19 April 2011

Toy Story Party


The Toy Story films are some of the best kids movies ever. Ever.
In our family the adults love them as much as the kids, and the toddler loves them as much as the big kids.
Our walls echo to shouts of "Reach for the sky!" and "To infinity and beyond!"
Woody and Buzz are at home on Scrag's bed, so much that you'd think his name was Andy.

So the choice of a theme for his third birthday was pretty easy. Great scope there!
Cowboys and space. Pizza and aliens. Perfect.


We started with turning Scrag's room into Andy's room, and recreated Andy's box western town (from Toy Story 1). Throw in our collection of Toy Story characters (Buzz, Woody, Mr & Mrs Potato head, Slinky dog, Barbie, Ken and the green toy soldiers...) hang some bunting and put on the original movie... welcome to Andy's room.


With rain forecast, I decided to turn our dining room into Pizza Planet.
Red cellophane over the windows (it clings on; you don't even have to stick it with tape).
Some giant balls from the $2 shop, hung from the ceiling (make a loop of sellotape all the way round the ball so the string won't pull away)
Paint a ricepaper lamp shade ($3.90) while it's hanging there!
Borrow lava lamps and add some removable wall decals (love that $2 shop!)... and of course my painted Pizza Planet sign.

Loved hearing the "Wows" when people walked in and were transported away from that grey rainy day to... Another Planet.


Pizza Planet food is so simple. Dominos Pizza (with the boxes removed of course), cocktail sausages, watermelon, mini corn cobs, popcorn, chippies and... alien cupcakes!


These guys are too cute... and very simple to make!

  1. Make a nice green butter icing and smooth a round swirl on top of each cupcake (Tip: hold the knife steady and turn the cupcake to get a nice round shape)
  2. Use white mini-marshmallows sliced in half for the eyes. Slice triangular slivers from soft green sweets to create antennae.
  3. I used the squeeze tubes of Queen glitter gel writing icing (silver) for the eyes and mouth (available from the supermarket). Too easy!
A rainy day party with thirteen pre-schoolers plus parents and older siblings called for a rethink of our original plan, which was basically to run around the garden, have hobby-horse races, shoot off pump rockets and rocket balloons, play hide'n'seek and then have a treasure hunt.

To accommodate that many energetic little people, we had to make use of all the spaces in our house...


So we turned Miss Fab's bedroom into a face painting & tattoo parlour, moved furniture and added in star-cookie decorating as an activity.


There was lots of dressing up, with Mr G doing a great job as Sheriff Woody. Like his home-made outfit?


Hat = $3.90; Vest = fabric from Geoffs Emporium $6. Add jeans, a check shirt, a bandana scarf and some boots... We now have one cool Sheriff who is not too shamed to go pick up Pizzas from Dominos looking like that!


And check out Mr Potato Head. Funny huh?


Sheriff Woody wandered around handing out snake lollies...


...and creating Deputies. Like my easy home-made deputy badges???


Then there was the Rocket Cake. Here's how to do it...
  1. Triple-recipe of one-egg chocolate cake, baked in a roasting dish lined with baking paper. Cut off the two corners to form the body of the rocket, then trim the remaining triangles of cake and flip them round to form the rocket fins.
  2. Ice the main body blue (with butter cream icing of course)
  3. Ice the fins red. Use the gel colours to produce vibrant colour.
  4. Slice the bottom off a cuplet ice cream cone and poke into the base of the rocket to create the exhaust
  5. Decorate and make pretty. I used the squeezy Queen icing writing tubes and sweeties.
  6. To create a burst of jet flame, melt orange barley sugar sweets in the oven, on a tray lined with baking paper.
  7. When the sweets melt and run together remove quickly from the oven and use a knife to pull the melted sweets into the shape you want. It will harden and cool quickly; before if becomes brittle use your hands to refine the shape.
  8. Poke into the base of the cake as shown. Simple but very effective!


(and a hit with the birthday boy and his friends)


Finally we finished off with treasure hunt, which was just as easy to do inside as it would have been outside.
I had collected photos of all Scrag's little buddies and Photoshopped their faces onto Woody, Buzz and Jessie's bodies (found on googleimage)


I printed two copies of each image, one to hide, and one to attach to the goody bags.
The kids had to hunt all over the house for their picture and when they found it, bring it to Woody who would exchange it for their treat bag - containing a rocket balloon, a Toy Story stamper and some sweets.

