Minnie Mouse Party -2yr- Goofy's Sack Race

For my daughter's 2nd birthday we did a Minnie Mouse Theme. We had just been to Disneyworld in May, and her birthday was in July. The inspiration for the party was Mickey's Toontown" at Magic Kingdom which is full of bright cartoony colors. In particular I was trying to capture the feeling of "Minnie Mouse's House" which has a bold cartoonish look with girly colors. We had about 30 kids and their families maybe 50 adults. 

For the invitations I ordered Hot pink and Orange Minnie invites( Finestationery.com). The colorscheme was mainly hot pink orange and lavender with pretty much every other color in lesser amounts.   

For decorating the front of the house I found huge fake gerber daisies in purple orange and hot pink (Walmart). They were dinnerplate sized on sturdy three foot stems.  I poked them into the front beds at 4 foot intervals all along our front walk. For the front door I made a mousehead-shaped wreath out of green foam circle wreathforms. I wired two smaller wreathforms on to a large 20inch wreathform then hotglued green spanish moss to cover the entire thing. I then hotglued bright orange and hotpink gerber daisy heads on it at intervals with a hotpink and white polkadot fabric bow in the center of the "head". This had a lot of visual impact. I wrapped hot pink streamers around the columns flanking our front step to give a barber-shop cartoonish look. We have two evergreen trees in pots flanking the front door which I studded with hot pink and orange fake gerber daisies. 

On top of the mailbox I also attached a very large floppy bow of the hot pink and white polkadot fabric.  Inside in the living room I replaced a lit painting over the mantel with a large "painting" I made using a projecter from the craft store. I used acrylics on posterboard to duplicate a sticker showing minnie mickey and pluto posing as if for a portrait and taped it to fit inside a painting with an elaborate gold frame using painters tape.   To greet guests in the two story foyer were two enormous mylar balloons of Mickey and Minnie called "airwalker balloons". They are over four feet tall and you put weights in their feet so they float around like lifesized characters. They were a big hit. 

In the dining room I had the buffet set up. I had ordered Mickey and Minnie-shaped pasta from Disneyworld to make a pasta salad. I ordered a plastic spoon with a Mickey hand as the handle to serve it. I made rice crispie treats on sticks in the shape of Mickey heads using a cookie cutter and tied them with lavender ribbons with bright blue polkadots. These were layered on a three-tiered server. All across the dining table I scattered brightcolored circles to look like polkadots on the white table cloth. I made floral arrangements with lavender roses and bright gerber daisies to put in terra cotta pots I painted with acrylic paints in lavender hot pink orange and teal then attached white circle labels from Staples and sealed the whole pot with acrylic to make custom polkadot pots to go with the color scheme. These were also used on the deck and in the kitchen with the hors d'ouveres.

On the dining table I also had two platters of custom iced cookies I made. There were lavender mouse ears with teal polkadots aqua giftboxes with white bows lavender mouseears with hot pink "C's" in the center (for Charlotte) hot pink hairbows with white polkadots lime colored "2"s and cookies shaped like wedding cakes that were decorated as replicas of the birthday cake. On a separate platter I made letter-shaped cookies to spell out "Minnie Mouse" which were all lavender with white polkadots.  In the kitchen I made a circus tent effect by alternating all different colored streamers in a pinwheel shaped from the lights over the island to the outer edges of the room. I made "curtains" for the kitcehn window out of bright oilcloth fabric which was sky blue with huge cartoonish daisies which I tacked to the window in a traditional curtain shape.

The cake was on the island on a tall cake stand. It was a two tiered wedding cake shape with the larger bottom tier in a white and lavender harlequin pattern with the top tier having orange bands like vertical stripes with hot pink circles in between all in fondant to match the invitation. It was modeled after one of those "mad hatter" wedding cakes where the layers are actually skewed and tilted a bit.  On the deck we had a large wooden cutout thing my husband made out of plywood. I painted a picture of Mickey and Minnie driving in a car on the front and we cut their heads out so kids could pose in it. We had huge clusters of bright colored balloons tied all along the deck railings. I flanked the stairs with two huge white square planters with double ball juniper topiaries which I strung with white lights and studded with hot pink and orange fake gerber daisies.

