Monkeying Around

It was pretty stupid of me to have kids so close together (as in, birthdays on the calendar, not their age difference). Because throwing two birthday parties within 4 weeks of each other is amazingly exhausting. Not that I really had a schedule written down as to what months I wanted my kids born or anything. Do people actually do that??

But, how can you give one kid a great party and not the other? Especially when the "other" is his FIRST birthday?

Camden's first birthday is actually two days from now (the 22nd). We had planned to have his party on his birthday on Sunday, but naturally the weather forecast says it's going to pour down rain all.damn.day on Sunday. So we changed it last minute to today, the last nice day before this rain storm comes in.

Oh and did I mention that the Coast Guard ball is tomorrow? Yeah we have a lot going on this weekend.

When Cam was born we nicknamed him "Peanut" because he was so small (1 pound smaller than his older brother was). As he got bigger and turned into a small tank, we re-nicknamed him "Monkey", because he climbs, clings, swings and bounces around just like a monkey. Even makes monkey faces. So fittingly we chose a monkey theme for today's party.

Since I'm totally over making birthday cakes for the year thanks to Calen's enormous Monster Truck cake, I decided to make Camden cupcakes instead. So, thanks to Pinterest, I made him monkey cupcakes with a sugar cookie for the face, and mini sandwich cookies for the ears (with frosting). They took FOREVER to finish but I really like how they turned out.

Monkey cupcakes!

To add to the monkey theme I froze bananas dipped in melted Nutella (OHMYGOD...yummmmmmm. If you think Nutella is good before, nuke it in the microwave for 45 seconds. Wow. Goodbye diet). And I also made Cam a birthday monkey shirt - sort of. I bought a monkey shirt and some cheap blue and brown fabric paint and customized it. 

Stylin birthday style

We barbecued today with my mom and lots of Coast Guard friends. We tossed Cam's high chair out in the back yard so that he was on center stage when we gave him his monkey cupcake...or rather, THREE of them.

We clearly don't feed the kid enough.

Cupcake one of three

Then of course, as how most first birthday parties end, I'm standing there staring at my nasty cupcake-covered creature that was once my son who's trapped in his high chair, and I'm thinking, "What do I do NOW?" I want to give him a bath, but I don't want to touch him. I don't know how to touch him. I should just take him, high chair and all, and put him on the street curb. Or just turn on the garden hose. Hmmmm.

Daring us to bathe him.

Somehow I got him into the tub. The monkey is now clean and asleep. Mission accomplished.

I think he had a good time.

Since we don't have enough birthday fun around here, we're giving him a smash CAKE tomorrow or Sunday, pending on weather. No party or anything, just him, a cake, my camera, on the deck. Stay tuned.

 

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