After what was a terribly long and exhausting (mentally and physically) week at work, it was time to finish preparing the decorations for Brock's 3rd birthday as well as get the house in order and the food prepared. Thankfully as always I had been preparing for weeks and had most of the decorations, favors bags, etc. done.
Most of you know, he was give about 5 choices for a theme and by no surprise he choose Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The trick was adding in enough Mickey stuff (I'm not a huge fan of characters or stuffed animals) without making it super cheesy and commerical. I think I managed to made him happy, but also satisfy my party-planning self in the process.
What can I say, I absolutley LOVE planning parties, of any kind, but especially little kid birthday parties - could there be a future for me in this?
Enough rambling and on to the details. Knowing I could work with primary colors I set up to use this as more of my base than the characters -red, yellow and blue with a little bit of green and orange thrown in.
With my new Cricut machine in tow, is it possible to love a die cut machine, I was ready to go. I went to Michaels and Joann's and started collecting paper that I thought would fit with the above colors. I was able to make a banner, well, several actually - one that said "Happy 3rd Birthday Brock," a second that said "Hot Dog" and a third that said "Oh TOODLES," of course. I found these great Disney bottle cap stickers that were a perfect addition to the cupcakes, which I found a great recipe for on http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/cupcakes.html a few weeks ago. They turned out so well. Also, check out the lollipop tree - yes that is more than 300 dum dums on the styrofoam ball.
I went in search of some cute Mickey items to put in the favor bags, found at Ikea, http://www.ikea.com/, (red, blue and green pop up bags) and got some great stuff. The Disney Store had their cups on sale for $1.65 (normally $7.50 each) and got Mickey coloring books, crayons and I made some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse placemats with each kid's name on them. I think everyone loved the favor bags and no kid went home empty-handed, which I've learned is super important at this age.
I've seen some party blog showcase party hats they've made and I thought to myself - how hard could that be, so I made some of those as well. Just a little scrapbook paper, ribbon and pom poms and volia - beautiful party hats, now only if the kids would have actually worn them, LOL.
I started to stress out on day 3 of working till past midnight, but I've done some of my best work under pressure. Friday night I decided I better get started on this Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake I told Brock I would make. I had figured out how to make the face and ears for the clubhouse weeks ago - styrofoam balls and toothpicks, but the rest still had to be figured out. Here is the end product - after lots of drama and second guessing I think it turned out great, but beware there is styrofoam and PVC piping on this cake.
I even found some time to make some mickey mouse shaped sandwiches, jello jigglers and fruit screws, but could not have gotten this all ready Friday and Saturday without the help of my mom - thank you as always.
All in all, I think he had an amazing time and lots of fun with his friends and family. After nearly 40 people including 15 kids under the age of 4, our house looked like a tornado came through, but it was all well worth it.
Happy Birthday little buddy, mommy and daddy love you so much and are so proud of the little man you are becoming. You'll always be my little guy!
