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This Monkeys and Bananas Birthday Party is how we celebrated the twinsโ first birthday! Monkey birthday cakes and fun banana-flavored food all made appearances! It was a fun day and a great celebration of a crazy first year!

Monkeys and Bananas Birthday Party
So Iโve been meaning to share this post for weeks. I was sure it was happening last week and then the whole family (twins included) got an insanely awful stomach bug. I wonโt give you all the details, but it knocked me off my feet for a couple days. It was the first time the boys have ever really been sick, aside from one time they ran a little fever for a few days. It was quite a way to break us into parenting two sick babies โ while sick ourselves! Nutty!
Anyhow, back to their party. I remember prior to having kids, my mom once shared with me that she didnโt understand why people threw such parties for their one year olds when they wonโt even remember it. Then a few months after the twins were born, I told her I knew exactly why. Itโs not for the kid/kids at all. Itโs for the parents! Itโs to celebrate that you survived the first year!
And for us, the first year was full of amazing moments, but also quite a challenge as we learned how to parent two babies. Not to mention all the time we waited for them and all that went into having them (IVF). It was well worthy of the celebration!
So in planning this shin-dig, I tried very hard to keep things as simple as possible. The hubs tells me all the time that I put so much on myself to do everything and make it perfect that I often end up tired and stressed and donโt get to enjoy things as much as I should. So I took that to heart and got as much help as I could. So if you want to recreate any part of this party, it shouldnโt be too hard. ๐
To start, there were the cakes. I went against the grain and made full sized cakes for the boys, rather than smash sized cakes. What can I say? I wanted to decorate some cakes. So I went with two 8 inch cakes for the boys, and cupcakes and other desserts for the rest of us.
I made my favorite Moist Chocolate Cake for the boys, decorated them with my Vanilla Buttercream tinted yellow, and then used some of the vanilla and tinted it green to make the grass at the bottom of the cakes. EVERYTHING else was purchased on Etsy. ๐ Find it all here:
Fondant Monkey, number one, balloon and basket of bananas
Fondant Trees
Fondant Leaves
For the rest of the food, I tried to stick with banana-y things and foods that the boys love. It was kind of a brunch-time party, so we had this Overnight Baked Banana French Toast Casserole, which was the hit of the party and so easy to put together the night before. I also made a little fruit salad with all their favorite fruit and little almond extract. We had ham and chicken nuggets โ some more of their faves. And then Banana Bread and mini Banana Pudding Trifles, which I modified from this banana pudding trifle recipe. I made this Overnight Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole and had some Dunkin Donut Munchkins (which were actually something I wanted, lol).
And finally, the cupcakes! The chocolate ones were these Homemade Moist Chocolate Cupcakes and the others were these Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes but with my Cream Cheese Frosting. You can find the monkey and banana toppers on Etsy.
And you know how I said this party is all about the adults getting to celebrate? Well, we also had a little mimosa bar. Milk for the boys, mimosaโs for us. We had three kinds of juice, some fruit and of course, champagne. Naturally, it was a hit. I got these great little stemless, shatterproof champagne glasses (that are actually plastic), which were perfect. And then I got the jungle-y leaves on Amazon.
One of the final touches were the AMAZING cutout cookies from my friend Glory over at Glorious Treats. One of the sweetest people and she was so sweet to make these cookies for me so that I didnโt have to stress over them. How cute are they?!?
Then we also printed out their monthly photos from the first year. The change from start to finish is so crazy! These boys have grown like crazy!
The final touch were these birthday milestone posters. SO fun! And theyโll be awesome to have and look back on one day.
So there you have it! All the elements of the twinโs first birthday โ full of monkeys and bananas! It was a fun party and a nice celebration. Yay for the first year and hereโs to the second!
A couple things that arenโt pictured, but were nice are these cute little high chair banners and monkey balloons (which the boys played with for weeks โ they stayed inflated so well!).
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This looks like so much fun. Love that itโs more than a dessert table and the theme was taken through to everything. Looks like he had a lovely day!
Looks like a great party! Happy (belated) Birthday to the boys! 1 year already โ wow! Congratulations Momma!
Thanks Katrina! ๐
So cute and lovingly made, Lindsay! <3
Thanks Sonja!
Thank you for sharing pictures and stories of the boys! Iโm sure they had a blast! Such a cute
theme. Wishing you many more happy times and memories!
Congratulations and loved how you set up their party! So cute!
Thank you! ๐
Very cute, thanks for sharingโฆโฆโฆโฆ.I would however love to see a picture of the boys w/ their cakes โฆโฆ..before mess and after ๐
Congratulations on surviving the first year! Happy birthday to the twins.
Thanks so much Annette!
Happy 1st Birthday Ashton and Brooks. Your mommy did a great job making this day very special. Hope you both had a great day!
Thank you so much, Sharon!
Itโs been such a treat seeing your blog over the last year! Congratulations to seeing it through the first year! Hereโs to many fun more.
P.S. โSteal Yo Girlโ ๐๐ Tis true Ashton and Brooks!
Thanks Shalonda! Glad someone picked up on that one, LOL! I needed one more thing there and it worked! ๐
What a cute party theme! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Angela!
Super cute! Theyโll be 10 in no time, eat up every moment! Thank you for sharing, Iโve been a fan of your monkeys through your pregnancy, you guys are so blessed. Keep up the Amazing-Ness!
You are so right! We do our best to enjoy it all. ๐ Thanks Maria!