Mickey & Minnie Mouse Book Baby Shower

Ok, it's been almost a month since the baby shower and I'm finally getting around to doing a formal post about it.  I'm sure most of you know that I'm a surrogate, carrying a baby for a wonderful couple that has been wanting a baby for so long.  Well the big day is almost here and to celebrate I decided to throw the mommy to be a baby shower.  Since she knows the sex of the baby, but the daddy does not, I decided to make the party gender neutral with both Mickey and Minnie instead of just one or the other.  It actually worked out great that way and I love the way it all came together.  I also decided to make it a book shower, where guests brought books instead of cards to help get the baby's library started early on.  Check out below to see how it all came out.

Baby Shower Sign - First I printed out the letters using a free "Walter" font and cut them into triangles.  Then I cut out red construction paper triangles slightly larger than the letter triangles.  Then I cut out newspaper triangles slightly larger than the red triangles.  Then I pasted them all together with the letters on top, the red in the middle, and the newspaper in the back.  I then punched holes in the top two corners so I could string all the letters together on black yarn.  I also added a red construction paper Mickey face in the middle.
Tissue Paper Pinwheels - I used white, red, black, and polka dot tissue paper, as well as newspaper, to make my pinwheels.  You can make your own using this Pinwheel Tutorial from Whimsical Wonderland Weddings.
Mickey & Minnie Mouse Ears - All guests got their own Mickey or Minnie ears to wear during the party.  They were easy to make and I scored by finding a 4th of July pack of headbands at the Dollar Store!  Perfect colors and very inexpensive.  You can make your own using this Mickey & Minnie Headband Tutorial from Becoming Martha.
Book Table Decorations - I gathered up all the books in our house and made book covers for them using white, red, and polka dot wrapping paper.  Here is a Bookcover Tutorial from Paper Source if you would like to make your own.
Signage - I printed out various signage like the Mommy To Be sign above, using the Free Mickey & Minnie Printables from Catch My Party.  Some I added my own text to, so I just made the changes in Microsoft Paint before printing them.

Party Favors - I included a bottle of red nail polish, a nail file, a custom made bookmark, and a Mickey or Minnie Mouse Oreo cookie pop in each favor box.  I got the boxes from the Dollar Store and printed out the labels using the free printable I mentioned above.  I also added a square of red tissue.  Voila!
Mickey & Minnie Oreo Pops - Yum!  I made these using double stuffed Oreos and mini Oreos.  I dipped them in melted white chocolate then dipped them in red sprinkles.  I added the white buttons and red bows using cookie decorator icing, and stuck a cake pop stick up the center.  To make your own, you can also use this Mickey Mouse Pop Tutorial from Vegetarian Gastronomy.
Custom Bookmarks - Using one of the free printables (link above) I created bookmarks with each of the guests names and a Disney quote on them.  I just made the changes in Microsoft Paint.  I then had them laminated, cut them out, hole punched at the top, and added a pom pom tassel to the end.  You can use this Pom Pom Tutorial from Eskimimi Makes to make your own.
Fabric Wrapped Pillows - I wanted some pillow decorations easy and fast, so I just bought some fabric, wrapped it around my pillows like a present, and tied them in the corners with ribbon to stay.  I also added safety pins on the back to keep them in place.  Mickey and Minnie were made with felt and glued on.  Here's another Easy No Sew Pillow Cover tutorial from Organize and Decorate Everything.
How Many Gumballs? - One of the games we played was to guess how many gumballs are in the bowl.  I found red and white gumballs to match the party.

Food - For the party I wanted bright colors with lots of red to go with the Mickey/Minnie Mouse theme.  I served strawberry, pecan, avocado, and blue cheese salad, a mixed fruit salad, a mini sandwich bar, chips, and veggies.  For beverages I served strawberry lemonade in mason jars with red swirly straws (not pictured).
Who Has The Sticker? - Another easy fun game we did was to see who had the Mickey Mouse sticker under their plate.  Before the party I stuck a sticker under one of the dinner plates on the table.  Whoever had the sticker under their plate won the prize, only guests didn't know this until they were already eating.  