These were just as pretty after it got dark. I hung a hot pink and orange floral oilcloth tablecloth on the siding as a focal point over the bar area on one wall of the deck. A Happy Birthday Minnie banner was hung overtop of it.  I draped 25 yards of lavender tulle from Walmart like bunting all along the white railings of the deck. I had a few banquet tables set up with different bright floral patterned tablecloths.  On the grass beyond the deck we set up a huge tent. Inside were tables set up with disney coloring books. I made signs out of white foamcore on white stakes using the projecter and disney fonts I found to make signs saying "Goofy's Sack Race"  "Daisy's Craft Corner"  "Donald's Horseshoe Toss" and "Mickey's Poppin' Parachute".

I traced the words then filled them in with black sharpie. I found large "wallie" decals of Mickey Minnie and friends (like wallpaper cutouts but they peel off) and I attached these to the foamcore on stakes to decorate the yard.  My daughter wore a dress that she wore for a big photo day when we were at Magic Kingdom. It was white with puffed sleeves  smocking and a red cherry print. We had photos of her wearing it with her Mouse Ears on in front of  the castle.  After the kids arrived  Minnie herself showed up which was a huge highlight especially for my daughter who had loved her at Disney. She danced with the kids and posed for pictures for about a half hour. After she left we played games. My husband directed the sack races with a megaphone  such a simple concept but were a huge hit with all ages as well as entertainment for those watching from the deck. 

We even had a Moms race and a Dads race.  For the parachute the kids bounced bright colored balls on the parachute there was a lot of screaming!   After we ate we brought the cake out on the deck and sang to my daughter. We gave out Mickey Mouse ice cream bars. We showed a video I made of the highlights from our disney trip in a montage to Steve Tyrell's piano version of "When You Wish Upon a Star". We also played a mix of disney songs mixed with summery adult alternative to play throughout the party.  The kids kept playing as it got darker and then it was time for fireworks. A local park which we can see in the valley across from our deck does a huge fireworks display on the date of my daughter's party every year. So we tell people to stay for the great view. My husband did a preliminary show to get everyone excited with some fireworks he got (Sam's Club). We handed out glow bracelets flashlight roses and fiberoptic glow wands like you get at disney to all the kids (Rhode Island Novelty).


The kids were having so much fun running around in the yard while the adults relaxed on the deck.  By the end of the evening the huge airwalker balloons had had their weights removed by the kids and were floating near the ceiling in our two story family room. They were a funny sight visible to the deck and yard through the upper windows on the back of the house as if trying to look out and watch the fireworks themselves!  A couple of families even decided to spend the night and my husband started a firepit in the backyard. The party ended up going til 4:30 am (of course the children were long asleep by then!!).  For favors I bought hot pink orange and lavender handled bags from the craft store then attached those white circle stickers from Staples to make polkadots. They were filled with penny candy and stickers and each child got a CD we made.

The cover was a black and white photo of Charlotte hugging Minnie from Disneyworld with "Charlotte's Minnie Party" superimposed in hot pink in a disney font.  The cd had various Disney songs and "Malti Malti" a Dan Zanes favorite of my daughters that ran on Disney channel all last spring.  During the party I had a friend take pictures with my camera since that is something I always seem too busy for. I did take pictures of the house decorations myself some before some after. I ordered the prints from Shutterfly with white borders. I got a lime green scrapbook and a couple dozen mix and match sheets of 12 by 12 scrapbook paper in cheerful patterns in the bright colors of the party dropped them randomly into each pocket page in a mix and match fashion then placed the photos in scattered diagonally 3 to 4 on a page with a few bright balloon and minnie stickers here and there. I stuck all of her birthday cards and the guest list into a pocket in the back. This only took a few hours to make and my daughter LOVES it.

The white borders really set off the pictures from the bright backgrounds and the papers carry out the look of the party. I am going to try to do this for every party. After working so hard on it it's nice to have a permanent keepsake of the day. Also since she was so young at the time it is almost like the pictures mean more to her than the actual party did in a way. She probably would have forgotten the party and now she will always remember these pictures and how crazy her parents were!"