Alex'es 4th Monkey Birthday Party

Our little monkey turned 4 about a month ago, and i'm really (i mean REALLY) far behind on blogging. Guess that's what keeping 4 little people alive will do to you! But i love sharing fun things on here, and this party really made him smile. He LOVED his cake and felt really special and honoured. I've kind of boiled down birthday parties for my boys to 3 things:

1.  balloons (they are just fun, and we don't let the kids have them other than birthdays... the helium filled kind are hard to find here, so i actually bought a helium tank online that lasts us about a year for our whole family!)
2. cake - if there is a birthday, there has to be a fun birthday cake (usually the theme of the party!)
3. 3 games => enough to bring some fun and the kids love them!

other things i try to do if i have energy or time:

• decorations (i usually try to make my own, since it's cheaper and we have a printing place right down the road!)
• a birthday video (with my favourite photos of them from the past year!)

Here is a glimpse into the monkey birthday and a few links:

 monkey cake => recipe here

(i followed the recipe pretty exactly and it was a super yummy banana cake!)

this is his FAVOURITE costume (Old Navy)

jungle vines made from party streamers & leaves i had around the house

pin the banana on the monkey game

(found free clipart online and printed for less than $5)

we also played "monkey says" instead of simon says!

and keep the monkey ball (balloon) in the air with a wooden spoon.

i made these fun monkey masks for the party guests 

and this cute fruit tray using 3 pineapples!

(i had no clue how to do this, so this video was helpful)

 goody bags full of banana chips & some candy vines for the party guests!