I intended to have a low key birthday celebration for my little monkey after a music class I host at my house. But, then I had to have a theme and then I had to have at least some cute food and then, two nights before the party I got a bee in my bonnet to make 16 sock monkey hats. Have I not learned my lesson by now?

My little dude is literally attached to his sock monkey. It’s a disgusting shade of grey no matter how many times I steal it for a trip to the washing machine. So, a sock monkey party seemed only appropriate.

I saw the cutest dinosaur hat tutorial by Christine at the blog From an Igloo and adapted it to make it a sock monkey. Christine did a wonderfully easy to follow tutorial and I won’t reinvent the wheel. I used her pattern, size, directions on lining the hat and how to make that cute pom on the top. But here are the adaptations I used to make a sock monkey.

The top is made of four triangularish pieces. I sewed the ears together, turned them right side out and placed them straight across from each other.

After the whole outside part was completed, I sewed red lips onto an oval shaped cream colored mouth and then onto the hat overlapping the band of the hat. I then sewed on by hand black buttons for the eyes.

Then follow the rest of Christine’s instructions to line the hat and topstitch.

How cute are these little monkeys? PS I made pink ears and a pink pom pom for the hats for the girls. If only I would have had time to do eyelashes….

We had some sock monkey sandwiches. Nilla wafer ears, mozzarella cheese mouth, licorice lips, and olive eyes.

And some sock monkey cupcake toppers made with a tootsie pop, one vanilla melty, one chocolate melty, two mini chocolate chips, one slice of red licorice and one red hot. Basically what I found in my pantry since I got the idea to make these about a half hour before the party. I cut the chocolate melty for the ears in half and then shaved off a bit more to make it a half moon shape. I melted the chocolate ears and eyes just a tiny bit with a lighter. It could have been disastrous, make sure another grown up is close by. I glued everything else on with leftover frosting.

The party was so fun but oh how I needed Ashleigh!! Since we moved away from each other I have desperately missed the best sister ever who would have arrived at 10 pm after I called in desperation for a sock monkey hat sewing party. I should never attempt to do a party without my sister for food and sewing help. And I forgot that having a party during the day means no husband at home to order around for last minute details.

I should really learn my lesson.

I probably won’t.

But happy birthday to my monkey anyway!