Mr Lions Gingerbread House

Curious George DIY Birthday Party- Cake & Favors

Curious George, everyone's favorite monkey!

Yum..Cake!

So my son was 2, so I made him his own cake along with making more practical cupcakes. I found a nice figure online and wanted to use some type of fondant for decoration. It being my first time, it came out OK. I don't advise eating it, but It can be used as nice decor. To cut it, I used some cookie cutters and just a knife. The twirls were just wrapped around a straw then were slid off and set to dry.

I found some nice cupcake cups that matched the colors, I think they were under the theme "circus" . 

I made a small cake banner that said Happy 2nd Sebastian and used 2 balloon sticks to hold it up.

I also did something I found online. I pre-scooped ice cream into leftover cupcake cups. Then froze them on a cookie sheet. When it was time to serve, I just brought out the sheet and ice cream was all ready. Super easy!! (You can see them on the left lower side)

The ending to the party, was the fun favors.. 

In each one was-

• A Curious George book ( you can find new sets of 6 paperback books on ebay)
• 3 bean bags I made in the coordinating colors
• A Curious George magnet I made (You can find other items on Etsy)
• 2 lollipops with curious george hanging on like balloons (printed out george pic and taped to candy)

 It was a great party and fun to do! And my Mr was crazy sugar delirious after (:

Curious George DIY Birthday Party Ideas- Games

Curious George, everyone's favorite monkey! 

 

For my sons 2nd Birthday party, I wanted to plan out some games we could play, like mini golf, monkey knock down and a bean bag toss. So to start, I made a sign for each game. I placed it with a balloon so the kids could see where the start was. 

Monkey Toss.. 

For the Monkey Toss I sewed fabric bean bags and filled them with beans. The colors were to match the color scheme. The bean bag idea would also become favors for each child. 

We purchased a large piece of wood and cut out a couple of holes in different areas. I then found an image I liked and projected it into the wood. I painted the picture with acrylic and  latex paints we had and whalla..a Curious George bean bag toss! 

Just grab a basket, fill with bean bags and set up the sign..Easy! You could also make a smaller toss board like George's face or a specific character your child likes.

Monkey Mini Golf..

My son had just gotten a play set of golf clubs and really liked playing with it. I searched "Curious George coloring" in Google and loads of black and white clear line pictures came up. I chose my favorites and filled in the color in adobe photo shop. I then printed them to be the mini golf main pictures. My husband had foam board laying around so we backed them up. But you could use cardboard from a box. I am lucky to have a printer able to print good images, but all of these ideas can be printed at your local stationary store if you don't have access.

I already had balloon Sticks, they are sticks to attach a balloon, instead of using helium, you just blow them up yourself and stick the knot through the balloon stick top. Then you can use them anywhere, they stick easy in dirt or you can make a display with them. I used them for each hole.

I designed some mini golf tee number flags, printed them up and attached one to each balloon stick. I only did 1 through 5 numbers, we aren't doing serious golfing here! (; 

I dug out some random holes in the backyard and stuck the balloon stick by the hole. Then I placed a picture at each hole. 

We already had ping pong balls and some small golf clubs and Whalla..Monkey mini golf!

 Monkey Knock Down!

 Monkey knock down is easy. Bean bags and a couple of cans are all you need. 

I made some more bean bags with the same fabric from the bean bag toss. 

Then I saved some cans from the recycling.(These exact cans were organic cocoa powder cans). I wrapped them in a striped gift wrap and whalla! Knock down cans. I set them up on an old crate and the kids had a ball!


We also had dinosaur bones in the sandbox to find. At this age you don't really need much. Kids find all sorts of things to do outside at a party!

Next..Let them eat cake!!

Curious George DIY Birthday Party- Decorating and Food

Curious George, everyone's favorite monkey! 

With lots of free images online, pbs made my work easy.

Starting Out.. 

First I knew I wanted a Curious George somewhere, so I found a nice image of him flying with balloons. I printed it out 3 feet high and backed it. You can use cardboard or foam board, anything rigid. 

I them nailed it to the tree and added some balloon sticks to look like he was flying.(If you've never heard of balloon sticks, they are sticks that can hold balloons on the end, You can stick them anywhere and you don't need helium. Kids love to run around with them like magic wands, pretty cool!)

The Tables and Food...

Since it was an outside party, I decided to keep the decor simple and focus on the food, cake and games for the decorating. With balloons and some easy pre-made banners, it didn't take long to hang everything. For the tables, I wrapped some empty boxes in striped wrapping paper for height and used some basic gift bags to hold the balloons in place.

