Curious George Party -1yr- Big Yellow Hat Cake

INVITATIONS** I used standard 8 ½ x 11 size white paper and I found a picture of Curious George with a cake and candles.  I was able to use Photoshop to delete 4 of the 5 candles.  I then airbrushed George's face and put my son's in his place (also used this picture for the stamps I made at Stamps.com).  For the border of the invitation I again used a picture of Curious George wearing the yellow hat and added my son's face instead of George and had this picture around the perimeter of the invitation. 

I adapted the wording from other invitation I found on this website.  The invitation read, Our little monkey is turning 1, come to our jungle for some birthday fun.  Are you curious about ----s party, swing on over for cake and lots of curious fun!   We're celebrating ----s 1st Birthday All the pertinent information was listed.  We'd go bananas if you'd join us. Please RSVP. We hope you won't be missing from our Monkey's party.  Instead of the standard return label, I added a CG picture to the return labels and put Curious ----, Our Jungle, and the City we live in.  I ordered personalized stamps from stamps.com and used the picture of my son on Curious Georges body as the stamp and added a balloon border.  It came out very cute. 

DECORATIONS** We went with a red, yellow, blue theme. Red, blue, yellow plates, cups, napkins and tablecloths.  The only exception was that on the gift and food table I purchased CG fabric to use as table skirts with the plastic tablecloth on top.  I figured to use these as skirts so they won't get to messed up and they covered underneath the tables.  I also had a CG tie blanket that was the perfect size to cover the cake table.  I did use CG cake plate and beverage napkins. We strung crepe paper from the center of our dining room. 

I also strung about of plastic bananas throughout the house.  The party was actually held in our backyard, but we decorated the house also.  We had used red, yellow and blue balloon bunches as centerpieces on the tables tied with little CG bean bag dolls holding them.  It looked like CG was going to fly away.  It was actually pretty windy that day so I put a real banana on CG's lap to help keep him down.  It came out really cute. We had lots of CG books and stuffed animals scattered around.   I put a 2 foot tall stuffed CG in my son's new red wagon on the gift table.   

My husband drew up a life size Curious George out of wood and cut it out.  He then painted it.  He cut out 4 holes in CG's hand to string the balloons through.  It looked just like the CG from the book.  He cut the face out which we used for people to stick their head in and take pictures.  The pictures will be sent out with the thank you notes.  This also worked double duty for a bean bag toss.  We displayed this on the lawn.  It was a huge hit with kids, as well as the adults. 

GAMES/ACTIVITIES** We rented a jumper in the red, yellow and blue colors. Pin the tail on the monkey. Feed George See above for CG cutout under DECORATIONS Potato Sack Races Put a sticker on the bottom of a plate.  Person with sticker is the winner of a prize. Guess my son's weight. Print a note telling them his birth weight and of course that they were not allowed to lift him shake him or turn him upside down.  How many candy bananas (like Runts) in a sippy cup?  (I purchased the candy bananas in bulk on EBAY) 

PRIZES** (one for boy and girl) Fold Out CG Scenes with Stickers Monkey Jump Ropes Packs of CG Balls CG Books  Adults CG Sticky Notes CG Magnetic Paper Lists (to use on the refrigerator) Banana Bread Wrapped in CG cellophane 

PARTY SNACKS** For food we did standard kid party food.  A lot of the food was able to be prepared before hand and put into either crock pots or party trays.  This way my husband wasn't stuck BBQing.  He could actually enjoy the party. Nachos Sloppy Joes (Monkey Joes) Hot Dogs (Monkey tails) Terriyaki chicken wings (Monkey limbs) Animal crackers Monkey Chow (trail mix w/banana chips) put in to jungle them Dixie cups (perfect for little fingers) Animal Cookies put in to jungle them Dixie cups (perfect for little fingers) Frozen chocolate bananas Capri Suns Coffee  Banana Split Pie (Graham Cracker crust topped with vanilla pudding, fresh bananas, whipped cream, hot fudge, crushed nuts and maraschino cherries) Peanut Butter and Jelly Curious George Sandwiches (Used cookie cutters in shapes of a monkey and the big yellow hat) 

CAKE** I made a three dimensional CG cake.  I had CG leaning against the Big Yellow Hat.  I made the Curious George cake using 5 cake mixes, 3 milk chocolates and 2 white buttercream frostings. I prepared the cake mixes and baked 3 cakes in Pyrex glass bowls and 2 cakes in 9x13 inch pans. I used the bowl shape cakes to make the belly, face, and the top of the hat of Curious George. I cut out 3 circles from the rectangle cakes to make the rest of the hat. I also cut out the arms, legs, ears, feet, and hands from the rectangle cakes. I did all the cutting of the cake freehand and used toothpicks and bamboo skewers to hold certain pieces together.

The cake gives you the basic shape but it's the icing that really gives the detail.   I also made monkey cupcakes.  The cake part was banana and the frosting was milk chocolate, which is lighter than regular frosting.  3/4 of a regular Nilla Wafer was the muzzle, 2 halves of a Mini Nilla Wafer were the ears and some black and red gel icing for the eyes, nostrils and mouth.  For my son I made a huge cupcake for him.  This cupcake could have fed 10-12 people.  I used the 3D cupcake pan from Wilton.  I iced the bottom white and the top blue with sprinkles on it.  He didn't know what to think at 1st, but once he put his finger in some of the frosting, he dug right in face first.  This cupcake made for a great experience and funny photos.  This was one of the party highlights, especially for my son and the onlookers. 

FAVORS** I bought red, yellow and blue plain gift bags.  I traced CG's face and cut out the face, hair, eyes and ears to use on the outside of the gift bags.  I used felt, foam and wiggly eyes to make the face from the template I made.  I used brown foam for his hair, tan felt for his face and ears and the wiggly eyes.  I drew his nose and mouth.  One of the items I used to fill the treat bags was a puppet made from a pattern I found on the internet using brown paper sacks (idea from this website). So I printed these off and colored the face, ears, hair, and tail.  Then I cut them out.  I folded down the paper sack, one fold, and glued the face on the fold, then glued the hair to the top in the back of the fold, glued the ears in the creases at the sides, and the tail to the back.  These turned out so cute!

The rest of the goodies included CG coloring sheets, crayons, CG pencils, CG mini pens, bubbles with personalized ----s 1st birthday stickers, CG stamp set, CG rings (for the girls), CG tattoos, red, yellow, green and blue metallic prism blowers, crazy straws, pudding cups for the older kids and Gerber bananas for the babies.  

Adults received a cellophane bag of Hershey's Kisses with a note I adapted from this web-site that read, I'm no longer a baby hope you had fun. I'll be waving bye-bye now that it's through and giving out kisses from me to you!" I actually used metallic red ribbon to tie the bag and purchased Hershey's Kisses with blue foil and white stars.  The actual label had Thank You printed on it.  These were a limited time only offer from Kmart to thank the armed services.  They went well with the theme. 

I had been planning my son's 1st birthday party since the day after Christmas.  I started before Christmas but didn't tell my husband because he wanted me to enjoy my son's 1st Christmas.  His party was on April 19th and was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed seeing my son's smiles and laughter especially when he was eating his huge cupcake. I'm hoping I'm not forgetting anything.  I can't wait to see what next year's party will be.   "