Desserts - For desserts I went for a red, black, and white theme.  I served cherry jello with whip cream and chocolate chips on top, berry cobbler, and Mickey Mouse cupcakes.  The cupcakes were super easy.  I just used chocolate cake with white icing, then added mini oreos on top for ears.  If you wanted, you could also add bows with icing or fruit by the foot so some of them are Minnie cupcakes, but I ran out of time.  I also found the cupcake shells at Michaels.  I love the cute polka dots!  Check out this post from The Hunted Interior to see an example of the Minnie Mouse cupcakes.  

ABC Book - Our main activity for the party was to make an ABC book for the mommy to be and her baby.  I bought a red scrapbook and decorated the front with felt and white puff paint.  Each guest was given a scrapbook page with all the pieces needed to assemble their page (pre-printed letter, square to draw picture, and rectangle to write word).  Guests would cut out their letter, draw their picture starting with the letter, and write what their picture was.  They also wrote their name so that mommy and baby would know who created that page.  It all came out really cute!!!!  My only regret was that I didn't pre-prepare the pages more.  We ran out of time with all the cutting and pasting.  If I were to do it again, I would have cut out and pasted everything on the page myself and just had them do the drawing and writing.

Mommy, Baby, and I

Minnie Mouse Shirt - I got my Minnie Mouse Shirt on Ebay and paired it with a pair of white maternity pants that I got from Target.

Lincoln's Toy Story 2 Birthday Party... & free printable

My Little Man Is 2!!!!!!

Another year and another party.  How could my little boy be two years old already?????  Where did the time go?  Since he is my last baby I tend to savor the moments just a little more, and I find that with that comes going a bit overboard when it comes to birthdays.  This year was no exception!  I picked the theme Toy Story after we picked out Linc's Halloween costume.  This year he was Buzz Lightyear!  What better way to double the use of a costume that will only fit for a short period of time, than to center his whole birthday around this costume too!  

The Decorations:

My Little Man and I

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do as far as decorations go.  Nothing too extravagant.

 Just a few key elements that would really set the mood.  Some of the items I was able to buy ready made such as the table cloths, the birthday banner, the cups, plates, napkins, and hanging decorations.  Other than that I couldn't find much so it was up to me to improvise.  Most of the big decorations you see here I actually made myself.  Some of them were created with the help of Pinterest.  Others were created from images in my mind.  Then there were a few that I really wanted to do that didn't come to be.  One of those was parachuting army men.  I wanted army colored balloons with army men attached as if they were parachuting.  Couldn't figure it out in the time I had though.  Boo!  Someone post a link if you ever create one!!!!

The Food:

This was an easy one!  What else do you serve at a Toy Story Party, but pizza from Pizza Planet?!?!  Can't pass up an opportunity to have a meal as easy as pizza!  For snacks we had Rex's Fruit and Veggie Tray and Mr. Potato Head's Potato Chips.  For drinks we had juice boxes, soda, water, and Hamm's Pink Party Punch (Yummmmm!!!!).  Then there was dessert.  Oh how I LOVE to plan dessert!  Just like Linc's 1st birthday, I planned a buffet of desserts to choose from with the help of Pinterest.  We had Alien Cupcakes, Buzz's Spaceship Crispy Treats, Army Men Battlefield Brownies, Jessie's Cowgirl Hat Cookies, and Woody's Sheriff Badge Cookies.  They were all so good, I couldn't possibly pick a favorite!!!!

