Minnie Mouse Birthday Party, Part 2

And now for the 2nd part of our Minnie Mouse Birthday Party (here’s part 1), sorry for the wait!  Our daughter wanted to have her party at WonderWild again and so I knew from experience the bulk of the budget would go there.  I also knew I’d only have a few seconds to set up anything we brought from home.  So my party planning theme was Minimal Minnie, big bang for little bucks.  Here are the details of our party:

The Invitations:  This is where I originally met Lauren with MamaMoonlights.  She designed these 5″x7″ invitations and emailed them to me.  I sent them to a local printer, A&E (sformat@aecomplex.com), and they printed them on the heaviest uncoated stock they have in-house (Classic Crest Solar White 110# Cover).  The invites were cut and ready to go when I picked them up.  The envelopes are from Paper-Source and our birthday girl insisted on drawing a heart on every one!

The Statement Piece:  In order to make this an official Minnie Mouse party, Minnie needed to make her presence known.  Ha!  So I brought one big Minnie balloon and swagged a few pom pom garlands below her.  Here’s a similar tissue pom garland from Polka Dot Market.

The Table:  WonderWild offers balloon bouquets as an extra so I ordered a couple pink & white bouquets for the table.  Our snack plate was Minnie Mouse and our napkins and dessert plates were generic pink and white.  When it comes to character parties, I’m all for less is more.  If Minnie were all over everything, she might get lost.

The Snack:  My nephew has a dairy allergy so I do my best to make things dairy-free for him.  I think what I came up with is still a great snack for all.  He can eat Snyder’s Mini Pretzels and they’re kinda shaped like Mickey Mouse.  Then I found flavored apples with Disney Characters on the packages.  They were a hit and are available at both Super Target and Walmart.  Both snacks are available as snack packs which is very convenient!

We’ve got ears, say cheers!

crunch pak

An Activity:  Some kids eat faster than others and who likes to wait for cake?  Not me!  So I made our party hats from Henson Creations into an activity with round Avery Labels.  I didn’t make an announcement or anything, kids just started adding polka dots to their hats as they were waiting for cake.

 

Something Just For Fun:  We gave each kid a mouse nose by coloring the tip of their nose with a face paint stick.  Then they played so hard it wore off before I could get any pictures.  Here are the remains:

The Cake: I posted about the cake here, it was not dairy free but my sister brought something for my nephew.  Here’s another pic:

The Party Favors:  I think it was chef Tyler Florence who suggested dark chocolate as a great treat for kids because it has less sugar than other candies.  So when we decided to give chocolate bars we went with Dark Chocolate, always going for happy kiddos and happy parents.  🙂  I posted about these party favors earlier this year as part of the Service Series, check it out here.

The Thank-You Notes:  This is the biggest “tell it to your neighbor” ever!  Thank you notes are not easy for me so, this year we changed the rules in order to get the message to our friends that we are thankful.   As my daughter was opening her gifts she would pause to take a picture with her gift.  Over the next week I sent messages to our family and friends via text.  This was fun, my daughter was involved and it actually got done!  Here’s an example of a text we sent to my sister:

It’s been almost 9 months since this party so I’ve learned a few things since then:

• Get your balloons from Party City and have them add Hi-Float so your Minnie is not deflated by party time.
• It looks like MamaMoonlights isn’t selling characters anymore through her etsy shop due to policy, however I bet she could create great products that are inspired by Minnie Mouse with pink and white polka dots or bows…  I wish Disney would find a way to allow artists to use their characters to benefit everyone, especially the picky party planner like me.  Here’s another really cute Minnie Invitation.
• Before I do my next set of Thank You Note Texts I will be updating my phone’s software and adding this app called Shapely, tell it to your neighbor!  So cool!  I haven’t updated my phone because I love Google maps!  Anyone know a way around this?

So, if there is a Minnie or Mickey Mouse party in your future I hope these ideas help you create something wonderful without stressing.