Curious George Party

Last weekend we pulled out the stops for our favorite monkey...our 3 year old, Caleb! He chose his favorite fella as the theme and away we went! For our mid-morning event, I went light with the snacks. A popcorn bar allowed guests to snack on several varieties. We had Junior Mint popcorn (a childhood favorite of mine, literally Junior Mints melted and drizzled over popcorn), strawberry popcorn, cheddar bacon popcorn (extra sharp cheddar cheese and bacon sprinkled on popcorn and baked until melted), and garlic parmesean popcorn (finely grated garlic cloves and parm sprinkled over popcorn and baked until melted then tossed with fresh parsley). Oh my, it was tasty.

I found the vessels at dollar stores and thrift stores for a total of $3! The rest of the table scape was completed with a visit to the fabric store, bananas, peanuts, jungle animals, monkey masks with a banner, balloons and pinwheels to draw the eye up.

I printed images of George, wrote sayings and framed them around the house, along with some images from PBS.org which has a whole section of party ideas for their shows. I used their templates for party hats but there were other FREE cute ideas. Check them out!

Cake is delicious and all but it is a well established fact that serious monkeys love bananas. What better dessert to celebrate with than classic banana splits? I had chocolate and vanilla ice-cream and fixed it up with mini M&Ms, roasted almonds, cherries, caramel, chocolate syrup and whipped cream...all atop a banana! Mmmm I'm sorta salivating right now.

A friend of mine had this vintage Curious George felt board in her grandkid's toy box. To say that it made my day is an understatement. Love! The little stuffed George lived at my parents house over a year ago when Caleb grabbed ahold and wouldn't let go. Perhaps it was love at first sight.

Fruit tarts with balloons, vintage CG felt board and George himself!

"Curious George loves Yellow! The Man with the Yellow Hat and Lemonade!"

At first, I was going to simply give a banana to our guests as their takeaway. But because I can never leave well enough alone (it's a gift), I thought I'd whip up some individual banana puddings! And I am so glad I did! It was a super easy sour cream banana pudding recipe and major high on the cute and tasty quotient. I finished styling the area with Caleb's beloved books, animals and a barrel of monkeys!

"Thank you for going bananas with me! With you, it's going to be fun to be 3!"

And looked who joined the party! I swear he did not put up an iota of a fight when I casually mentioned dressing my husband as the man in the yellow hat. That's true love, baby. And it paid off. The kids thought it was fantastic and just tonight, Caleb called out to him "Daddy, you're my man with the yellow hat!" Well you can't beat that, thank you very much.

Me with my pumpkin, I mean, monkey! He looks like a teenager here (short but old). He loved his party!

Caleb was nice enough to invite his big sister and her monkey buddies to his party.

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