The Sock Monkey Party

A Monkeyful Birthday Party for Two Little Nieces

 

 
       Now that my brother and his family have moved a few states away, it is an extra special treat when they visit.  As we miss them a ton, it is so helpful for my sanity to plan a little party or some sort of fun occasion for their much anticipated return every few months.  I miss my siblings but love thinking about their children having a happy time during their next visit.  On the most recent visit, my Mom and I knew it'd be the perfect opportunity to celebrate two sweet nieces birthdays:  Maren turning six and Becky Jane turning one-year-old.  Maren has loved sock monkeys for a while so we celebrated a bit of monkey mania with cousins, grandparents, nieces, nephew, great Aunts and more.
       The cake was a three-layer one: one layer was pound cake dyed pink, another white cake dyed purple, and a chocolate layer in between.  The frosting was "Choco-satin Frosting" from my mother's tried-and-true Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, although I made it minus the egg it calls for in the recipe (and the recipe worked great without the raw egg: I simply added extra powdered sugar until it reached spreading consistency; it was a happy discovery for me because who wants Salmonella?).  I iced and decorated the outside of the cake with Buttercream Frosting.  The recipe for my altered Choco-Satin Frosting is as follows:

Choco-Satin Frosting

Combine 3 1-oz squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted (I used Nestle's premelted envelopes), 1/4 cup hot water,1/2 cup softened butter, 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla.

       Games were super simple and consisted of relays around the house holding a real banana beneath the chin, on top of the head, etc.  Only three bananas were squashed underfoot.  Luckily, we used a wooden, play kitchen banana for the Hot Potato (Hot Banana?) game we played or there would surely have been more fruit casualties.  I also read a few animal stories to the kids: picture books which featured animal actions (including monkeys of course).  Mostly, I was just thrilled to watch my own 1-year-old and three-year-old interacting with cousins.  Plus Liliana loved decorating the party table (she set out the paper plates and helped with arranging the stuffed monkeys and bananas) and watching me make the cake on the day before the party.  Happy, happy times.  I so love my little nieces!