Meeska Mouska Mickey Mouse 3rd Birthday Partayyyyyy

Hey there lovelies! Hope this week is treating you well! Ever since I did my guest post on Lovely Little Parties blog, I have been meaning to post the rest of the details from Teddy's third birthday party which was a Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme! I loved this party so much! It was a TON of work, but really rewarding at the same time. I think I say that about every party I throw! Ha! Anywho, enjoy some of the party deets!

I went with more of a polka dot theme with red and white and black and threw a couple Mickey and Minnie decorations in. You can't go wrong with polka dots! Ever! 

The first thing I knew I had to make for the party were Mickey and Minnie ears for the kids to wear. These were a true labor of love. At one point as I was cutting 80 foam circles and felt pieces, my hubs told me I should have just ordered them on Etsy! Ha! Because I am crafty, I always want to do things myself regardless of my serious lack of time! There is not much that I see that I don't think "hey, I can totally do that myself!" and teach myself to do it. (Really, that is how my embroidery and baby items business was created.) So, I set out to make 30 sets of ears! HUGE undertaking! I hand wrapped each headband in black yarn and made felt and foam ears and of course, bows for the Minnie ears. I found a tutorial online, but after looking at it, I didn't love how complicated it seemed to wrap the headbands (since I was making so many), so I just kinda created my own version. Over all, I loved how all my little details helped make the party even more special. 

Being a bow lover, the Minnie ears were my favorite! As you can see, they aren't perfect, but like I say, perfection is overrated. I loved them!

Many late nights happened when planning this party. You see my assembly line here. Hot glue was used in epic proportions. :)



We had the party at the park that is next door to our house, so I had all the ears in a basket for the kids and parents to grab as they walked in!

I made little signs with sayings from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I knew them all by heart at the time. Teddy was OBSESSED with it! 

 I made these cute centerpieces for the picnic tables. I started them at 7 one evening, in true Ashley fashion. My best ideas come to me at night after stores are closed and kids are in bed! They were Styrofoam balls that I painted black and hot-glued together. Then, I stuck them in foam pieces and put them in these cute red galvanized tin buckets. I buy these mini galvanized buckets a lot. I think they are great and I often use them for silverware, etc when hosting a party. You can never have too many, in my opinion! There were little signs with more sayings from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Happy Birthday signs! I thought they were a perfect little table topper! Really love this idea! 

These were probably one of my favorite parts of the party. I am a huge fan of paper cones and I knew immediately when beginning plans for both of Teddy's parties, that I needed to make some to hold snacks for the party. Then I set out to find some Mickey Mouse paper! I think they turned out so cute! I loved them and they were so easy for the kids to hold and the kiddos loved them! A lot of the kids were walking around playing with a cone in one hand...perfect snack holder! These are my new go to thing for parties from now on! I stayed up till midnight one night making these. Because I made so many, they are def a time consumer, but worth it for sure! I filled them with Goldfish and Organic Animal Crackers. I originally wanted some sort of Mickey and Minnie cookies/crackers, but they were non-existant! I am just sure that I'll see them everywhere now that I don't need them! Ha! There was a little sign in the basket that said "Mouseketeer Snacks" These are really the best option for a kids party, unless you are going to have little bags of snacks. You could use sturdy cupcake wrappers as well. They fit into a kid hand perfectly!

Of course, I was up late at night making these. Again, they were time consuming but oh so worth it! 

Like I always say, you need a little alcohol to get through a child's birthday party so I had For the mommas, we had "Mommy Mimosas," (Why not?! Something to take the edge off! Ha!) P-Dub's Iced Coffee (This stuff is addicting. I am way over-caffinated when I have this in my fridge!) and of course we had "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog waters!"

I found these awesome Mickey Mouse themed apple juices the day before the party! Score! They were so fun and the kids LOVED them!

Okay, so maybe it's tie between the favors and paper cones as my favorite creation for the party. I loved these. Not only are they adorable, they are delicious! I was planning on making these all along but wanted to wait until the day before the party to make them so they'd keep longer. I loosely followed Bakerella's Tut on how she made her pops. I did not bother with dying white chocolate, black. To me, dark cocoa candy melts worked perfectly and saved me from doing that step. No one noticed that they weren't true black. I also, just used candy melts for ears. I didn't cut them like she suggested (again, I needed to save a bit of time), I just stuck the whole melt into melted chocolate and stuck them into the heads...they turned out perfectly! I think Bakerella would be proud! This was my first attempt at cake pops and I really enjoyed making them and enjoyed how much everyone else loved them! I used hearts to make the bows for Minnie...luckily, I had no issue finding large heart sprinkles, seeing as Valentine's Day is right around the corner! I was working on these until midnight the night before the party of course! Ha! I wrapped them in cute clear bags tied with red baker's twine (Crate and Barrel) and black baker's twine from the same shop, where I purchased the paper straws. I have a love affair with baker's twine. I just love it and love all the different uses for it! I ordered a few more colors too (she has some really vibrant and fabulous colors!)...so much fun! The kiddos and mommas loved these pops as favors! I got a bunch of texts saying they couldn't stop eating them! Yep. That's about right! ;)

Lots of people use egg cartons to put their drying cake pops in but these were pretty heavy and kept tipping, so I used an upside down colander. It worked perfectly!

