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!

WH Hostess

WH Hostess

Settled near Chicago, IL, Kelly founded The Party Dress in 2009 while in desperate search of a creative outlet. Her social stationery company, WH Hostess, soon followed. Whether it's for the perfect place card or a modern theme for your next party, Kelly is the go-to girl for party planning ideas.

Comments

  1. hanan butt

    September 1, 2010

    send me new ideas as i want to decor my montissori in the best way
    thankyou

  2. party dress in paris

    September 4, 2010

    Dressing up for a party isn’t that hard these days, as there are tons of gown and dress selections to choose from. Whether you are attending a very formal party or a somewhat casual one, you can choose from a variety of party dresses. Nice post. Keep up the good work. All the best.

  3. meredith

    September 20, 2010

    The best way to have a fun party is to start with a fun theme. And THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST FUN THEME I’ve seen in a while!

  4. ThatGirlIsAMonster

    September 22, 2010

    I agree with you on both counts. I love the whimsical nature of monkeys and the theme has this whimsical touch to it. I also love the burst of colors here… everything’s bright and alive!

  5. Leya

    November 13, 2010

    Where did you get the block candles that spell Happy Birthday? I LOVE them! Such a nice touch!

  6. Jesse

    May 22, 2011

    This is such a cute theme. I found myself planning a 3 year old’s birthday party and a baby shower at the same time. I ended up doing an ocean theme for the birthday party and just the original blue color scheme for the baby shower. One cute decoration that is so simple which people loved was just putting cut rock candy in jars in solid colors. Since I was planning 2 parties with the same color needed, I was looking for cheap and I found this site which was cool because it was not only cheap, but you can look for candy according to color or theme.
    Check it out, and good luck on your party planning!
    http://www.candyfavorites.com

  7. Kids Units

    September 2, 2011

    Excellent post. I was checking continuously this weblog and I am inspired! Very helpful information specially the ultimate section :) I take care of such information a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a very long time. Thanks and good luck.

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    January 11, 2012

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    January 13, 2012

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