2-year-old Monkey Birthday Party

My kids adore monkeys, so it was a natural choice to have a monkey-themed party for my two-year-old boy a couple of years ago. This wasn't the most elaborate party--because it was for a two-year-old--but it still was a lot of fun!

Invitation

My talented sister designed this invitation for me. I took a picture of my son in his monkey costume and then had the saying "Monkey See, Monkey Do, _____ is having a party and inviting you!" (I took off my son's name and the address of the party in the image below for privacy purposes).

Activities

When the kids arrived, I had them design their own monkey masks using paper plates and some brown semicircles I had cut out for ears. I pre-tied string to the sides of the mask and pre-cut holes for eyes so all the kids had to do was color the paper plate. The kids were very creative. No two masks were alike.

Then, once all of the kids had their monkey masks, we acted out the story Caps for Sale together. I gathered a stack of silly hats and pretended to be the peddlar selling caps. The kids were the monkeys and when I fell asleep they took my hats. I then narrated the story and continued to act it out with me shaking my finger, stomping my feet, and so on while the kids imitated me.

We also had a banana eating contest. I gave each kid half of a banana and we had a race to see who could peel the banana and eat it the fastest!

Meanwhile, we had some ongoing activities--such as jumping on the tramp (like "five little monkeys jumping on the bed"). You could also throw out some pillows on the trampoline or in a bounce house to make it more like a bed.

I also created a bean bag toss for the kids to play. I drew a picture of a monkey with his mouth wide open. I based my design on this monkey bean bag toss that I found online. I just painted mine on one side of on old cardboard box. I then created banana-shaped bean bags. I traced an actual banana for the pattern and then allowed another half inch on the outside for sewing. I cut out two of my patterns on yellow vinyl fabric for each banana. I put the halves together, right sides in and sewed around the edge, leaving a small opening at the top. I turned the bean bags right side out and filled with beans and then sewed the opening shut.

Food and Cake

For the food, we just cooked up some hamburgers and hot dogs and had a barbecue. Then, I made a monkey cake from a round cake and cupcakes. I also served extra cupcakes that I frosted to look like miniature monkey faces.

The bottom is a little smudged because my two-year-old got to it and took a little sample of the frosting :)

My son loves monkeys so much that we had another monkey birthday party for him this year. To see this year's monkey cake and more adorable animal cake ideas, see our Zoo Birthday party theme.

Favors

Favors included animal-themed fruit snacks and other monkey-themed trinkets from Oriental Trading.

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