I'll be the first to admit it. I didn't come up with most of these ideas. Hey, that's what the internet is for, right? We just took a couple of things to the next level. I think a friend of mine hit the nail on the head when she said, "It’s what set designers do when they need a creative outlet. Plan elaborate parties to make us feel um… well too low key." True, we're not set designers, but a Technical Director and a former Costume Designer wannabee are close enough, right? Let's start with the invitations. I decided to put a picture of George on the envelope just in case people couldn't figure out the theme from the invitation. It's obvious to me, but we're a little obsessed with Curious George in our house. This is the first idea that I got elsewhere. The wording was probably pulled from a bunch of different places. I've looked at so many CG invitations over the past few months that I can't keep them straight. We used spray adhesive to adhere the cardstock with the wording to the back piece of felt. Then I used fabric glue at the bottom to hold the top piece of felt on. Then I added a bit of brown ink to the bottom to make it look more authentic. I actually had a happy accident with these. The spray adhesive had gotten on the edges of the cardstock so it lightly held the top piece of felt in place so that they didn't shift around too much. Random question: do you typically peel your bananas from the stem or from the bottom? I know at least one person tried to open their invitation the "wrong" way. For those of you who are familiar with the PBS cartoon, you are likely well aware of the Doorman. We found the original idea here, where they had the doorman on a piece of posterboard. We kind of joked around about Chris getting one of the grad actors to dress up as our doorman, but then we abandoned that idea (lack of costume) when Chris got a CNC router at work. Perfect project to learn on! We were going to have a life-size doorman! The doorman's dog also is a fixture of the lobby, so naturally we needed a Hundley as well, which Bennett was holding and "petting" in this picture. From the same site where I got the doorman idea, I got the idea of turning our dining room into Chef Pisghetti's Ristorante. Since we weren't planning to serve a full meal I figured that our dining room table wouldn't really be needed. Could we move it out and bring in some smaller tables to make it look like a restaurant? I think this was the main element of our party that made our friends think we are nuts- we turned out dining room into a restaurant! Again, Chris put his CNC to work, creating the sign. We had originally talked about converting the whole wall to look like a building exterior (brick wall, sign, door, windows) but time and money constraints proved to be too great. You can't really tell in this picture, but the letters and the Chef, as well as the black frame, are raised up higher than the white background. I sewed strips of fabric together to create the awning (don't look too closely from underneath as I left lots of loose threads), which hung on our existing curtain rod. Then I made a sleeve at the front in which we slipped some aluminum angle iron and then hung it from the corners using monofilament to a could of nails on other walls. I had the last minute idea to get some vases of flowers to put on the restaurant tables, but when we were at the grocery store I saw these ornamental pepper plants. They were perfect! So what did we serve at Chef Pisghetti's? Since the party started at 3 we didn't need a full meal. We stuck with snacks and desserts. For Bennett's first birthday I had Chris make a few food stands. It allows me to fit a few more dishes into the same space since they overlap a bit, plus it adds visual appeal. So every year they get a new coat of spray paint in whatever colors I'm using that year. Then I just put my food on white plates and put them on top. Easy peasy. The cake was another idea that I "borrowed". There were lots of fun ideas, but this one looked fancy enough but it also looked like something that I might be able to do on my own. And I got to try using modeling chocolate. Everything was edible except for George, who was a purchased figurine. I ended up not putting all of the vines and flowers on because at 11:30pm the night before the party I decided sleep was more important than practicing my piping skills and possibly messing up the cake. I was afraid that there wasn't going to be enough cake (turns out there was more than enough), plus I needed a treat to send in to school on Monday, so I also made monkey cupcakes. For additional decor, we also had Curious George and The Man With The Yellow Hat. After all, it wouldn't be a Curious George party without him! I was inspired by this and this, but ultimately we went with what you see below. Balloons! I tend to think of them as being overpriced and unnecessary, but I do love them and find myself getting some every year. We had the bunch in the photo above, plus the ones below. I had hi-float put into the latex balloons, so they last about a week. (Except for 2 that had deflated in less than 12 hours.) And it wouldn't be a party without games! It's a little tough to plan some things out since our younger guests range in age from 3 to 11. Again, borrowing from the internet, we had Yellow Hat ring toss. These were just sports cones with some electrical tape for the hat band. And then since they had a tendency to fall over, Chris attached them to a piece of plywood. We also had Pin the Tie on The Man with the Yellow Hat. Unfortunately The Man was a bit too tall for Bennett, but he still seemed to have fun. Since we had such a large range of ages, for prizes I got a selection of books, trying to have something for every age/interest, and let the winners pick which one they wanted. (Thanks Mel for this idea!) And the books that weren't chosen will get added to Bennett's collection for when he's a little older. As we sent our younger guests on their way, they had Curious George favor bags. (Inspiration from here.) These were filled with Curious George fruit snacks, a Barrel of Monkeys game, a banana pen, and stickers. Overall it was a fabulous day. We hadn't told Bennett in advance that he was going to have a Curious George party because we wanted to surprise him. Grandpa took him out of the house for a few hours in the morning while we decorated and we were expecting him to be really excited when he returned. He wasn't as excited as we thought he would be, but later in the day he had his George say hi to the cutout George. And every day when he gets home now he says hi to Hundley, the Doorman, etc. And of course, Bennett received numerous wonderful gifts! To name just a few, he got books (both Curious George and others), toy farm animals, a fife, and then this... We have one family who every year create an elaborate gift/packaging. How awesome is this hot air balloon? And to make it even better, inside the balloon (there was a slit in the back) was this photo of a Curious George sand sculpture that they had made for Bennett.