Birthday Week- Toy Story Playdate

E was blessed with almost a month of birthday celebrations with visitors, cakes, Skype and Facetime calls, packages, and cards.  To celebrate E's birthday on the actual day, we decided to have a birthday play date with a Toy Story theme. The night before her actual birthday after she went to bed, I decorated most of the house and set out her presents from Mom and Dad for when she woke up.  On her birthday, we finished the decorations with balloons that E helped me pick out and order.

 I used a lot of the Toy Story items that E already had to decorate.  The 3s I cut out on the Cricut to use as confetti and on the hats.  Every year for her birthday I put out a book with the birthday theme for the guests to sign as a keepsake for E.  Unfortunately, guests forgot to sign in, so instead I will print all the guests in the book.  On the coffee table (towards the top of the picture) are the foam rocket cut outs, along with foam star stickers for the kids to decorate.  On the back, I hot glued straws, then used a smaller tubing to put inside.  The idea is they were supposed to be able to blow the tube and shoot the rocket into the air.  They didn't work the best, but I think the kids still had fun making them.

One of E's requests for her party was that her friends wear hats and sing happy birthday to her.  I found a template online to cut the hats out of scrapbook paper.  I used coordinating borders, number 3s, and then had E help me put on the stickers before adding the elastic.  The kids wore them around throughout the party!

 This is the banner I made using the Cricut and various scrapbook papers, along with some Toy Story cutouts from an old sticker book.  

 I loved using papers that coordinated with E's three favorite characters (cow print, red, and yellow for Jessie; brown, denim, and yellow and red checked for Woody; and purple and green for Buzz).

 My favorite part of the decor was the individual Mr. Potato Head cakes for each child.  I baked sheet cakes, used an Easter egg cookie cutter to get the shapes, then iced each one in brown.  

 Each child got a bag of candy to decorate their own Mr. Potato Head.  Candy included: orange wedge gumdrops (ears), regular gumdrops (nose), Wilton candy eyes, black licorice pieces (eyebrows/mustache), string red licorice (mouth/hair), and gummy Lifesavers (eyes/glasses/mouth).  The kids did a great job!

I also pre-scooped ice cream into cupcake wrappers and put sprinkles on top for easy distribution during the party.  Here is one of the kids enjoying his or her finished creation!  


Before leaving the party, each friend got a Toy Story favor bag filled with plastic army men, Toy Story stickers, and "To Infinity and Beyond" playdough, which I made, colored black, added glitter, cut into stars using cookie cutters, and placed into a Ziplock baggie.  It was a fun, low-key afternoon.