The first thing to do for the party was make the invitations. I was all about having LP involved with planning for the party so I got him involved in the invitation making. I bought some blank yellow cards from my local craft store and wrote on them "I'm a Curious Monkey who is turning three. Please come celebrate with me!", followed by the party details. I then let LP have free range on the invitations. He had fun coloring them and putting stickers on them from his Curious George Super Sticker Coloring Book
The next thing LP helped with was the activities. LP loves playing with play-dough so a few days before his birthday party LP and I made some homemade play-dough and added yellow food coloring and banana extract to it. LP and his cousin had fun playing with it during the beginning of the party. I also printed off some coloring pages that I personalized that both kids and adults colored. The last activity we had was that we asked everyone to write LP a special birthday message in a copy of Curious George and the Birthday Surprise book.
LP was also a great help with the decorations. I printed off one of the personalized coloring pages on card stock and LP colored it for a "welcome sign" for the front door. Also, every year I love printing off photos from the past year and displaying them some how. LP helped me pick out 10 photos from the past year and then I made a Curious George memo board to display the photos.
The last thing to do was take care of the food. We served supper to our family which consisted of smoked pork loin sandwiches, overnight salad, baked beans, chips and dip, and of course cake and ice cream! It is tradition for us to have cake and homemade ice cream at birthday parties. For the birthday cake we decided to make banana cake, since there was a Curious George monkey theme for the party. I made a double layer, 12" circle cake. I have so much fun using my frosting tips and really enjoyed making LP's Curious George cake with him right by my side, ready for a dab of frosting anytime I needed to change tips!
Our whole family had a great time celebrating LP's birthday! We had fun doing a few simple DIY projects to make his third birthday special and unique for him. What are some birthday party DIY projects you're proud of?
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Thank you to PartyPail.com for awarding me their "Best Decorations" Birthday Party Award.