Happiest Birthday on Earth

As many of you know, I’m a bit over the top when it comes to birthday parties. Ok, maybe a lot. I can’t help it. It does something to my heart to be able to fit every aspect of a party into a theme. 

This year, we had decided to just have family over, have a cake, and call it done. After all, we were planning a trip to Disney for his birthday. 

But I couldn’t take it. My planner heart just wasn’t satisfied and deep down, I just wanted to throw a party. So a party we threw! And boy, was it fun. For sure, my favorite of Nolan’s parties so far. For Nolan’s 1st birthday, we asked for books with a handwritten note instead of a toy. For his 2nd birthday, we asked for a donation to his college fund. This year, since we were celebrating in Disney World, we decided to ask for Disney gift cards. A Disney birthday party was a must! 

I went back and forth between having it Disney World themed or Magic Kingdom themed. I settled on Magic Kingdom since there was so much he enjoyed in MK from our last trip, and it seemed a little easier to fit everything in the theme. 

First things first, the invitation! I designed this myself and was so proud. I know a lot of people probably don’t get it, but for die hard Disney fans, you know what this is...a fastpass! We invited all of our friends to the happiest birthday on Earth, and asked that they wear their favorite costume as well! 

Now let’s talk food! 

We had Casey’s Corner “hotdogs” (pigs in a blanket), Mickey Pants Fruit Tray, Donald’s Cheese and Quackers, Goofy’s Goldfish, Mickey shaped rice crispy treats, The Gray Stuff (It’s Delicious!), Dumbo Cookies, and a Magic Kingdom Cake. I wanted the food table to feel like Main Street, hence the huge print of the castle at the back (that’s actually a shot I took from our last trip!) I incorporated Casey’s Corner, the Mickey rice crispy treats, and The Gray Stuff from Be Our Guest Restaurant.  I really wanted Mickey shaped pretzels too, but they just weren’t turning out, to cheese and crackers and goldfish took their place. I knew I wanted the cake to be mostly “Magic Kingdom” themed, and since Dumbo was Nolan’s favorite ride, we did that for the cookies. Behind the table I had a blue banner with “Happy Birthday Nolan” in the Mickey head font. 

We also had water, tea, and Dole Whips! Unfortunately they didn’t turn out, but I think it was user error. I’m not very precise when it comes to measuring ingredients and I think my mixture was wrong! Oops!! They ended up being more of a slushy, but they were still pretty good!

As for the activities, I wanted to bring in some of the park. I tried to choose something from each area of the park. From Tomorrowland we had a Buzz Lightyear game. From Fantasyland, we had a Peter Pan game. From Adventureland, we had an activity for The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. From Frontierland, we used Nolan’s train track to represent Big Thunder. The only area I didn't use was Liberty Square.

Tomorrowland:

Fly your own Buzz Lightyear Rocket Ship!

These were so easy and really didn’t take much time at all. I found an outline of a spaceship, and printed them two to a page on white cardstock. I wanted them in black and white so the kids could color them. I tried several different methods to get them to fly, but this one ended up being the easiest and worked the best. I got a pack of pipets on Amazon. I cut the dropper end off leaving the tube and bulb. I taped this in the middle of the back of a rocket ship. (I tried hot gluing it, but the hot glue melted the pipet!) Then, I put a small line of hot glue around the top of the rocket ship and the bottom where the pipet was attached. I took a second rocket ship and glued it to the first, so that it looked like a rocket ship on both sides.

 To “fly” their rocket ship, the kids just inserted a straw into the already placed tube, and blew as hard as they cloud! At the table, I laid out the rocket ships, placed the straws in a cup, and put some crayons and stickers for them to decorate with. I also had instructions, as well as a photo of the ride (I did this for each activity) and a photo of us on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. 

