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Curious George Party -5yr- Banana Boats

June 2008

Sharlene in Oceanside, NY, USA

Honorable Mention

For my daughter's 5th birthday, we decided to do a Curious George Party Theme, since she absolutely LOVES George!!

For the invitations, we used store bought Curious George invitations and mailed them out 3 weeks before her party.

I cooked all of her favorite foods (macaroni and cheese, sweet and sour chicken, meatballs, rice, string beans, & salad).

For drinks, I served soda, water, and white grape juice. By the drinks, I made a sign for the kids with a large picture of Curious George saying, Kids water or clear soda and see what you create!" I provided drinking straws that I cut into half so it's easier for the kids to mix their drinks. This was a really big hit especially with my daughter and her friends.

For the decorations I got some Mylar ballons of Curious George and I used the colors in the balloons to match. I tied the balloons on some small party weights I had previously and then I tied some bunches of bananas to the balloons as well. Then I curled up the ribbon. Everyone asked me if the bananas were real. They loved this even the adults especially because it was a monkey theme!!!! 

After the kids had lunch I had a few activities planned. (I got these ideas from birthdayexpress.com and also pbskids.org). Since Curious George loves to either paint or draw on walls I bought white butcher from the craft store and put 2 rolls across: one for the bottom and one for the top. I did this to prevent any crayons on my walls since the children were all different sizes. I also got a few boxes of jumbo crayons for the children to draw with. I placed 3 different colors in each clear cup and I had children choose which cup they wanted to draw with.

On the top of the paper I taped zoo animal plates to give the children ideas. I told them they could draw whatever they wished for. When I asked them who wanted to draw on the walls there were a herd of children following me! They loved this activity!!! 

The next activity I did with them was using "Chef Pisghetti's Chocolate Clay". I made this the day before. The ingredients used was a bag of chocolate chips which I melted in a microwave-safe bowl at increments of 30 seconds at a time mixing it each time. Once the chocolate had a good melting consistency I put in 1/3 cup of corn syrup. (If anyone has ever made homemade silly putty it's similar). I placed a piece of waxed paper onto a cookie sheet put the chocolate clay onto the waxed paper spread it with a spoon approx. 1/4" thick and then placed another layer of waxed paper on top. I refrigerated it overnight.

The next day I sliced them into smaller pieces and wrapped them into waxed paper. The children had so much fun sculpting and eating the chocolate that one of the parents asked me for the recipe! I did this activity outside on my patio table. This was a messy activity so have wipes available! :)  Since we were already outside the children got ready to do the Curious George Pinata. I had all the children hold the string and when we counted to 3 they all pulled hard and all the candy fell out. I gave them large cups to fill their candy into.

While they were collecting candy from the pinata I hid some bananas and told them we were going on a Banana Hunt and their mission was to find as many bananas as they could find. The kids all had a blast!! 

After the Banana Hunt we came inside for cake. My bakery hand-drew Curious George on the cake holding a pink bunny rabbit. Above Curious George there was a beautiful airbrushed rainbow and on the bottom of the cake was a house with a white picked fence with flowers. The cake was yellow cake with chocolate mousse and butter cream.

I also made Banana Boats. On a cookie sheet I sliced bananas lengthwise with the peel on and filled it with chocolate chips and marshmallows. I placed it in the oven until the chocolate and marshmallows just melted. I took it out cut the bananas width-wise into thirds for larger bananas or 1/2 for smaller ones and placed them onto plates. While the bananas are nice and hot I placed 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream on top with a spoon and served it with cake. They were a HUGE hit!!!!! Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm!!!! 

By this time the party was wounding down. I printed animal cards from an Animal Charade game (PBS.org). I colored the cards with colored pencils the day before and cut out the cards. I let my daughter go first and she picked out one of the animals to act out that is from Curious George. The goal of this game was for the children to guess what animal is being acted out. Every child had a turn so no one felt left out. Everyone had such a blast!! There was so much laughter and I knew that my daughter's birthday was filled with whatever she could have wished for her birthday pary to be and more!!!!!!!!!  :) "

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