Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

By now you’ve seen Sarah’s Minnie Mouse Birthday Party on Facebook and Pinterest, and now here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together!

I would love one day to have Sarah’s birthday party in our house or even in our backyard, but for now we have to rent spaces to accommodate our guests. I went scouting for venues one afternoon while my MIL was hanging out with Sarah. We finally settled on a club house less than a mile away from home.

Two days before the party, my youngest sister, Sarah and I went to pick up my mom from the airport. As I’m driving on the 405, I feel my car having a hard time accelerating. I quickly pull over and get off of at the nearest exit, call my hubby and AAA. Since we had more than their regular two-passenger limit plus a car seat, it took them a while to get to us. Four hours later we were towed from near LAX to our mechanic’s shop which is close to home. Later we were shuttled home. What a long and exhausting adventure!

Then Saturday came and I stubbed my toe on the bathroom door. With a bloody and peeled toe nail, I was really behind in prepping for the party. Sunday rolled around and I was scared a third thing would happen as bad things tend to happen in threes.

My mom, sister and I woke up at 7 a.m. to set up the room and we took many trips back and forth to our home. Not too long after, my MIL and SIL came early to help set up. I also called upon my friend Nikki to come help with some last minute things. Everyone hustled and got things done.

I was a few minutes late to the party as I needed to head back home and quickly change. We also needed to get the birthday girl to her party and with one car that took a while.

Decorations

As a Pinterest addict, I searched and pinned items onto my board for many months prior to the birthday party, but with a limited budget I knew I had to let a lot of ideas go. Since Minnie Mouse was the main focal point of the party, I came up with the colors hot pink, light pink and black. From the balloons to the plates, everything coordinated with my color theme.

I took three black paper fans and made a Minnie Mouse head. My friend Nikki made the bow and with some hot glue we made a cute and simple wall decoration.

I bought some crepe paper to decorate above the buffet table.

Centerpieces

My centerpieces were once again an inspiration from Pinterest. I worked on them little by little during Sarah’s nap time and bed time. I bought tin pails at Target, foam balls, Easter basket filler, colored foam sheets and dowels at Michael’s. I made a number two from pink foam paper, Minnie Mouse heads from black foam paper along with polka dot ribbon for the bow and finally a print out of Minnie Mouse’s bow from Disneyjr.com.

My printed bow started to fold over so as a last minute decision, I cut out pink foam bows and adhered them to the back. Unfortunately the glue I chose seeped through the print out and made smudges, but I was so done working on these centerpieces that I just left them as is.

Food

I bought berry-flavored, yogurt-covered rice cakes, and honey wheat pretzels (however, the pretzels never made it to the party).

Finally, I bought four different kinds of bagels and four different kinds of shmears for those who wanted something more breakfasty.

For drinks, I made Minnie-Ade and Iced Coffee and placed them in drinking dispensers.

Favors

I’m not a big fan of favors. If it’s not something edible or useful, it will probably end up at the bottom of Sarah’s toy bin. So after making Sarah’s school Valentines, I knew I wanted to make Sarah’s favors just like them. I bought a printables Etsy file to make bag toppers. I already had snack size Ziploc bags. All I needed was my toddler mix of Cheerios, yogurt melts and craisins. The idea was great, but after sampling a bag at the party, I found that the yogurt melts had become mushy.

Thank you to the many people who created, prepared, set up, cooked, baked and helped me with Sarah’s 2nd birthday party! I would not have been able to pull this off without your help! THANK YOU!!!

Special thank you to my ema and sister for traveling to west coast to celebrate Sarah’s 2nd birthday. It means so much to me that you were able to celebrate with us!

Any questions about Sarah’s birthday party? Please comment below.