So fun to watch the kids "buzzing" about seeing themselves as Woody, Buzz or Jessie.
Scrag had a great time. His friends had a great time.
I did it without stressing, (even the rain didn't phase me for once cos I planned ahead.)
Another party done and dusted.
Yeehar!


Peel the labels off bottles of budget lemonade and replace them with these fun Rocket juice labels
Labels are set up on a portrait (tall) A4 page. Cut the printed page in half, and wrap the label around the bottle; using a glue stick to apply.
Click to download...
[Personalised Toy Story invitation]
   


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29 comments:

Widge said...

Absolutely incredible Simmone!
had a giggle at mr potato head :) awesome

Pamela said...

Such a cute party! How lucky your children are! I loved the alien cupcakes and then I saw the rocket ship cake. Cute, Cute, Cute!

jacksta said...

Amazing Simone. You are the Queen of kids parties :)

Kat said...

Wow Simone, I think you and your parties are AWESOME!!!
You really do a wonderful job and have a very creative mind.
Kudos to you.

Anonymous said...

WOW
YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!

love and light

Sophie said...

Genius! You constantly amaze me Simoney! And I think the best bit was when you finished by saying it was all done stress-free! Yay God!

Leonie said...

looks so awesome .. as I sit next to you typing my comment, hehe.
LOve Mr Potato Head... and those cupcakes are sooo cool!!

meg said...

I'm turning 36 this year... surely that's the perfect age for a TOY STORY party!! Perhaps a triple feature ;o) Looks amazing.

Lyns said...

Was an awesome party!! My kids L O V E D it (so did we!!). xx

Elizabeth said...

WOW - awesome work Simone! I am just not that creative... but love your ideas and those invitations you share!

Stacia said...

Wow great parties, you kids are going to grow up with great memories of their childhood birthdays for sure! I love the cupcakes and thanks for sharing your ideas and how you did it all.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely marvelous,very creative,your creativity knows no bounds.Granny Winnie x

Melinda said...

Absolutely, incredibly, stupdendously adorable! You are Mom of the Year! Seriously, you have amazing creative gifts.

banban said...

That has to be the coolest party I've ever seen! Well done, you rock!!!!

Weza said...

what an amazing party! really truly amazing. You have a gift Simone. really you are the birthday queen!

PaisleyJade said...

Just love it all Simone - amazing! You have such a knack with all the little extra bits that make a party extra special.

Anonymous said...

What a cool party - you're so clever! I have shared your fabulous ideas with friends who have boys & they are in awe! Looks like a fantastic day & your precious wee man had a blast. Now, have you got any ideas for a 6 year old girl?!! :)

Catching the Magic said...

Amazing!!!!!!!!!! I'm exhausted having read this & am struggling to pick my jaw off the floor! You really are an all out party organizer extraordinaire!!! Love everything; costumes, cake, games, cupcakes! Well done! Phew! x

Jill @ A Mom With A Lesson Plan said...

What a fun party! I love the costumes.

Kimberly said...

Such fun! And reasonably priced too. Love it.

Especially those cupcakes.

Robin said...

Everything looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

LOVE those simple, but adorable, cupcakes! Very clever.

Laura said...

Looks like a fun party. I always loved giving my girls parties. They were both January babies (6 yrs & 1 week apart), but I always gave two separate parties. It was a blast. But they are 15 & 21 now & really don't care much about having a party :( So enjoy it while you can.

Happy SITS Day!

carrie said...

Love it! Obviously your creativity astounds me, but the best part is everyone looks like they are having a great time. And Mr Potato Head is amazing.

carrie said...

Love it! Obviously your creativity astounds me, but the best part is everyone looks like they are having a great time. And Mr Potato Head is amazing.

Unknown said...

Saw this post in your sidebar and HAD to comment. It's official. I WANT A TOY STORY BIRTHDAY PARTY!! Those cupcakes are simply genius. Way to go, Mom--this is a party theme I'm already passing around to my Mommy friends!!

Tessa White said...

Just brilliant...how to do Toy Story in style....love it xx

Anonymous said...

I found your great birthday article when I was searching for a good rocket cake and kind of copied your version. You can see our rocket here:
http://silber108.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/kindergeburtstag/
Greetings from Berlin/Germany!!

Marie Turner said...

I am VERY pleased for this post! We are doing a Toy Story party this year for my son who will be three. I showed him the cupcakes and now he won't stop talking about them! Lots of great ideas for me to work on for his party in September!

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