Monkeying Around (Cooper's 2nd Birthday)!

The girls and me with our Birthday Boy!

I mentioned in a blog post long, long ago that I had already determined the theme for Cooper's 2nd Birthday - Sock Monkeys - and I stuck with that and had a great little party for my not-so-baby-anymore boy.  His birthday was almost a month ago and with the move I am obviously behind on blogging, but I still wanted to share the details and photos.

First of all, a little background on sock monkeys in my life.  Anyone that knows me well knows how close I was to my Grandma and how much I absolutely and completely adored her.  She was such a huge part of my life growing up and so many of my childhood (and even adulthood) memories include her.  We spent a lot of time at her house and my sister and cousins and I loved every minute of it.  My Grandma had lots of chintzy little things around her house and lots of old toys and such, and a few sock monkeys were among those items.  I don't know where they came from or how old they were, but they were always there and we all loved to play with them.

So sock monkeys became one of a handful of items that represented Grandma's House to me.  When I was searching the internet for birthday party themes and ideas I came across some sock monkey parties and knew that I had to go with it.  Sock monkey are not only cute, classic and fun, but also have a special place in my heart thanks to my Grandma.


Since most traditional sock monkeys of the classic variety are red and brown those were the obvious choices for the color scheme.  Etsy is always a 1st choice for me when looking for specific/custom items so I checked there for a birthday shirt and printable party package and found both (of course!).

I also looked to some of my favorite blogs for party planning tips and photos and found tons of useful info.  Turns out that the sock monkey theme is quite popular these days for birthday parties and baby showers.

Here are some photos of the party:

Dessert and take home treat table with printable party package from Cupcake Express on Etsy.
Treats were all red and brown candy and other sweet things - Tootsie Pops, Whoppers, Tootsie Rolls, Twizzlers and Flipz chocolate covered pretzels.

Homemade cupcakes made even cuter with cupcake wrappers and toppers (part of the printable package shown above).

Cardboard gift boxes added height and miniature sock monkeys added a playful touch to the table.
I  bought the "C" at Hobby Lobby and painted it red to match the scheme.

Another perfect cake from Edible Art (Charlotte).

I found these fun "party balls" at Party City and used them as favors.
The guests filled them with sweet treats from the take home treat table.  

The food!
Nugget tray from Chick-fil-a, fruit bowl, snack mix and banana creme pudding cups.

The Birthday Boy!
The shirt was another Etsy purchase from  Whimsical Stitches.