March and April had been hectic -- we went to my niece's Christening, my husband's goddaughter's Christening, and my sister-in-law's sister-in-law's (not a typo, she is really my sister-in-law's sister-in-law) wedding. And then, May crept in, and DS (dear son) is almost one year old!
That is what I've been up to -- the weeks leading up to his birthday party last Sunday, Mother's Day, were spent prepping and planning.
First, DH (dear hubby) and I had to decide on a theme. Actually, DS decided on the theme for us. While at Toys R Us, he grabbed a Mickey Mouse toy at the store and never let go. We took it as a sign that he would like a Mickey Mouse party. :p He also bops his head to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog song (it's quite catchy -- you should take a listen) every time we play it for him. So, a Mickey Mouse party it is!
After drafting the guest list -- DH and I come from big families, and extended families, and we knew we wanted all of them, and our friends, to join us in celebrating DS's first year -- we had to agree on the invitation.
Ahem. After nights of brainstorming, this is what I came up with:
Front of invitation
Inside of the invitation. It's hard to see well on the photo, but it's a pop-up invitation.
Mickey up close
Making ~40 of these invitations took me three weekends. I could only work on them on weekends, because of my work schedule.
Then came decorations: I we decided to stick to Mickey Mouse's colors for the decorations (black, red, yellow, and white). By this time, I was on a roll. My head was spinning with ideas, and I was bouncing them off DH one on top of each other. He made the smart decision and decided to leave the decisions about decorations (and all things party-related) to me. He took over baby-sitting and household chores (including laundry and dishes) while I was in my birthday party planning-possessed state.
We covered tables in red, white, and yellow table covers. I made Mickey Mouse centerpieces for each of the tables, and attached three balloons (red, white, and yellow) to each of them.
(please ignore the bottle of pop on the table)
I also made a Mickey Mouse banner from black and white cardstock to hang over the dessert table. The banner was attached to each other using red, white, and yellow ribbons.
(in case you were wondering, there was a "Y" in "Birthday;" it was just hiding behind the balloons)
For the birthday boy's seat, we brought with us a mini-high chair (the one that you strap into a chair) and decorated it.
He didn't really stay on the seat for too long. There was too much going on around him, and he wanted to be part of the excitement.
For our young guests, I made goody bags out of paper bags. I filled them with toys and things (stickers, tattoos, scrapbook, markers, balls, etc.) that I picked out, based on each guest's age. I printed labels with a Mickey Mouse clip art, and a message from the birthday boy.
I also made the two larger stand-up Mickeys. Here is a photo of one of them (the one on the goody bag table):
I did not, however, make this Mickey:
He came from Party City. ;)
I also made most of the items on the sweets table (please see the photo with the Mickey Mouse banner above). Among the treats I made were: chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate-dipped Rice Krispies treats, chocolate cupcakes in baby food jars, and the candy tubes (sans toppers).
All in all, it was a great party. We all had a great time. However, between preparing for the party for days, hauling everything from our home to the place we rented for DS's party and back, setting up and cleaning up (our families helped us out -- aren't they awesome?), and taking care DS, DH and I were exhausted. After weeks of breathing and living Mickey, I was over-Mickeyfied. If I see another Mickey Mouse again, it will be too soon.
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