Thursday, March 31, 2011

I am so excited to share Miley and Bailey's Monkey party! I can't belive it's already been a year since they were born.

This will be post 1 of 2. I will post the pictures with the girls in 2. Here's the party details!!!

When planning their party it had to start with monkeys! Anybody that knows me and my family knows that we call the girls monkeys, instead of twins. I decided to use two shades of pink to represent the two girls..then came the yellow and polka dots

I started off by purchasing some monkey graphics from Maree TrueLove. Check her etsy shop out she's amazing. I then started making all the paper party elements; food lables, water bottle lables, banner, ect. I like to make everything I can, it's fun and way cheaper! I also had to keep in mind I was having the party 700 miles from home so I had to keep it simple but, I couldn't skip out on my baby girls first birthday! It was hard to plan knowing I couldn't transport too much and I wouldn't have time to assemble to much once there which created a problem with just about everything! Here we go...

Here's the invite I made...I wrapped it in pink tulle with a yellow polka dot ribbon and sent out in bright yellow envelopes :). Decorations: we set up everything on long tables in the front. I should add we had the party at a local church, which we have family whom attend. BIG THANKS! They were overly nice and so accomadating. When you in the military and far away from family it's awesome to have a place for all your family to gather and celebrate things like this :) Cake smash station. One of my FAV things..check out the balloon weights. Bananas were a great easy touch to the party, what better balloon weights. I covered two borrowed high chairs in a yard of fabric then wrapped tulle, then used the girls tutus from their pictures to spruce up their highchair. I love to re-use anything I can. How's that for partying on a budget! The hats (and clothes) were embroidered by the girls Grandma, then I assembled and added all the little frills. Here's the dessert table..I had lots of fun planning this out! The paper garland stung on top was made from scrap paper. I will soon share how I made it. Once again cute, and free! I placed the girls birthday pictures along the bar and made the banner that went in front. The kids table. The kids lunchboxes... I got this idea from another site..and I can't remember where?? The kids also has drinks, chex mix, a monkey plate to keep, and crayons to color on the place mat. Having a kids table set up makes things so easy for the parents..they can sit down and eat and be entertained while the grow ups can grab some goodies for themselves. Banana centerpieces..

I marked each side with pictures, to people could tell where to put gifts. This is something I will continue, everybody seemed to love it and it made gift opening easier. This table was packed byt the end, the girls were very spoiled!Party Favors!!!!

Each "baby" went home with a small stuffed monkey and a monkey snack contanier filled with banana cookies.I made homemade pink/yellow play dough and stuck it in monkey containers which I found 2 for $1.00 at the dollar store! Then I made little notebooks with scrap paper, and gave each kid a yellow pencil, banana eraser, and small barrel of monkeys.






Each family went home with a loaf of banana bread. To make these "cute" I wrapped them in pink tulle, added a banana runt, and finished with a tag I made.


Cakes!! Doing three cakes was a task..especially in a different location with a fraction of my tools and a house full of family! It wasn't what I had planned but in the end it came out pretty good. So glad I was able to make my baby girls their bday cake! I made each of the girls a small smash cake in light and bright pink. I am so mad I didn't get a picture of the inside! The top was banana, the middle strawberry, and the bottom chocolate! I love making the cake match the party perfect and tast just as good :)Food!! I tried not to go to complicated with the food since the party was 700 miles away from my kitchen :) The one thing I decided to order was the cookies. I was SO not dissapointed. Check out her store on etsy, The Cookie Jar. I sent her an image and she replicated it to the T. I was blown away by the detail!


These were so much fun to make! Chocolate covered oreos!

Banana pops, I only had one mold...so these were a little time consuming, but the kids loved them!

Monkey monuchies! Chex mix with yellow and pink m&m's added to make it match of course! It's all about the detail!


and here's a little sneek peek of some cake smashing :)
Whew!!! That was a long post! I hope this inspires some ideas for you! Pictures of the girls to follow.....