Noodle’s Third Birthday (Curious George Kid’s Birthday Party)

Last year, we created a Curious George themed birthday party for our curious girl and her equally curious toddler friends.  365 days later, I finally had a chance to write about it!   While this post is over a year in the making, it was such a fun theme I thought I’d still share some ideas for those looking for an easy children’s birthday theme.  With a few details and simple touches, we turned our home and yard into a temporary jungle for some curious kiddos to celebrate a very special birthday!

Invitations
There were lots of great Curious George options on Etsy, but I decided to go with one of my favorite shops and get monkey invites as opposed to the Curious George movie version.  The one below is similar to ours, but the one we used had a pink bow on the monkey):

Decorations
Since balloons feature prominently into the first book, I knew we wanted lots of them.  As I happily tied each yellow balloon around the deck, I turned around to find the dozen red ones I’d “smartly” corralled under our deck umbrella.  They were g-o-n-e.  Huh, helium floats.  I guess one errant balloon made a break for it and the other attached ones followed.  So, yellow balloons it was.  Drat.

Several monkeys around the house greeted guests:

A blow-up monkey and green tissue paper decorated our eating area.  “George” is holding a straw hat I simply spray painted yellow.

And the dining room:

My favorite part wasn’t monkey related, but instead Noodle related.  We taped up a few wide ribbons in our pass-thru between the kitchen and dining room and attached a few favorite photos.  It was a sweet touch for this special, special girl!

Games
Since most of the kids will be aged 3 or under, the only formal activity I planned was a pull-string monkey pinata.  As some parents noted, this was the most polite pinata pull they’ve ever seen– sweet little girls taking turns and sharing the ‘loot.’  So cute!

There was an arts and craft station set up with a wooden monkey masks ($1 each at craft stores) and lots to do like a sandbox, water table, bubble station and ride-on toys in the side driveway.  That way, not one area got clogged up but there was still plenty to do.

Favors
I purchased a few different Curious George books {on sale, I believe it was buy two get one free} so the kids could choose which title they most wanted.

White paper bags were personalized with foam letters in each guests name to collect the all the loot.  Noodle helped make them.

But perhaps my favorite thing were the straw hats and plastic binoculars ordered from Oriental Trading Company.  They were an inexpensive way to add some flair to the festivities, and a side effect was the kids looked extra cute running around in their jungle attire!

Cupcakes and Treats
Need I say more? Okay, I will.  😉  I found this idea for monkey cupcakes on Pinterest, and had to try it myself.  I’m a sloppy cupcake maker, but even I pulled this off!  We started with jungle striped cupcake liners:

And used Nilla Wafers and gel icing to make the monkeys come to life.

My Man in the Yellow Hat cookies?  Not as successful.  They resemble fried eggs.  Or… hmmmm.  Let’s just leave it at eggs, shall we?  😉

No one seemed to mind, here’s Noodle chowing down.

What Curious party is complete without bananas and monkey plates?

It was a wonderful day, filled with many great friends and memories.  These girls are ‘soul sisters’, connected by fate, vasa previa, and head cooling– can you believe it?  Both are survivors of something that is classified as almost unsurvivable: