Monkey Party -3yr- Monkey Music CD

My son loves monkeys so for his 3rd birthday we had a monkey party. We had 15 kids, and several adults attend.  

I made the invitations on print shop. The cover had a picture of a monkey hanging from a tree holding a banana.  It said, Let's go bananas for Kyson's third birthday.  The inside left- had a picture of him surrounded by all of his stuffed monkeys.  Above the picture I wrote, Our monkey is turning 3  The right hand side gave the party info.. swing on by to the _____'s Jungle.  Call us if you can monkey around.  Etc. 

I decorated the house with green streamers that represented vines.  I printed a bunch of different monkey clipart and banana clipart and hung these pictures from the vines.  These would later be used for a game.   I had my son's picture with his stuffed monkeys blown up and put it on the door.  It said, Come on in and Monkey Around.  I also ordered a small and large inflatable monkeys from Oriental Trading Company. 

We had just bought my son a bunk bed, so I used the boxes to make large banana trees and also put some clipart monkey hanging from these.   I made a CD that had a collection of monkey songs such as, 5 Little Monkeys, Banana's in Pajamas, In the Jungle, Hey, Hey We're the Monkeys, Talk to the Animal Jungle Book Songs, George of the Jungle, I like to eat apples and bananas, etc.  The CD label said, Kyson's Monkey Mix and had pictures of monkeys.  It also had written really small,

Thank you for going bananas with me on my third birthday.  We used the CD's as party favors as well as listened to the songs during the games.  The parents and kids loved them!

For the games I bought Monkey neon masks from OTC.  We played the monkey songs as the kids danced and acted like monkey.  They were so cute!!!  As the kids were dancing, my husband hid neon plush gorillas (from OTC)  all around the backyard.  When the kids were done dancing I told them that they had to find the matching color of gorilla that matched the color of their monkey mask.  They had a blast searching for the correct color of their mask. 

I had a friend paint a large monkey out of cardboard.  We then cut out a circle next to the monkey.  The kids had to throw bananas (plastic bananas $.88 at Walmart) threw the hole.  They had a good time.  I had a small monkey prize for everyone.  

We then sat in a circle and played hot potato with the small inflatable monkey.  I used the monkey songs to start and stop the music.  The last child won a prize- monkey  puzzle and Curious George coloring book.  They also got to keep the inflatable monkey.  Next I had the kids pick one of the monkey clipart pictures hanging from the vine.  We then played pin the monkey on the tree.  The child that got closest to a banana was the winner.  The ages varied at his party from a year to 8 years old, but all of the kids were able to participate in all of the games. 

Food:  I had several appetizers for the many adults.   The kids made banana splits.  I had several different toppings, sprinkles, and candy, which they LOVED!!  I also had monkey cupcakes.  These were brown cupcakes with a face made out of half a vanilla wafer for the face, 2 Rolos for the ears, 2 brown m&m's for the eyes.  I then put two black gel frosting dots for the nostrils and red gel for a smile.  I did not have goodie bags- but the kids took home their monkey mask, CD, and plush gorilla. 

It was a great party, and a lot of fun to plan!!