We love to par-ty!!!

Growing up, my mom always made sure our birthdays were special. We may not have always had a huge party, but she always made it "ours" somehow. This is one of the many things I'm so thankful I got from her. I may go a bit overboard with our kids' birthday celebrations but they always turn out so well. We got SO many compliments and people couldn't believe I did them all for under $30. I'd thought I'd share what we did here.

Minnie Mouse: When my daughter turned two, everything in her life was Minnie Mouse.

I did most of the decor using my Cricut machine. If you don't have one, some craft stores allow you to rent them, you may also buy the shapes online. You can also find images online and use those to trace your own. I used my Mickey and Friends cartridge for these. 

I bought dollar store black plates, cut ears out of black cardstock and bows out of pink and white polka dot cardstock. Glued them on to make a MM plate.

These were the cupcakes. Pretty simple, just white cake cupcakes. I used two box mixes. Vanilla iced them and added full size and mini size Oreos. Then used pink icing to make a cute little bow. 

Favors and decor: Everyone got their own Minnie and Mickey Mouse ears. These were made with dollar store headbands, a little bit of recycling, some foamboard, and ribbon. I found an old t-shirt of my hubby's that he was getting rid of (washed it of course) and cut it into strips to cover the multi-colored headbands I found with a hot glue gun (I don't sew :) ). Then I used a circle stencil and cut out ears from black foamboard. Glued those onto the headband and added ribbon bows for the girls :)

Favor Bags: I found dimensions to Hershey's mini bars labels on pinterest. I used those dimensions to create my own in Word, with Minnie Mouse of course. I printed them off and taped them around the little candy bars (I bought a huge bag on sale at Walmart). I cut out little pieces of pink tulle, wrapped the bars in that and tied them together with a thank you note I made with my Cricut. 

Since she was only two, we didn't do much else besides play with the ears, eat our goodies, and open gifts. But we had a wonderful time and made great memories!

A Pluto Paw-ty:

This was my son's first birthday. He LOVED puppies and after our trip to Disney the month before, he was in LOVE with Pluto. 

Cricut cut out Pluto house and letters. Just attached them to some string for a great way Welcome sign on the front door!

The Spread: 

                          Again, I got the ole Cricut out for most of these decorations!

Used Pinterest and my husband's own wit for our snack names. Hard to see but Dogbone cookies, Pupcorn, and Puppy Chew Rings (Gummy Lifesavers). The big Pluto here is taped to a dowel rod, stuck in a piece of floral foam and into this little blue basket I got at the dollar store. 

Cupcakes are homemade Funfetti box mix. Used white icing, Milk Duds for the big paw pad and upside down chocolate chips for the small ones.

Dog Chow (Whoppers)  LOL. 

And this C--cut out with Cricut and freestyled ears and collar. 

CAKE:

I simply took 1/2 a box of Funfetti cake mix, poured it into a round cake pan, and carved out a bone. Iced it with blue icing to match our colors!

These Pluto hats were also simple. Just bought a package of regular party hats, freestyled some dog ears and hot glued them on. Made for a cute photo prop. 

We also had favors, but of course I didn't get a photo of those. It was a goody bag of Puppy Chow (Cocoa puffs), some little bubbles decorated with puppy stickers, and dog (children's) toys. 

All in all, we had so much celebrating the first year with this lil man! 

Time for your Check Up, Doc McStuffins Party:

Since my daughter was obsessed with being a doctor and watching her favorite one, Doc McStuffins, on TV, her third birthday's theme was a no-brainer. 

Guests were invited to grab their own stethoscope and a "patient" at the door. 

Stethoscopes were black dollar store headbands with ear plugs (also from dollar store) hot glued on the ends. Ribbon and felt completed them. 

We collected stuffed animals and put them on a small table at the front door.

 Little doctors could take their patients around to different stations. 

We had this growth chart and a scale here for kids to use. 

Coloring station

Time for your Check up :)

And then we put band-aids on all of Chilly's boo boos. 

The Spread:

I cut out scalloped circles, flowers, and letters on my Cricut for her banner. I bought a paper mache #3 from Hobby Lobby for $1.50 on sale and painted it purple to match our theme. 

Food included "An applesauce a day keeps the Dr. away"

Rice Krispie Treats with pink sparkles

Yogurt shots

Cupcakes

M & Ms (my daughter's favorite)

Band-aid cookies--I bought vanilla wafer creme cookies and used pink icing to make hearts on them.

Cut scalloped circles and applied stickers to them. Taped them to a toothpick and had these cute cupcake toppers. 

This was an idea from Pinterest. I collected and cleaned medicine syringes. Used strawberry yogurt and placed them in ice in this little Dr.'s bag. Turned out cute I think. 

She LOVED it. She even made my whole day, year, lol. She came downstairs after we'd started decorating and said "Oh Mommy its like a dream come true!"