My son turned 1 on March 31st.  So on March 29th, I did like any rational mother would do and I threw a quaint family gathering… that quickly turned into a Pinterest-induced, monkey-themed, over-celebration (mostly) for the grown-ups… and SOME kids.

I chose the monkey theme because Levi’s ears stick out, he is obsessed with bananas, and he climbs all over me and the furniture.  Simple enough.

See… Clearly, a MONKEY!

Once the theme was set, then the hard work began… hours and hours of pinning on Pinterest, without any real commitment to any one idea.  You know how this goes, ladies.  If it’s done on Pinterest, it just magically appears in your living room, right?  No… no it doesn’t.  But wouldn’t that be nice…

About 2 months out, I started really sifting through the many pins for the things I ACTUALLY wanted to do and/or wanted to delegate someone to do for me.  I made a list of the different projects, and then further sifted through those until I had a manageable to-do/to-make list.  I then started making crazy amounts of online purchases, since it’s much more convenient than shopping with a 10 month old.  My husband probably got a new grey hair every time he came home and found another 3 Amazon boxes at the door.  I even had a box from a wholesaler shipped to our dental office because shipping to a business was cheaper than a residence!  He was just thrilled to open a huge box of plastic banana split boats and portion cups while at work… I can just see the “What the…?” look on his face.

I decided on a few themed foods:

Monkey Cupcakes

Mod-Monkey Smash Cake

Pineapple palm tree fruit tray!

Jungle Dip (Spinach dip) and Fruit Dip

Banana Pudding Cups

Sangria for the BIG monkeys!

There was also an AWESOME banana split bar that you can barely see in the background of the Sangria picture.  I completely forgot to take pictures of it and I could KICK myself!

I ordered some decorations to match:

Super cute birthday boy hat that Levi refused to wear.

I loved this banner with a picture from each of his first 11 months!

I used extra bananas for table decorations.

We had games set up outside (washers, ladder toss, chalk, and bubbles for bigger kids) and I had a playroom set up for the babies inside (ball pit, bouncy balls, random baby toys, etc.)  I forgot to get pictures of the activities.  Each kiddo also got to leave with their own stuffed spider monkey (like the one pictured above) and a small bag of bananas (banana candies) to feed their new monkey!  I also let them take home bubbles and any leftover cupcakes.  I’m sure the mom’s hated me for their kids’ sugar highs that day!

We opened presents:

And then, of course, THIS happened:

I can just eat this with my FACE, right?

Overall, we all had a wonderful time and I was so happy with the way things turned out!

See links below for craft instructions and vendor links.

All paper art items (banners, food tents, bottle labels, birthday hat) were made by PartyOnPurpose.
“Go Bananas” spoons made by SucreShop. 
Mod Monkey cake made by Debbie’s Delights.  
“ONE” shirt made by lilthreadzclothing.
Directions for the Monkey cupcakes can be found here. 
Directions for the pineapple palm tree fruit tray can be found here. 

If you have any questions about where anything was purchased or how anything was made that is NOT listed above, be sure to comment and I will do the best I can to find the answer for you!