Monkey Business

This year we decided to have a joint birthday party for Kaitlyn and Preston. Preston's birthday is in June and Kaitlyn's birthday is in December. So, we wanted to pick a date in the middle. We picked September. During the weekend of my opera performance. My family was in town anyways so why not pile everything into just a couple days. Crazy? Yes! Busy weekend? Extremely!!! More on my performance another time. Back to the party.

Since Texas decided to break all sorts of heat-related records this summer, we needed to have the party inside, where it was cool and air-conditioned. There is a big bounce house place called Let's Jump not too far from our house. We bought a party package, invited lots of friends and family, and the kids were able to jump on tons of inflatables. I always like to have themes with any party I have so I chose the fitting monkey theme. For party favors, I looked on my new favorite site, Pinterest, and decided to make simple, homemade party favors.

First, we had to make homemade crayons. It is soooo simple to do. We gathered all the broken crayons we had, peeled the paper, and put them in muffin tins. I purchased muffin tins at the Dollar Store that will only be used for crafts. I also recruited some helpers.


I arranged the crayons in cool colors like gray/pink, orange/yellow, green/blue, etc.

Then just stick them in the oven and let them melt.

I let them cool for just a few minutes on the counter then stuck the tins in the freezer. After the crayons harden, they just pop right out of the tins. I did have a couple cracks in some of the crayons. I just put the crayons back in the tin and re-melted it. Here are just a few of them.

I also made notepads out of cardstock. I punched a hole in the corner and tied the pages together with twine. I found these monkey die cuts at a teacher's supply store and stuck them on the front.

After I made all the crayons, I place them in baggies. I put two crayons in each bag and placed a square of wax paper in between them. I stapled a cardstock seal at the top and made the little thank you note to go on it.

Here's a close-up of the note.

Very simple party favors and I hope all the kids enjoyed them.

Saturday couldn't get here fast enough for the party. Here's a look at the first room we were in. There were several inflatables and the kids could play as they pleased. Plus, it's a private room, which means only our party was in there at the time.

There goes Kaitlyn on the big slide.

There goes a line of their friends to slide too.

There goes...Craig?!?! Yes, Craig joined in all the fun too. At one point, I remember seeing a blue streak fly by me and jump into one of the obstacle courses. Now I know where to have his birthday party.

My twin sister enjoyed the slide as well. Okay, she's not my twin. Dominique is actually 6 years younger than me, but we have had lots of people say we look like twins.

See that person in blue at the edge of the slide? Can you guess who that is? Craig was scaring the kids as they would come down the slide. He also hid in one of the bounce houses and would scare the kids as they would come through. I think they all enjoyed it.

My sister was showing her son how to bounce on the ball. I think she just wanted to try it out.

See, he has no problem bouncing on the ball by himself!!!!

After spending 90 minutes total in 2 different jump rooms, it was time to go to the Party Room for cupcakes. Of course, I got the cupcakes at Kroger. I told them how I wanted the cupcakes designed and they did exactly as I requested. There's a plastic monkey face on the first set of cupcakes. The other cupcakes say 'Happy Birthday Preston' and 'Happy Birthday Kaitlyn'.

We all sang to Preston first.

Then, we sang to Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn scarfed down her cupcake! I didn't get the picture in time.

Preston is really enjoying his cupcake.

The party ended and we headed home to open gifts.

Then, it was over! The kids had a great time and we really hope their friends did too. Kaitlyn and Preston say a great big THANK YOU to everyone that came and made their day very special.