Stuffed monkeys can serve as baby shower decorations and baby gifts.
Plan a monkey-themed baby shower for an expecting mother who likes monkeys, jungle animals or is decorating the baby's nursery with a monkey theme. Use a specific theme that expands on your monkey idea, such as a jungle feel with lush greenery and other jungle animals, a whimsical sock-monkey theme, circus monkeys, your favorite monkey cartoon character or modern monkeys that fall into a specific color scheme, such as pink or blue with chocolate brown. Does this Spark an idea?
Invitations
Use card stock to create the shape of a monkey, monkey's head or a monkey hanging from a tree for the invitations. Decorate the front of the invitation to set the scene with the monkey shape. Write out the baby shower details inside or on the back of the invitation, depending on your design preference. Use terms that correlate with your monkey theme, such as, "It's time to stop monkeying around and celebrate" or "Go bananas with us."
Decorations
Create a jungle atmosphere if you're taking the wild monkey approach. Borrow potted houseplants and trees to fill the perimeter of the room with lush greenery, and hang stuffed monkeys or bananas from the trees. Twist green and brown streamers together and drape them across the room to look like vines. Hang paper monkeys from the streamers. Green balloons can float across the ceiling to give the illusion of a canopy of trees. Use streamers and balloons in your baby shower color scheme, if you're taking a different approach.
Use burlap as tablecloths or simple white, green or brown material to cover the tables. Decorate the mom-to-be's chair with extra balloons, garlands of silk ivy or pillows with a monkey pattern. Use monkey-themed diaper cakes, stuffed animals, balloons or monkey-themed novelty trashcans to serve as vases for centerpiece floral arrangements.
Menu
Tailor the menu to your theme by offering monkey and banana foods, for example, banana nut bread, muffins, banana pudding, smoothies or chocolate-covered bananas served on banana leaves. Make monkey bread or monkey chow. Serve jungle juice to wash it all down. Of course other options can be included, such as tropical fruit.
Activities
Plan a couple of baby shower games that fit in with a monkey theme. For example, ask guests to match baby animal names to grownup animal names, such as a kitten and cat or puppy and dog. Another animal-related game involves asking your guests to guess what the typical gestation period is for different animals, which may cause some relief for the mom-to-be that she'll only carry her baby for 9 months.
Pass out monkey pins, necklaces, bracelets or small monkey toys that can hug stemware to each guest upon arrival. Guests can take the monkeys from other guests when they catch each other saying "baby." Whoever has the most monkeys at the end of the shower should win a prize.
Favors
Monkey-shaped suckers, cupcakes, chocolates, soap or key chains are appropriate favors for a monkey-themed baby shower. Stationery or pencils covered with monkeys or bananas also keep with the theme. Pass out banana candies or mints in personalized tins with a monkey sticker, the expectant mother's name and date of the shower.
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