I had these on a table for people to grab as they left! Yum. I might have to make these again soon! 

Here is the food table! You can't see, but the napkins were polka dots to go with the theme! I loved them! Love this banner too! :)

Most importantly, this guy had the best time! It was such a fun party to throw! I have often wondered if I will be throwing another Mickey and Minnie partayyy for Reagan sometime in the next couple years! We shall see and if so, at least I have a bunch of ideas already! :)

I am glad that I finally finished this post! It has been in the works for awhile! Ha! Hope you enjoyed a little look into Teddy's 3rd Birthday party! As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Hope you are having the best week! 

xoxo,

Ashley 

The Perfect Picture

Hi lovelies!!! I was MIA last week! I am swamped with orders right now! It's so awesome! Love that people are loving my work!  Anywho, as I was uploading pictures this am, I was thinking about my desire to constantly take family pictures and really just pictures of the Little Presidents, in general. Do you have the need for the perfect family picture? I always strive to get at least one good one when we are all dressed up and together. Every.single.holiday and really numerous times a day in general, I am trying desperately to get the Little Presidents to smile or even just look at the camera at the same time...you can never take too many pictures in my opinion...or in my hubby's opinion, you can! Ha! I feel like it was not even close to being as hard when we just had Teddy, but after Reagan joined the mix, it's total chaos anytime I want a family picture taken. I assume it's the fact that I have one more person to try and get to smile and be happy(look happy)! Ha! Here are a few fabulous hilarious outtakes from our holiday weekend...

We only had a few minutes before church, but I knew if we didn't take pics before, they would probably be a mess afterwards...

Everybody's happy...

Reagan is only happy to take a picture on her terms. Clearly. Teddy just rebels because, hey, why not?Can't forget to address me...I'm hunched over and looking ridic! Ha!

I'm pretty sure my hubs was telling me "maybe we should just do this later," in this pic. Ha!

Reagan is thrilled. Luckily Boo is always happy to be a part of the pics!

Yep.

Victory! She's crying and Teddy's not looking but still...we got a pic! 

And again, that evening, she was thrilled to take a pic again.

The blur is all too common in my pictures these days. 

Blurrrrrrr.

I have decided that I don't even care how the pictures turn out. I just care that we take them. Someday we will look back on this Easter (really a lot of pictures for that matter) and laugh about how crazy funny the Little Presidents were and how hard it was to take pictures of them some days! My thought is, memories are memories...perfect smiling pictures or not and hey, with two toddlers, the "not" is definitely more common these days! And I am okay with that! :) Hope you all had the most fabulous weekend celebrating Easter. We had such a blessed and fun filled weekend with family! 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. -John 3:16-17

xoxo,

Ashley

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!

Hey there lovelies! We have had a busy week! My "baby" turned four last Thursday! I can't even believe how quickly four years flew by. I'm sure I'll be saying that every single year from here on out. I feel like life is flying by. It's so hard to grasp how quickly my newborn babies became toddlers and now I have a four year old and a nineteen month old! Just crazy to me!

Teddy is always into something new but has been into pirates for awhile now. I figured that would be the type of party that he would want, so I began to mentally prepare myself. Then with how January began for us, I put party planning on the back burner and wasn't really feeling up to it but I knew we would have to have a party because he had been asking for one for months! So, I woke up one morning realizing I needed to get a move on and start planning. I planned this party in a 2 week period and I am happy to say that it was great and just as I'd hoped it would be. All Teddy asked for was a "jumpy, Chick Fil A and goody bags for his friends." Easy enough, right? I told myself that I wouldn't go overboard this year and for the most part I didn't and it was such an enjoyable day for me as well. I feel like most of the parties, Sean and I are cooking the whole time and we don't get to enjoy anything and by the time it's over, we are just like "Thank God it's over!" Having this party catered was the best idea! Thank you Teddy! We paid extra and had CFA deliver as well and that was even better. Since the party began at 11:30am, our morning was jam-packed and delivery eased a lot of stress! I was exhausted at the end of the day and still am, but it was a great day and fun was had by all! I have gotten emails and texts from some parents saying how much fun they had. Really makes my heart happy to hear this!

We based the theme off of this Teddy lookalike. :) I purchased this pirate wrapping paper at my beloved Paper Source to add to the invitations.

I downloaded a pirate font and went to work! I printed the invites on paper bag colored cover paper.   

Then I stamped and embossed this skull and crossbones stamp on top of each invite. I LOVE how it turned out!!! I burned the edges of each invite to make it look like an old map. I had a couple issues...burnt my toe, got in trouble from Sean for burning in the house, etc! Haha! But, again I LOVE how they turned out, so it was worth it!

