Tag Archives: children’s party

Toy Story Mania Birthday Party

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Earlier this summer we took a family trip to Disneyworld and J+J absolutely loved the Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Hollywood Studios. When we started planning his party a couple of months ago, it seemed like the perfect party theme. Not many themes seem readymade for a bounce house, which Jason also LOVES. More recently, of course, he’s turned his attention to Star Wars, and despite his pleas for a Star Wars birthday party over the past couple of weeks, I was not successful in combining Toy Story, Carnivals and Star Wars. I am simply not that creative.

But despite all of this, Jason had a blast at his party. Here are a few scenes from the recent festivities…

The Food

For more details on the food, see this post on planning a carnival-themed party menu without using dyes or artificial flavors. I especially love this recipe for homemade caramel apples. Oh, and if you’re wondering what I did with the leftover caramel apples, three words: Caramel Apple Oatmeal.

Fun & Games

Did you notice the light saber bounce house scenes? Someone definitely had his heart set on a Star Wars party.

I expected the bounce house to overshadow the other activities, but the photo booth turned out to be the real hit. J+J LOVE dressing up these days, so guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. I got the idea for the backdrop and alien eyes here and here.

More pics are posted on Flickr and I’ve posted some party printables here.

Planning a Carnival Party: Menu Ideas

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Choosing a Toy Story Midway Mania theme for Jason’s 5th birthday has been a challenge for me on a couple of fronts. First, the design aspects, which don’t mesh so well with my modern, minimal style. But worse than the aesthetic concerns are the unhealthy foods associated with carnivals – cotton candy, whirly pops, funnel cakes, etc. From the beginning I decided that if I was going to work with this theme (which wasn’t my idea, as you can probably tell), I wouldn’t skimp on our commitment to eating minimally processed, dye-free foods. In fact, now that Jason has begun to recognize when foods contain dye and point out that he can’t have them, I’m even more committed.

But what’s a carnival without treats? Hopefully, I’ve put together a menu with enough tasty treats that no one will even go looking for the cotton candy machine.

1. Caramel Apples

I just made these caramel apples tonight, and I have to say, this caramel recipe is awesome. Just 3 ingredients – honey, cream and sea salt – and A LOT of stirring and these apples turned out perfectly. Tonight I used granny smith apples, organic cream and organic orange blossom honey, but for the party I’ll probably look for small lady apples. The caramel doesn’t taste as sweet as what we’ve grown accustomed to, but it is very creamy and rich.

2. Peanuts

Served, of course, in retro carnival-ish bags that are sure to remind J+J of their favorite Chipmunks episode.

3. Mini Pretzels

I haven’t tested the recipe yet, but I’m considering these mini pretzel bites.

4. Popcorn

Photo via Hip Hip Hooray

5. Trader Joe’s Salt Water Taffy

The only taffy I could find that doesn’t contain any artificial flavors or colors. And let’s face it, I’d probably earn the title of worst mom ever if I threw a carnival party for my child and didn’t allow at least some candy…

How-to: Rock-n-Roll Birthday Party

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For my son’s 4th birthday, we threw a rock-themed party (aka Jason Fest 4) for Jason and his friends. I haven’t come across a lot of rock-themed children’s party resources online, so I’ve compiled my ideas and inspiration here.

The Invitations

Inspired by this post on Momtastic, I created the invitations out of vintage records. I posted a how-to with printable templates for the invitations here.

The ‘Mod Your Guitar’ Station

As guests arrived, we directed them to the guitar station, where each child was given a personalized guitar and strap. I provided crayons and a large assortment of stickers, and the kids provided the creativity. Here are a few examples of their creations:

I found the pre-cut guitar shapes at Michaels, along with the ribbon. I attached the ribbon strap to the back of the guitars using coordinating duck tape. I also covered the table in neon rock-themed stretchy bracelets so the kids could also decorate themselves a bit too.

The Stage

The stage was the focal point of the party, and our plan was to set it up in the backyard under a canopy. Thunderstorms on the day of the party quickly put an end to that, and we had to create the stage area in the playroom. The stage included: a keyboard (which we already had), large speakers, an amp and an assortment of musical toys (microphones, tambourines, etc.).

I was very lucky in creating the drum set because I happened to find a Rock Band drum set at a thrift store for under $10. (If you don’t have such good luck, you can also check out this post on making a toy drum set.) I spray painted the drums and attached a large hat box for the bass drum, which was also painted silver and decorated with a large 4 made out of vellum.

The speakers were largely inspired by a window display at Crewcuts.  I started with two large square boxes and two rectangular ones. Using posterboard and a circle cutter, I cut out holes of varying sizes to create an iconic speaker look and then used spray glue to affix to the boxes.

The amp was made by my husband and is a complete knock-off of this amp toybox spotted on ohdeedoh. You can read more about our Ikea-Malm-nightstand-turned-toybox here and here.

I also found a great post on rock-themed furniture that provides inspiration for additional props that could be incorporated into your party decor.

Food and Favors

We chose a pretty bold color palette – orange and turquoise – and we incorporated it into everything, including the food. In fact, nearly all of the food was orange: buffalo wings, sweet potato chips, cheese, carrots, orange slices and guitar-shaped cheese sandwiches. Most of our guests were in the 2 to 6 year old range, so we kept the menu pretty simple.

I also made a cake and ordered cupcakes from a local cupcake shop:

You can’t tell in this photo, but I made a fondant cut-out of a guitar for the top of the cake using the same guitar icon that appears on the invites.

I ordered the cupcakes from What’s Up Cupcake and then topped them with cupcake toppers that I made using the paper and guitar design from the invitations.

There are lots of ways to go with favors and lots of inexpensive music-related toys that could be added to a goodies bag, but I think most people either throw these away or use them for a very short time, so I went a simpler route and packed bags of guitar-shaped sugar cookies. I made the cookies myself using this cookie cutter.

Music Party Invitations

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I just finished designing the invitations for Jason’s upcoming fourth birthday party. It’s a guitar/music themed party, so I’m using records for the invitations. Since I’m pretty certain my son has never seen a record or a record player, I also bought a 1970s Fisher-Price record player to provide some context. Still working on finding records that aren’t scratched and play music we’re willing to listen to.

I got the idea for the invites from this post on Momtastic, which provides some great ideas for hosting a music-themed children’s party.

Here’s how I made the invitations:

  • Purchased a batch of Styx 45s on eBay (later found a few extras at Half Price Books).
  • Created a record sleeve by gluing two pieces of 7 3/8 inch square paper together along 3 edges.
  • In Illustrator, designed the front and back record label using a 3 1/2 diameter circle template. Also created a circle-shaped label to add to the record sleeve.
  • Printed all three of the circle labels (front record, back record, sleeve) and cut them out using a 3 1/2 inch circle paper punch (turned upside down so I could see the line of the circle).
  • Placed the label upside down on the record and turned over to draw the center circle onto the label. Used an exacto knife to cut out the center circle (Note: this was the hard part. For the remaining invites, I’m going to look for a small circle punch with a long extension). Repeated with the second record label.
  • Glued the labels to each side of the record and also glued the sleeve label.
  • Purchased 7 1/2 inch square vellum envelopes.

DIY: Record Label Template (based on the size of a 45 record)