Curious George Party -3yr- Musical Hat

My son picked Curious George for his 3rd Birthday Party. He is my 2nd child and thinks his 5 year old brother's friends are his so the party included several 5 years old.

Our invitations were printed on the computer. I took several pictures of my son, PBS George and Man with the yellow hat to place throughout page, where I wrote: Our little Chimp is turning 3, Are you curious about Aidan's bday? Date, time, Come to our house. Wear your paint clothes and get ready to Monkey Around. We'd go Bananas if you join us, please RSVP

We decorated with several bunches of bright red, yellow, blue, and green balloons with bananas as balloon weights. We used yellow crepe paper steamers in the dining room from 4 corners to center light. I string Curious George puzzle pieces that make a George figure (Barnes & Noble) from the light hanging down over table. I printed some George pictures and hung them in the room. I found a CG tablecloth at Party city. We had yellow paperplates and Zoopal plasticware. I put a bunch of banana in the center of the table on a cakestand.

Outside, we hung large rolled white paper all around our deck so the kids could paint the walls". It looked festive with balloons and streamers there too. We were serving lunch so we had Banana bread corn on the cob (bboys fav) juice mini hamburgers made on the Forman grill with dinner roll rather then hamburger rolls. We also had chicken fingers and fries.

As the kids came in I had them coloring paperballs that I had glued a outline picture of G in a party hat on. They had the kids names on them. I let them glue pictures on them that I printed from online and precut. They were set aside. When everyone arrived we ate lunch then headed to the deck to paint. I had a TON of washable paint brushes sponges and drop cloths. The parents could see from the dining room table so they were able to relax and eat.

Next we made boats out of newspaper directions are on the PBS site. I wish I had tried ahead of time because it was hard. We had a kid pool set up to float the boats in. It wasn't great floating but got the kids hands clean from the paint which was the goal.

Next I gave them each a CG mask from Party City and insisted on everyone sitting on the deck stairs for a photo we could see their art in the background they were set free in the yard to "monkey around". Then we came in for cake. I made a banana shaped cake using an aluminum roast pan which I bent into shape. It was white cake that we sprinkeled chocolate shots in to look like banana seeds. It was frosted in yellow with three black lines running from top to bottom that ran into a junior mint to be the ends. We had a little George figure that I leaned against the cake and then put a 3 on top.

After cake and icecream we played animal charades which I printed from PBS PARENTS. I had to stick with it and model the play for them. I also had two people at a time come up and be the animal so no one was singled out. At this age it took few minutes before they got it. Next I printed circles from PBS PARENTS with all the characters on them. I cut them and taped them to the front of baseball hats.

We played a version of musical chairs where you passed the hat when the music (CG Theme) stopped you put the hat on your head. Whomever has CG is the winner and gets to control the music. It was a great idea in theory but they couldn't keep up with passing the hat I ended up just having them pass 3 hats. Controlling the music was an issue because one boy didn't want to make it stop. Ah well.

We then went outside to the Yellow Hat pinata I made. I saw a George online but didn't want to spend the money and thought hitting a hat was better then an animal. It was a fun project to make it with my boys. We had my son's favorite candy in there and CG trinkets from Pary City. They had loot bags to go home with that had print outs from houghtonmifflin books and PBS CG. Also CG fruit snacks crayons and more trinkets from Party City. This will definitely be an unforgettable birthday party.

For thank yous we mailed a card a week later that featured my now 3 year old in a CG costume I got from Ebay. Inside were pictures of all the kids in their masks and each kid individually from the party day. "