I printed out some pictures of George for the table along with tent cards for the food. I wanted to be safe just in case of allergies, etc. 

The food ideas were kept simple with small kids in mind. I started with popcorn, 2 different kinds, one plain just salted and another with cheese ( I just used a packet from an organic Annie's macaroni and cheese box, worked amazing!)

 Next was a crudites with cucumber, carrots and celery. I put a little salad dressing in each cup before I placed the vegetables for easy dipping. I used little cups for easy holding of little hands as well as keeping everyone's separate so it didn't get too messy or germy (: 

 Same for the fruit. I also put some images of the characters on die cuts and used 1/2 pop sicle sticks. Just chopped strawberries, blueberries and pineapple.

I did put a plate for adults as well so they could take what they wanted.

I made some easy pinwheel sandwiches. There are a lot of recipes online. I made 2 varieties just in case of allergies, one with cheese and one without.

Popcorn was also self serve.

 I had some crackers and cheese along with drink boxes for the kids, just easier than cups, (although I don't usually buy them). For the adults I had a range of drinks like Iced Tea and limeade with seltzer. 
I found yellow plates and cups and saw a very cute idea to put tape around the top of the cup and you place it upside down on the plate to make the Man with the Yellow hats hat, but it was just too windy to lay them out, so they stayed stacked (:

It worked really well using the cups and kept everyone relatively neat! You could also use divided plates and have the adults serve the kids.

Next..Let's play!!

Dyeing Eggs with Natural Food Dye for Easter..

It's Easter and it's time for my sons first time dyeing eggs!

  I had natural food grade dyes from making play dough in my previous post. The dyes work well and I've also used them for frosting so why not egg dyeing?

I first got together some basics, glass bowls filled 1/2 way with warm water and added 2 Tablespoons of vinegar. I then found an egg dipper I had (you can easily make one out of wire or just use a spoon). I also had a white crayon we could draw with to use as a resist.

We have our own chickens so I had eggs, most were brown and a couple white, but I suggest using white to show more color. The brown eggs, as you will see, tended to not show the pinks and yellows as much. 

I had 4 colors; red, blue, green and yellow. They are made by confectioncraft

I diluted the dye paste in the bowls and stirred them around. You can see the colors they became. The blue became a purplish color.

My son then dunked a few in. After a few minutes, I realized this would not be as fast as the dyes you get at a store. It would take some time and the eggs would have to sit a bit. So we went out and played for 1/2 hour.

After returning we found the above. the purple had dyed the eggs to almost a grayish purple, which I though was amazing. The yellow did well on the white egg. The reds hardly did anything. It gave a slight hue to the brown egg, but I am thinking a white egg would do much better.

After some re-dipping we concluded with the above eggs. A nice subtle range of natural earthy colors.

You can see how each is slightly different.

We will have fun hiding and eating them!

Curious George DIY Birthday Party- Invitations

Curious George, everyone's favorite monkey! 

Well he is definitely my sons and for a 2 year old boy, he is a perfect birthday theme! My son loves the Curious George show on PBS every morning so this was a great choice.

With lots of free images online, PBS made my work easy. I first thought up what i wanted to do at the party them made a list of everything I would need to design such as the invitation, signs for any games, favor tags, a banner, etc. I started with the invites..

Invitations.. 

To start with the Invite, I found an image I liked with a birthday cake, seemed appropriate. I downloaded it and filled in the colors I wanted. I used adobe photoshop to design and add my sons name onto the cake. I filled in the rest with balloons and stripes and designed the front. The back would be mostly text and just a couple of images. 

I also used the Curious George head image for the address labels on the envelopes.

There are a ton of black n white images you can use to design your own invites. It's very easy and fun if you have access to an art program. If not, you can find many artists to help you on Etsy.

Next Post is Decorating and Food!

Tweet Tweet...Meet Bluebird and Robin Plush

Spring is Here!! Yeah!

So I wanted to introduce Robin and Bluebird to you..They've come to visit!

These Sweet Birds make a lovely addition to a natural Easter basket, Spring Celebration Table display or a nice gift for any bird lover. 

These birdies only need a cozy place and some love. They both would make a wonderful woodland nursery baby gift or fun for paired with a nice Robin or bluebird book making a great Waldorf and Montessori nature toy set!

Birds measure approx 7 1/4" long by 4 3/4" H by 4" W

You can see them on my Etsy Site