tattoos along with the candy in the pinata.

For the cake, Tom Thumb created a cupcake cake to match her invitation. They did a great job and passing out cupcakes was much easier than cutting a cake.

Have a great 1st! :)

My youngest daughter just turned 5 and her birthday was a monkey theme. We used the neon monkey plates and napkins from oriental trading. As a party favor I used all the bright colored curly ribbon to match the plates and tied them to the end of the banana and that was what she handed out at the end of the party. It made it very cheap and a great snack instead of candy! The kids really loved it! Hope he has a great 1st birthday!

J., I saw the cutest "Curious George" stuffed animals
at Family Dollar Store in the shopping center at the corner of
N. Beach & Western Center Rd. They were just $3 ea. There should be Family Dollar Stores all around the metroplex.
If you want to go with the "Curious George" theme, there should be a series of those books at your local library.
By the way, the stuffed Georges were a pretty good size!

I dont know if you have a Party City near you. They have all of their summer party items on sale for 50% off. I am doing a hula party for my daughter this weekend & got some fantastic deals. They have the palm trees that would be cute for your monkey party! One was a blow up that has a cooler space for ice & drinks at the bottom. You could do bobbing for banannas instead of using it for drinks.

One of my friends did a curious george party and in the middle of the table was a huge pile of bananas--they were meant as the center piece but many of the toddlers ended up eating them--it was very cute.

marthastewartliving.com has a monkey birthday how-to, just search the website for it. after all, Martha knows best!!