Going Ape Over Turning 4~

My baby turned 4 last weekend. 4!??! This age is a great age, though. Old enough to be somewhat self-sufficient, young enough to still want cuddles on a daily basis.

All the kiddos wanted to show you how old Mr. Three is. Mr. Three is the busiest of my four kiddos. And true to his busy nature, he had a hard time narrowing down the type of party he wanted. So, in the end, I "helped" him. I knew that last week was going to be a crazy one for me, so I wanted a party that was light on prep time. And while looking through the "party" aisle at Tar-jay a couple of weeks ago, the theme was decided for me when I saw these very cute invitations by Paul Frank. (What? Pre-made invitations? I know...so NOT me...but like I said...they're cute...AND busy week + desire for minimum prep = pre-made invites.)

I purchased these fun pre-made party hats. But, of course, they needed a little sumthin', sumthin'.

So I embellished them. This was super simple to do. I used my 3" circle craft punch to punch out these great monkey faces from some Paul Frank wrapping paper that we already had on hand. Then I just glued them on to each hat.

To add the fringe, I simply used red construction paper (which happened to be exactly the right length to wrap around each hat.) I cut 2" strips, then folded them in half and cut the fringe. To attach them to the hat, I simply stapled the bottom layer to the hat up near the fold, then folded the top layer back down to hide the staples.

For the party favors, I opted again for simplicity. I simply filled clear cellophane bags with some candy and punching balloons, then stood noisemakers on their ends so that the fun mylar came out the top of each bag, and tied them with curling ribbon and tags made from more red construction paper and monkey faces cut from the same wrapping paper.

The cupcakes followed suit. Rather than making cupcakes as I usually do, I bought them. GASP! To make them more personal, I added sprinkles, placed them inside colorful cupcake cups, and added toppers made from more of the wrapping paper. SO EASY!!!!!

To entertain this little group of 3-5 year olds, we made "sculptures" using toothpicks and marshmallows...this required a little bit of supervision, but nothing my bestie, and my two older kiddos couldn't handle.

Mr. Two eating his sculpture.

Then we played monkey-themed games including a relay race where each kiddo had to hold a banana under his chin while running the course, freeze dance (yeah, okay, so that really had no monkey theme), and red-monkey, green-monkey (the ape version of red-light, green-light).

My bestie and her cutie-pie (one of Mr. Three's besties...isn't that convenient?)

One of Mr. Three's favorite gifts...he's already worn the batteries out...no seriously.

Quite possibly the easiest party I've ever thrown...and the kiddos loved it!

Especially this kiddo...which is the whole point!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Three! We love you!!~