I added these little gold stickers that said to dress like a pirate and for parents to plan to stay with their kids. We invited a couple kids from school that I didn't know and I hadn't met their parents so I figured it was better to address that it was NOT a drop off party, just in case anyone thought it was! :) I have heard some crazy stories about people just dropping their kids off and leaving...

One of my plans was the put each rolled up invite into a plastic bottle, but I could only find glass at our local craft store and was out of time to order plastic. I really loved how they turned out, so I'm glad the bottle thing didn't work out! :) We had to hand deliver each invite so it took me a few days to get them to all the places they needed to go! I tied an eye patch (to start off each kid's costume) and a Pirate Teddy to each invite and wrapped with baker's twine.

Next up was the goody bags. I decided to keep it simple and just give each child, gold dablooms(chocolate) and telescopes (Teddy's request). I hate when my kids come home from parties with a bunch of toys that we just end up throwing away, so I try to typically give something that is food (cookies, mouse ears are what I have done in the past) or not junk toys. These telescopes might be considered junk...my kids have had the best time with them though!

 I stamped each bag with my skull stamp or my anchor stamp. I thought they turned out so cute! I thought cotton bags would be perfect for a pirate party and purchased them here. Love how they turned out!

I displayed them in a mini treasure chest that I already had. I have a lot of these little trunks/chests that worked perfectly for this party theme! Teddy handed one goody bag to each of his friends as they left!

 As each child walked in, I had pirate hats for them. I had planned on monogramming each hat with the child's name on it, but we had a lot of people cancel due to sickness, so I decided to scrap that idea at the last minute and not spend the extra time doing it! I had done the little presidents' hats to start with to see if monogramming was even possible, so their hats had their names on them! Reagan's even had a bow!

Here is my cute little pirate all dressed and ready! Love how his outfit turned out! I ordered the shirt and bought black yoga pants in the toddler girls section at Target and just cut them and they turned out perfect! He was so excited about how he looked! Love that! :)

 I made the cupcake toppers. I was planning to use my cricut machine to cut the circles, but it was not working and I didn't have time to figure out the issue, so I ran out and purchased a circle punch and I love it! So fast and easy! Will be using this a ton I am sure! I stamped the toppers with my anchor and skull stamp and embossed them and then hot glued toothpicks to them. Simple! I also ordered the cupcakes from our favorite bakery, which was another huge time saver. I have made them myself for a few parties and this was just easier and less stress than baking and frosting myself!

Besides nuggets, chicken minis(the best things ever! I think I ate 6!) and wraps from CFA, we also had fruit, Pirate's Booty (Of course! We are addicted to this stuff!) and fruit squeezees! Again, I just displayed them in the little chests that I already had!

 I used plain red plates, red and white stripe and black and white napkins and white plastic silverware. Simple and cute! Love these tin buckets! I use them all the time! Red is a common theme around here. I sneak it into a lot of parties! I am pretty positive that I bought them in the dollar bins at Target a few years back...

We set up two long tables outside and I had planned to use cloth tablecloths but saw these striped skull clothes at my precious Target, at the last minute and grabbed them! So easy and cute and all I had to do was wad them up, with all the food and drinks still on them and toss them in the trash! Such an easy clean up and I loved the stripes and skulls!

At the last minute I decided to scrap my idea of decorating with treasure chests and just use the balloon bouquets and gold dablooms, necklackes and extra telescopes! It looked perfect!  Sometimes the best ideas are the one you come up at the last minute! 

Then there was the jumpy! My favorite part! I am obsessed with these things! This size was perfect and I plan to order this exact one for all future parties! Even my own birthday if we have a party! :) Everyone enjoyed it so much! I wish I had it in my yard, every day! I got a horrible burn on my arm from the slide! Teddy got a thumb to the face but other than that it was a crazy blast in that thing! We jumped until it got dark!

 

We love our stripes! :)

Me with the birthday boy! I forgot to take pictures of our drink buckets, but I served beer, Sofia (I am obsessed with these fabulous little pink cans of deliciousness!), water and juice pouches. You need a little beer and champs to get through a kids party. :)

Me with my other pirate! She had the time of her life! :)

Teddy was full of so much joy during the whole party! It was just so sweet! 

I bought a piñata and we ended up not doing it! The jumpy was enough, so I know for next time! :)

 I couldn't be happier with how the party turned out. It is so fun to have a vision and watch it come to life! Seeing the joy in my own kids' and the other kids faces was seriously the best thing ever. My heart is so full from this past week and weekend. Four has been a special birthday. Teddy really understood the concept and we had so much fun celebrating him, for days! :) More to come on how we spent his actual birthday! Hope you all had an amazing weekend! We are so blessed and I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to celebrate these precious birthdays. :)

xoxo,

Ashley