Birthday, Part 4: Sock Monkey Sweatshop

This post will bring us to our final installment of the birthday mini series. I promise. Then we're on to other things. What those things are, I cannot remember right now. It'll come back to me.

At some point when I decided what I, err...we, wanted the boys' birthday theme to be, I decided I wanted to make sock monkeys for favors. I love doing favors, it's not necessary for all parties, but I think its an easy gesture to show your guests that you thought of them and wanted to give them something fun to take home. Since we're already juicy enough and honestly I can't think of a kid nowadays that needs more sugar in their diet, I did not want the favors to be candy. Not pretending we don't eat bad for us goodies, but if anything is making my butt bigger, it's going to be these. And besides, I already did candy last year.

So how did I decide on the theme and favors?

Each year we do professional shots a little before Thanksgiving for the Christmas card and to have and frame and see how much better looking we get each year. I just re-read that sentence and I made it sound like its some grand tradition, but bear in mind it's only been two years and we only do it because we found a photographer in Athens that offers a short family photoshoot for a steal. She does crazy good work. See how cute the boys were November of 2008? Try not to pinch the cheeks through your screen.

And here are two of my favorite from 2009.

 

  

In the batch of 2009 pictures, there was a very very cute picture of the boys playing with stuffed animals. I had originally wanted to use a pic of them playing with a giant 4 foot stuffed dog, but the picture only showed Cole, and that wouldn't be fair to Grady, now would it? So, next best option were the two pictures below. Seeing the monkeys reminded me of a craft I saw on one of my favorite blogs. You might know that blog as the source for the fudge pie recipe I mentioned back in January. [NumNum]. 

  

These pictures and those monkeys swirled around in my head until I decided that monkeys would be the theme, and monkeys we would make. I said this to Keith in a very dramatic manner, as I imagined Moses might have done when he came down from the mountain with his two stone tablets and ten commandments. My memory is a little fuzzy on how the Jews reacted, but Keith barely looked up from the couch. Perhaps I've overused my dramatic room entry, and it's no longer effective?

Anyway, for weeks I planned the monkeys in my head. Invites went out, and I decided against the monkeys. RSVP's rolled in, and I decided to make monkeys. A day or so passed, and again I decided I would not make them. And so on and so forth for several weeks until the day before Grammie and Grampie arrived for the boys birthday. That morning a burst of energy hit me and I thought, let's do it! 15 monkeys can't take that long, right? And, as Keith likes to tell me "think of something to keep Grammie busy". Done and done! I bought socks and gathered supplies. 

Fast forward one day to when the elder Ellermans arrived. They played all day, and after dinner, were put to work. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm the men showed in starting the monkeys. I was pretty sure at the time the enthusiasm was there because they had no clue how long it would take, but I wasn't about to squash anyone's mojo. See how nicely everyone is working?

 

At some point the giggles overtook the elders and they took to comparing sizes. It doesn't take much to entertain these two.

We had a nice system of machine sewing, stuffing and assembling of monkeys set up, and the 4 of us spent the better parts of two nights watching Olympics, complaining about the skinniness of the sewn monkeys' arms, and the pros and cons of various monkey stuffing objects. Seeing that I waited until the last minute to get this project started, there was no way all the monkeys would get done without the team effort. We all toiled, but Grammie definitely took one for the team and stayed up two late nights and one long Saturday sewing limbs onto bodies and eyes onto heads. Thanks Grammie! A lesser crafter might not have been able to let someone else do all the heavy lifting, but I was blessed with my dad's attention span and my mom's ability to boss people, so I felt very comfortable delegating. I imagine Martha does the same thing.

In the end the monkeys turned out pretty cute, no?