Let me backtrack a bit - Stella's 2nd birthday!

I received an email yesterday from a South African party store asking if they could use Stella's 2nd birthday photos in their publication.  Of course I said yes...we have so much fun planning and hosting these birthday parties and I'd love to share so others can get ideas!

As soon as it's published, I'll be sure to add it to the blog!

In the meantime, I'll point you to a link from a talented designer named Jenn that designed the monkey printables, who has also featured Stella's party on her blog!

Stellas monkey party featured on Parties by Hardie

Well, I guess I should post a few photos as well...

Party Details

Monkey printables: Parties by Hardie
Fondant monkies: Designed by: The Frosted Cake n Cookie  Made by: Me!
Cake: The ever fabulous Todd Olson

Monkey-friendly food recipes/ideas:
  Monkey mix - dried banana, coconut, peanuts, cashews, raisins
  Monkey pancakes - mold found at Williams Sonoma  Instead of sticky syrup, whipped cream to top
  100% Banana juice - found at Whole Foods
  100% Banana ice cream - freeze peeled bananas, then mash!
  Monkey sandwiches: modeled them after the fondant monkeys.  PB and Banana sandwiches.  Brown M&Ms for eyes and a cashew to make a little smirk!  Used peanut butter as 'glue' to hold things together.
 Other things on the menu: hummus + pretzels, fruit platter

Activities
Since the majority of guests were 2 years old, we kept the activities pretty simple.
Pin the nose on the monkey: monkey face and noses came in the monkey printable pack (see above)
Banana hunt: similar to an easter egg hunt, we hid mini bananas (found at Whole Foods) for the little monkeys to find.  Great snack too ;)
Monkey story time: Grandma read "Five Little Monkeys" to the group.

Goodie 'bags'
Target's dollar section often has plastic popcorn tubs.  Since red was in the color scheme, I used these and put a little bag of 'monkey mix' in there along with a monkey maraca found at Cost Plus World Market.  I also had little rubber monkeys that were 'supposed' to be in the goodie bags, but they ended up hiding all over the house and the car and weren't recovered in time for the party!  There were purchased from Party City.