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Sock Monkey Birthday Party

My little peanut isn't exactly a peanut anymore. He turns 1 year old tomorrow (?!?). But I'll save the mushy, sentimental stuff for then.

We chose to celebrate his birthday the weekend before, rather than try to cram another thing into a holiday weekend. The theme — sock monkeys — was pretty easy to chose, because it was one of his favorite toys. In fact, it was his sock monkey toy that elicited his very first giggle.

Invitation designed by Designing for Peanuts

My parents were kind enough to offer their home for the party location, since our apartment feels crowded with just four extra people over. Plus, our dogs would have gone CRAZY. As our trainer put it, our pit bull suffers from "an over-abundance of friendliness."

The invitations and party printables (Happy Birthday Banner, "I am one!" high chair bunting, food tent cards, and favor tags) were purchased from Designing for Peanuts on Etsy. Her designs are adorable (she has many designs besides sock monkeys), she was very quick in responding to my messages, and very easy to work with. I had the invitation printed through Shutterfly, purchased the envelopes (and sock monkey wrapping paper!) at Paper Source, and had the rest of the files printed at Staples onto 110# cardstock.



I got sock monkey plates, cups, napkins, Thank You cards, Mylar balloons, and party hats from Birthday Express. They arrived quickly, the order was correct, though their prices are a bit high, considering the plates are rather thin paper, not plastic. But they were pretty much the only place to get sock monkey party goods. We did find red, cream, and chocolate brown balloons at the local dollar store as well. They also agreed to inflate the Mylar balloons from Birthday Express.


My mother made most of the food, and I made the main cake, the fondant sock monkey cake topper, Liam's smash cake, and the cake pops. Inspiration for the cake, cake topper and smash cake came from a blog called NickWillJack. The inspiration for the cake pops came from Sewell Photography.


For the cake smash, I didn't want Liam to get buttercream all over his birthday outfit, so I ordered a coordinating diaper cover (not visible), necktie and party hat from Scootapie. Again, her items are adorable, very easy to work with, highly recommended!


The main cake was my favorite chocolate cake, iced in Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Liam's cake was a sugar-free apple spice cake (recipe below), iced in Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

We were so happy to have all of our family and friends there to celebrate the first year of his life!

[gmc_recipe 1092]

Jessica @ Sunny Side Up

Wednesday 21st of November 2012

Your cakes really look great! Awesome party, I love the theme!

Eva @ Eva Bakes

Tuesday 20th of November 2012

What a cute birthday theme! The cake is gorgeous, and the decorations were just perfect. Happy birthday, Liam!