The Dessert Bar

Alien Cupcakes

Battleground Brownies

Jessie's Cowgirl Hat Cookies
Woody's Sheriff Badge Cookies

Hamm's Pink Party Punch

I designed & Made the Pizza Planet Signs Myself From Foam Core

The Games:

I don't usually have games at our parties.  It just seems too hard to coordinate them and the kids really have a great time just playing with toys with their friends.  This time I thought I'd try games though.  We had a few self play games that were just there for fun, but didn't win prizes and weren't coordinated as to when to play.  Those were a huge felt Tic Tac Toe board, a huge Mr. Potato Head Felt board, a regular Mr. Potato head play station, a Toy Story coloring table, and an Etch A Sketch Photo Booth.  We had one semi coordinated game that guests could play at their leisure and a winner was selected at the end of the party.  This was Guess The Number Of Army Men In The Bowl.  Parents guessed for the younger kids, and the older kids got to guess on their own.  My one coordinated game was Hot Potato.  The kids LOVED this game!!!!  They actually wanted to play it twice.

Potato Head Table

Coloring Table

Reagan, My Middle Little

All My Littles

My Oldest Little With Her Friends

Our Whole Toy Story Gang

Even The Big Kids Had Fun At The Etch A Sketch Photo Booth

Can't Get Much Cuter With A Big Nose & Mustache

Hot Potato!

The Party Favors:

As soon as I saw these little bags on Pinterest I just knew that I had to have them!!!!!  The little alien bags are soooooooooo cute!!!!!!!  Plus they are so easy to make!  I filled them with your regular party favor treats, but the bags were the real fun.

I made both the claw and bags

I had a great time planning this party and an even funner time celebrating a big year with all our friends!  For more great ideas on how to plan your own Toy Story Birthday please visit my Pinterest Board for Linc's Birthday.  You'll also find out how to make a lot of the things you see here on my page.  While you're at it, you can check out Linc's 1st Birthday Party.  Oh how I love to reminisce and see where we were a year ago.

FREE PRINTABLE !!!!

You can print out your very own Toy Story Food Labels!!!!  Just click on the following links to print.  I print mine out on cardstock so they would be nice and ridged.  You can also open these documents in a photo editing program or something as simple as Microsoft Paint to erase the food names and create your own.  Enjoy!!!  Toy Story Food Labels Page 1  and Toy Story Food Labels Page 2.

Fun With The Kids - Questionnaires

I don't know about you, but summertime is my busiest time of the year.  That's when the girls are out of school and I have to find ways to entertain them.  You can only watch so many movies, play in the sprinklers so long and when the temperature kicks up to 110 degrees, going outside is out of the question all together (that's us right now).  So what do you do when you're stuck indoors?  This past Father's Day I found a new fun pastime for the girls... Questionnaires.

I came across the idea of questionnaires while cruising around Pinterest trying to find something to make Brian for Father's Day.  Your kids fill in a sheet of paper that asks questions like, "Daddy's Name Is", Daddy Is ? Years Old", Daddy Loves Me Because".  The list goes on and on.  Each questionnaire I found had it's own spin on cute questions to ask and some even incorporated an area to draw their own picture of dad (bonus for my artistic little girls).  The girls took a little while to understand the idea of making up their own answers, but once they realized it was just for fun they were spitting out answers left and right.  It was a great way to teach them creative thinking and that there is no right or wrong answer.  By the end of it they were laughing like crazy reading what each other wrote.  The best part was when they gave them to their dad though.  He was cracking up and will keep these forever.  I'm pretty sure we'll even make it a tradition from here on out.

So this sparked my interest.  I want to make my own questionnaire!!!  And... yep, I did it!  Hope you and your kids have fun with my "I LOVE SUMMER" questionnaire.

Click HERE to download this FREE printable.

Below is a list of some of the orther cute questionnaires that I found.  I plan to take them with us on our flight out to Connecticut next month.  They are sure to make the hours fly by and keep us laughing while we're at it.  Hope you have fun with them too!

"All About My Dad"

"All About My Dad"

"All About Mom" or "All About Grandma"

"My Mom or My Grandma"

"Year End Time Capsule Questionnaire"

"Birthday Questionnaires"

"All About My Teacher"

"All About Me Robot"