31 Book Pics - Throwing a Super Cute (and Incredibly Easy!) Curious George Birthday Party

Today's prompt for 31 Book Pics is Birthday Books - which I did on purpose, since I knew I was throwing Juliet two Curious George-themed parties this year. A few weeks ago I made simple invitations inviting people to Curious Juliet's birthday party. (I used picmonkey.com.), and then printed off 20 of them at Walgreens for $4.

The first party was a dinner for the grandparents, at our house. The menu was Chef Pisghetti's Famous Spaghetti and Meatballs (I use the America's Test Kitchen recipe for meatballs and this recipe for crockpot red sauce), rolls, lemonade, and a banana split bar. Big sister Eleanor made the welcome sign.

For decoration, I cleared the knick-knacks off my dining room shelfs, and put up our collection of Curious George books. Other than that, all I did was tack up this banner in the kitchen.

I used Picmonkey again to make a few simple signs, announcing Chef Pisghetti's Spaghetti and the banana split bar, as well as one next to the pitcher of lemonade that said, "The man in the yellow hat loves lemonade!"

I ordered some cute Curious George plates and cups on Amazon, but only enough for 16 servings, and then I supplemented with solid colored red and yellow items (plus red and yellow tablecloths), that I snagged at Hobby Lobby.

The second party was today at the park. I reserved a ramada ahead of time. The kids played for about 45 minutes, we stopped and ate and sang happy birthday, and then the kids played for another hour. Easiest party ever. (We put "No gifts necessary, just come monkey around with us" on the invite - so she had a couple little things to open at the end, but no big present-opening time.)

The menu for today's party was hot dogs (which I heated in the crockpot to make it extra easy!), chips, fruit, and frozen bananas. Again, I used Picmonkey to make a few simple signs, and used the leftover plates and things from the other party.

For decor, I printed out a couple of copies of this Curious George table confetti, and had Eleanor cut them out for me, and sprinkle them on the tables. Other than that, I just brought our stack of Curious George books and two Curious George coloring books I snagged at the dollar store. The books and coloring books were great for occupying the kids while moms were filling plates of food, and for when they needed a break from running around like crazy little people.

The hit of the party was definitely the frozen bananas. Such a great simple (dairy-free, gluten-free) dessert! I didn't take any pics, because they went so fast, but I basically followed this method to make them - I did some with sprinkles, some plain, and some with nuts leftover from the banana split bar. For favors, Juliet handed each kid a sheet of Curious George Stickers.

Between the two parties we fed about 35 people. Food + decorations + invitations + ramada rental came to about $105 all together. Not too shabby for 2 really fun birthday parties for one lucky little girl! Happy birthday to my big 2 year old!

This is Day 15 of my 31 Days of Book Pics series for 2015. I'd love it if you'd play along on Instagram and Twitter by posting a bookish picture each day of October. Don't forget to hashtag your photos with #31bookpics so that I can find them! Click the image below to find the whole series!