Birthday Celebration Part II: Monkeying Around!

We decided on a jungle/monkey theme for Chase's first birthday party.  He's truly like a monkey, crawling and climbing all over everything.  (And nope, we're not walking yet; close, but not yet.)  I was not very prepared for the big party, I'll admit.  After Austin's 3rd birthday in November, then Thanksgiving & Christmas, and Great Wold Lodge this week, I seriously dropped the ball.  Poor second kid, always getting the shaft!  Once we got home from Great Wolf Thursday afternoon, I kicked it into high gear (with Jordan's help!) and pulled two very late nights to get everything together.  (With my new Silhouette machine that I got for Christmas, I was able to save alot of time cutting things out.  Yay!)  But I was literally still setting up, as our friends started to arrive.  It all came together finally, though.  And I'm exhausted, but cannot believe that my 23 days off are coming to an end! :( 

Anyways, back to the party! I made this cute monkey wreath to hang on the front door to greet our guests.

I was so busy getting everything ready, that I forgot to take a picture of the setup before everyone arrived!  Here's the cupcake/cake table, including a matted picture of Chase for everyone to sign.  I was disappointed with how his smash cake (the monkey on top) came out.  My first go around collapsed on me at about 11pm the night before and I was nearly in tears so I had to salvage what I could at the last minute, resulting in something looking similar to a teddy bear.  Oh well.

For our food and beverages, I gave them all themed names: Jungle Juice, Tiger Tea, Swamp Water (with custom labels for his birthday!), Snakeskin Sausages, Panda PB&J, Boar on Buns, Baboon Banana Pudding, Chimp Chips & Dip, Cheetah Cheetos, Gorilla Grape Skewers, and Zebra Peanut Butter Bites.

And I made treat sacks for all of the kiddos, including lots of animal themed goodies!

Here's the banner that I made with the help of the Silhouette, which saved me soooo much time cutting!! Love that dang thing already!

I gave in and ordered a birthday shirt for Chase from Etsy; I just knew there wouldn't be time for me to make it myself. :( But I love how it came out!  (And despite his less-than-thrilled face here, he really did have a good time!)

He wasn't too much into opening gifts.  But you can bet that big brother Austin was right there to assist!  Chase got lots of toys and clothes from everyone, and a toy box made by PawPaw.  Mommy & Daddy got him a train toy with lots of musical blocks, which he loves and so does Austin. He can just barely put his toes on the ground and push himself.

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday to him, he smiled so big and loved every minute of it.  Then he slowly dug into his cake, and nearly devoured the whole thing!

One of his other favorite gifts was a Cookie Monster that you feed plastic cookies too.  He carried cookies in his mouth the rest of the night, silly boy!

And Austin provided some entertainment by playing the guitar for all of us.  It was a great party, and we're thankful for all of our friends and family that were able to make it out to share in the celebration! Big thanks to my hubby for helping out so much to make it all come together.  He stayed up late with me both nights, mixing drinks for us, making sandwiches, painting monkeys, and whatever else I asked him to do!