Fantasyland:

Captain Hook’s Toss

This game was so easy to make! I found the biggest cardboard box I could find. I taped the top flaps down to the inside, and then painted the whole outside black. I got 3 hooks off of Amazon for about $4 each. I put them in the general location I wanted and traced them once the paint was dry. I used an x-acto knife and cut the hole out, trying to cut inside the line so the hole would be pretty tight on the hook. Then I just inserted the hook and hot glued them in! I also made sure to hot glue the hook to the holder as well, because otherwise the hook will spin around. I found some lightweight rings off Amazon as well, then cut out the title and a few little dashes to make it to the X marks the spot, and done! Super cute! For the party, I just put the rings on top of the box, as well as a photo of Peter Pan’s flight, and above the game was my “Never Grow Up” banner. 

Adventureland:

Make a crown with jewels from the Cave or Wonders!

One of Nolan’s favorite rides was The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. I thought about doing some kind of magic carpet game, but in the end I settled on these gold cardstock crowns and a huge bag of peel and stick jewels. So super simple and pretty cheap! I printed off a photo of the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride and that was it!

Frontierland:

Even easier was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! We just took his train track pieces and his trains and set them up with a photo of Big Thunder’s sign. Done! 

Photo area:

Last year I made a big car and had a photo prop area. It was a lot of fun, and I loved looking at everyone’s pictures that used it. So I decided to do a photo prop area again this year! One of my close friends had made this giant Mickey out of plywood for one of his son’s birthday parties a few years back, so I asked if I could use it and he said yes! My dad helped build a platform so he could stand up inside (my friend used a stake in the ground but obviously that wouldn’t work indoors) and I added some red paper behind him with some yellow stars! I also had a TON of Disney photo booth props, but I’m not sure if anyone actually used them. Haha. 

Caricatures:

Yes! You read that right! My best friend’s super talented niece came and did caricatures for our party guests! I really felt like I was in Disney for a second! It was such a fun touch. We got our family and then one of Nolan by himself. One of my family members found a picture of my Memaw with my Grandaddy who passed away several years ago, and she drew them together again. So so special. 

Decorations:

When guests entered the party, the first thing welcoming them was this sign! (I downloaded it here.)  I had it blown up and then modge podged it to a foam poster board (same way I attached my castle photo). I hot glued some twine to the back and it was ready to hang! 

I really only had one table to decorate, besides the food table. For the food table, I just used a red and white striped tablecloth to go along with the “circus” theme of Dumbo. 

For the main table, I found a yellow polka dot tablecloth. Unfortunately it wasn’t big enough, so we ended up doing red tablecloths underneath and the yellow polkadot one as a runner. I made Mickey “topiaries” out of styrofoam balls painted black (make sure to use acrylic paint! Spray paint will eat them! I used a sponge brush and they were super easy). I inserted dowels and then hot glued them in place. I used a flat circle piece of styrofoam hot glued to the inside of the bucket to keep them standing straight and then put yellow Easter grass on top. 

I also had some of our favorite pictures from our previous Disney trip framed as table decor! 

I always have Nolan’s yearly birthday pictures set up as decorations, so this year his newborn, 1 year, 2 year, and 3 year photos went on the mantle. I also happened to have a black chalkboard pennant banner so I wrote “three” in as close to a Disney font as I could manage and hung it on the mantle. 

Another part of the decorations were the foil balloons. You can’t go to Disney World without noticing the cast members carrying balloons around, so I knew I wanted colorful balloons at his party. Best part, they doubled as party favors as well! The other party favor we had were the Mickey and Minnie ear headbands. I found them on Amazon for $13 for a pack of 12! Amazing! They seem like they are great quality as well. 

With the Mickey and Minnie ears I had a framed sign telling everyone to make sure to get party favors, as well as sign Nolan’s “autograph” book! No trip to Disney is complete without getting characters’ autographs, so we wanted to make sure to get all of his friend’s autographs as well. 

Overall, it was an awesome party, and I think everyone really had fun! It was a great way to get us in the Disney spirit, and we ended up having an amazing week the next week at the REAL Disney World! 

See ya real soon!