We had the best birthday party to celebrate George turning two.

The theme was obvious with his name. When we were pregnant, we knew that eventually we would want to have a Curious George party. I still feel like I can pick out his themes for at least one more birthday, but the “curious” really fit his nature this year too.

Ironically though, we do not watch a lot of Curious George. We do read a lot of Curious George books!

Here is everything we did for the party.

We got our invitations from DottyDigitalParty on Etsy. We just printed these off at Walmart photo to mail off. There is just something about sending real mail.

Decorations:

Table Centerpieces-I used cupcake toppers found from JulyPrintParty on Etsy. Then I glued them to pinwheels. I found the pinwheels on Oriental Trading. I really lucked out on the colors matching perfectly! Then the jars my sister-in-law already owned. Score! I found some Curious George balloons on Amazon.

The pinwheels ended up being a huge hit with the kids, and most walked out with two or three. A party favor I wasn’t expecting!

Food Decorations:

I got the banner from LuvibeeKidsCo and printed it out at home.

The serving bowls came either from the church or my sister-in-law. I got table cloths, plates, silverware, napkins, and cups from Target, Party City or the Dollar Tree.

With stuff we already owned, I really only spent maybe 30 bucks between the foodware and table decorations.

Food:

We did banana splits, pretzels, and a veggie tray. Easy peasy, and fairly cheap as far as party food goes. Total cost here was about $60.

We put the pretzels in Curious George book pages. These are all books that George had already destroyed. Reuse!

Cake:

Even though we had the party around banana splits, every birthday needs cake!

A local grocery store did the cake…for 20 dollars. TWENTY dollars!! Midwest folks run to your Hy-Vee for your cake needs. I just took in a picture, and they did this. I did buy the George topper off Amazon.

The cake plate I already owned, and the wagon my Grandpa made for George for Christmas. I loved being able to use it here!

I am pretty fortunate that my mom is an artist. I asked her to make these carnival cutouts, and she did an amazing job! I love having personal touches like these!

I just attached it to my photography stands. So much fun!

Activities:

We have so many kids in our family and in our friend group, so we know that we have to have things for them to do.

This activity crawl thing my in-laws had in their basement. Win.

This ball pit was the best idea! We half-inflated a swimming pool my in-laws owned and then filled it with balls. We had a couple bags of these balls already, but we did have to buy a few more. We got some at Walmart and off Amazon. We spent about $30 here.

George loved the doodle station! All this was free too. I printed the coloring pages for free off here. And my sister-in-law is awesome and supplied the rest. She also made the big signs! We have talent in our family!

Favors:

I got Curious George books off Scholastic for all the kiddos to take. Then I clipped these Thank You tags that I got off Etsy from BloomingDESIGNprints. The basket and chalkboard we already owned. Total cost here was about $35.

Someone had gifted us George’s shirt for his birthday last year. I got the adult shirts off Amazon. I have been using Ibotta (which is a way to get money back on your purchases..click here to start your own paybacks. Seriously, I have been using it for 6 months and have gotten around $100 so far.) I had gift cards from Ibotta that made these shirts free. Score.

We had it in our church gym, which is free and means I don’t have to clean my house. Win win win.

We really saved a lot by doing the printing at home, using stuff we had on hand, and shopping around for the last 6 months. I would seriously wait until I had Amazon gift cards or until I got a special discount code to buy most things online. And all the stuff off Etsy was mere dollars. It is worth planning a year in advance to get great deals.

We spent a little over $200 for this party, which some may think is silly, but it was so much fun. I loved having our family and friends there to celebrate our little man. Birthdays are the one day of the year I feel like you should be spoiled so we will go all out. I love to see how all the details come together.

I already have ideas for his next birthday. I know I am crazy…