What could be more fun than a barrel of Monkeys? A Curious George Birthday Party - That's what! My Best advice is to look the Curious George Series of Books for Inspiration. George Visits the Zoo... Goes to the Beach... Goes Camping... and the Firetrucks.. goes to the Chocolate Factory... The Big Birthday Surprise plus many, many more.

Invitations: Cut some shapes of George's favourite things with brightly coloured construction paper. He loves bananas, beach balls, big yellow hats and balloons. Write the script "Curious who is turning __?" "Join us for some Monkeying around at __'s Birthday Party." Another unique idea is a Monkey Mask. It's an invitation and a cute keepsake. Visit pbskids.com for free coloured printout. Write the party details on the back and attach a popsicle stick. Stick a small Magnet to the back so the kids can keep it on the fridge.

Decorations & Venue: Why not go to the Beach, the Park or the Zoo? If an outing isn't ideal, bring the Factory, Campground or Circus to your home. Balloons, balloons and more balloons - like George all kids love brightly coloured helium balloons. Red ones, blue ones and yellow ones too! A neat touch is to use a bunch of bananas as a centerpiece with helium balloons tied to it. Another cute decorating idea is to spray a bunch of dollar store cowboy hats bright yellow and use them as decorations and snack bowls.

Crafts & Activities: When the guests arrive, have them make their own binoculars. Don't tell them why, just that its for an adventure later. All you need is 2 toilet paper rolls, string and some stickers to decorate. Glue the 2 rolls together, staple the string to the inner side of tubes making sure it long enough to hang around their necks and then decorate. This is a great ice breaker while waiting for all the kids to arrive. Once all have arrived, set the mood by reading your child's favourite Curious George Book or the particular one your basing the party on. The storey teller should be a lively & expressive reader that is willing to wear a big yellow hat! This is probably a younger age group so its best to keep the games simple. Play "Hot Banana" and "Monkey See, Monkey Do". Hot Banana is simply hot potato with a banana and monkey see, monkey do is a game where the leader performs silly movements and the kids must imitate. Another fun game is "Monkey, Monkey, where's your treat." Have the kids sitting around in a large circle with a chair in the middle. Place a banana under the chair, choose one guest to be the monkey and have him sit in the chair with eyes covered. Choose another child to steal the banana and hide it somewhere on his body while everyone else sings loudly "Monkey, Monkey, where's your treat? Somebody stole it from under your seat! Sing it at least 3 times over. He has 2 chances to guess who "stole" it and if he does, he gets to be the monkey again! Now announce that is time to go on a Banana Scavenger Hunt and everyone needs their binoculars! Indoors or out, hide some treat filled bananas. Using yellow construction paper, cut out several 6 inch matching banana shapes, fill with a small trinket/candy and then staple edges of 2 cutouts together. Designate a search area and send the kids out on their hunt. When each child finds a banana treat, have them sit down and open their prize. Explain perhaps that there is only 1 prize banana for each.

Menu: Monkey Mix - banana chips, chocolate chips, nuts & pretzel sticks. If their are nut allergies, you can replace with a dry cereal like corn pops. Monkey Tails - Hot dogs of course! Banana Kabobs - Bananas, watermelon and grapes on a stick. Monkey Pops - chocolate covered bananas on a stick and frozen. To top it all off, how about banana cupcakes with chocolate icing and a "make your own" banana split sundae bar!

http://www.partydepot.ca - party supplies in Canada
http://www.partycanada.blogspot.com - more great party ideas!