Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Toy Story Midway Mania Carnival Birthday

It's that birthday party time of year again.  This year Stephen decided on a Toy Story theme.  Rather than going the "normal" route, I decided to commemorate our family's first trip to Walt Disney World with his 6th birthday party and made it a Toy Story Midway Mania party.  Stephen thought this was the best idea because, what 6 year old doesn't LOVE games?

The theme was a bit of a challenge, having never seen a Toy Story Mania party before, so I leaned towards a carnival theme using some game titles from the actual ride in Walt Disney World.

the invitation
I found an adorable carnival inviation online that inspired me to make this one.  I just loved the 3D ticket design. 

the food
Come one, come all!  Look at this spread.  =)

I made the sign from foam board, added Christmas lights through the back and used my Cricut for the lettering.  The "poles" are white mailing tubes with red ribbon wrapped around them.

From left to right.  Hot dogs, candy (note the bullseyes... get it?  Bullseye?  Toy Story?), bite-sized candy apples.  Awesome in theory, but they turned out the be a bit of a *fail*.  The moisture from the melon-balled apple, melted the candy coating from the inside out within 30 minutues. =(.  I bet caramel would work better.  The "peanut" bags actually have circus peanuts in them (I got the bags from Etsy seller DimeStoreBuddy). 

The cake is a basic 9" round with a Mr. Potato Head toy on top.  The cupcakes on the other hand....

... are crazy adorable!  Topped with mini marshmallows, snipped on the tops in half, 1/3s and 1/4s.  Then spray yellow.  The adorable cupcake wrappers were created by Etsy seller Party Paper Creations.


Then we've got cookie pops, more candy, popcorn...

...LGM (Little Green Men) marshmallow pops, lemonade, soda, chips, animal crackers and Jessie's Hat cookies.  The inspiration for the pops came Pampers, Play Dates and Parties.  The cookies, from Family Fun.

the games
Drawing inspiration from the ride in WDW, Shoot Camp, Hamm & Eggs and Spinning Tossers are named after games played on Toy Story Mideway Mania.

The game boxes are made from, just that, boxes.  Large cardboard boxes, covered with striped table cloth, from a roll.  Inside each is lined with wrapping paper then decorated, based on it's theme.  In total, the games run 12 feet long.  The signage was all created on my Cricut.
   
Andy's Room - knock the cans down.        Shoot Camp - shoot the ping-pong-balls

Hamm & Eggs - egg toss      Al's Toy Barn - bean bag toss
  
Flying Tossers - shoot down the rockets


Game time! 

the prizes
The kids had a great time "practicing" the games throughout the party but when crunch-time came, they each got to play each game once to earn tickets.  Each prize was worth 1 ticket (they all earned enough to get 1 of each prize!).

After their tickets were won, each child got a LGM favor bag to fill with their prizes.

"The Claw" is cut from foam board.  The sign and LGM "parts" were made on my Cricut.

Rexy's Ancestors (dino masks), Mrs. Potato Head Kisses (lip whistles), Giant TS Pens, Mini Slinky Dog toys, Pork Bellies (chocolate coins), Mr. Shark Squirters

Space Ranger Stencils, Army Men, Ken's Superstar Glasses

Assorted TS candy, Mini Monkeys in a Barrel, Wheezy Pops, Mr. Potato Head Glasses

TS Maracas, Sherrif Badges

A great number of the prizes were purchased from the wonderful party supply website Oriental Trader.

Enjoying their prizes!

the photo booth
Can't have a carnival without a photo booth!





Props for the photo booth were printed directly from the internet or cut on my Cricut.






Friday, April 29, 2011

Disney/Pixar Toy Story Themed Movie Night

With 19 days until Walt Disney World, what else can one do but PARTY?! 
Our 4th Disney Movie Night was Toy Story themed. 

dinner
Our menu was Pizza Planet inspired.  Pizza, french fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings and burger sliders.  To wash all that down, we had "Refueling Fluid" in both cola and apple flavors.

Note the Army Men and Monkey's (you know, the ones from the barrel), sneaking in for a bite to eat?

This FANTASTIC rocket ship stand was inspired by a DIY tutorial I found on Catch My Party.  Thanks Leslie I!  The only changes I made were the use of tin foil rather than aluminum flashing and scrapbooking paper rather than colored Duct tape.  I also added the Galactic Alliance and Space Ranger logos.

dessert
For dessert we made "Delicious Hot Schomes".  Or in this case, cold s'more pops.

Put the marshmallow on a skewer (sharp point snipped off!).  Carefully dunk it in melted milk chocolate, then into graham cracker crumbs.  Then stand it up in a vase so the chocolate hardens a little.  Or...

... just dive right in.

movie snacks
Alien cupcakes, Sheriff cookies, Jessie's hat cookies.

Chocolate coins, aka Pork Bellies.  You know, money from inside Hamm?  ;)

Toy Story fruit snacks and Al's Cheese Curls.

photo booth 
The best part of the night was playing in our photo booth!  I printed out "hats" from the movie and taped them to skewers (again, snip off the points!).  They made perfect photo booth props!








It is *impossible* to get both kids to look at the camera at the same time.  Seriously, impossible.

Feel free to use my food tags!  You'll find them here.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Disney's Lilo & Stitch Movie Night

Our 3rd movie night, as we count down to our first family trip to Walt Disney World, was Lilo & Stitch.  I just adore this movie, which made this movie night extra fun!  Ah, who am I kidding?  They're all fun!

crafts & activities
 We made a "palm" tree for our table centerpiece.  For a tutorial to make your own, please click here.



We used green crepe paper, taped to a piece of ribbon, to make our own grass skirts.

 And of course, we had to have Cobra Bubbles to play with.

dinner 

For appetizers, we enjoyed a large tropical fruit platter and Pudge's Peanut Butter Sushi.  For a tutorial on how to make peanut butter sushi, click here.



For dinner, we enjoyed Stitch's Sweet & Sour Chicken Kebobs and Pleakley's Pilaf.

To wash it down, we had Jumba Juice.  Passion fruit juice.  Yummy!

dessert
This cake was even BETTER than it looks!  Lilo's Lava Cake.  I used this amazing recipe at The Pioneer Woman.  Did I mention that it was amazing?  *swoon*

movie snacks


 Though we hardly had room, while we watched the movie, we snacked on Goldfish Crackers, Swedish Fish, Tropical Dried Fruit and homemade Coconut Macaroon.