Play Group Birthday Party: Monkey-ing Around

Play group birthday parties seem to be all the rage lately!  Whether weekly or monthly, you spend a lot of time with both the moms and kids – so it’s no wonder you would want to celebrate your child’s milestone birthdays with them!

I recently helped create a fresh, modern playgroup party with a monkey theme.  The mom wanted to keep it simple, didn’t want to go overboard – yet wanted something that made a statement.  Since the party was being held during their normal play group time at a local gym, we had a small space to work with.

I created one table (in close proximity of where the kids were playing – easy access for the moms to enjoy treats!) that held everything from drinks, to sweets to party favors…..

Pretty cute, right?!  I focused on a few key decorations and carried the monkey theme and image throughout the party to give it a cohesive feel.  A yellow seersucker fabric backdrop covered up the (not so pretty) gym walls.   A banner hung over the table, which pulled together our color palette, and brought in a polka dots and a check pattern to add a touch of whimsy.  The centerpieces were really cute and very kid-friendly!  I used paper lanterns as the “vase” and inserted a charming centerpiece stick – monkey on the front, polka dots on the back!  Totally inexpensive and easy to do!  I propped them up on a white, square cake plate ($10 at Home Goods!) to add a little height to the table.  To dress up the basic, white cake plate, I used glue dots to adhere yellow ric rac around the edge of it.  *It’s a simple idea that you could incorporate into any theme!*

Juice was served in mini glass bottles that were dressed up with monkey stickers and orange straws.  Other sweet treats included whoopie pies made by Spencer’s mom (cupcake toppers were used to make these look festive!), sugar cookies with custom fondant toppers by Two Sugar Babies, and  jars/bowls full of candy.  Sticking to our color palette, I ordered nerds, lemonheads, green apple licorice, and candy sticks from candywarehouse.com.  The jars were all embellished with polka dot ribbon and candy jar labels to tie together our theme.

The kids were sent home with mini jars of playdough as their party favor, dressed up with a monkey polka dot label.  (not to mention a big bag of candy for mom!)  The playgroup birthday party turned out just darling and is a great example of how you can create a party with “wow” style and little mess!