Mickey Mouse Three Musketeers - 5 Years - Birthday Theme

Another year rolls by, and my son still has not gotten over Mickey Mouse! I didn't want to do Pirate Mickey again - but I made the mistake of suggesting Kansas City Mickey and realized that was going to be boring for me. But eventually, on his own, he settled on Three Musketeers Mickey Mouse.

Invitation

He had received an invitation a while back from a school friend which had the birthday boy's photo on it. He liked it so much and said he would like one like that as well. My point of reference for ideas this time too has been Mamas Like Me - http://www.mamaslikeme.com/2013/06/a-very-mickey-first-birthday.html. I got introduced to PicMonkey and the tip about getting the invitations printed at Walmart - and yes, they included envelopes for free.

My son helped with the design and was overjoyed with the comic bubble concept - he went around for days asking us to read it to him, then reading it himself - to us, to his brother, to himself - I cannot describe how happy I was to have made him happy.

I used two images from the web http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mickey-Donald-Goofy-The-Three-Musketeers-2b7e8c2f.jpg and http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:ThreeMusketeers01.jpg.

Party Supplies

As usual, I spent every spare moment browsing the web for ideas. But knowing that time was sparse, I decided to keep things simple. I talked to my son and he made my choices clear. We decided to stick to a blue and yellow theme with the hat and the cape from the movie to add character. 

Since the time I made the Mickey Mouse Pirate Hats, I have not swayed from the idea of making hats using construction paper to fit in with whatever theme was at hand. I bought a pack of construction paper from Costco (http://costcocouple.com/pacon-construction-paper/) 2 years back and we have been doing a lot and lot of craft work but we are yet to run out of it, except for one color. That came in handy this year too.

Blue and yellow balloons, blue plates and cups, yellow table cloth, white napkins and silverware made up the rest of the party supplies.

Decor

My son's toy collection made for the theme decor - Megabloks and Mickey and friends plush.

Costume

Made a cape for my son and got him a sword; and the hat completed his Mickey Mouse Three Musketeers costume.

Cake

The cake was not in theme - but it was made to please my son! I took pictures of my sons' most favorite toys and made a storyboard out of them. My sons' birthdays are a month apart - so the cake was for both of them, though this party for the most part was catered to my older son's fancy - the younger one is too young to care!

Photo cake is the easiest to customize exactly to your needs and budget, in my opinion.

Cake : Torrance Bakery - http://www.torrancebakery.com

Party Favors

My son loves giving - together we chose gifts that were both his favorite things and something I hoped that parents won't have a headache dealing with once the novelty of receiving a goody bag wears off for the children.

A Book (http://www.scholastic.com/parents)
A Pack of Playing Cards
A Pack of Oreos

Packed the goodies in a clear bag and tied in the theme with a Mickey Mouse cut out and a Musketeer cape.

Finale

The execution was a miss. But the fun was spot on. Everybody seemed to have a good time. In the end, that is all that matters!

My son was involved every step of the way and he had absolute fun - both preparing for the party and during the party. He didn't notice any of the flaws that were immediately apparent to me. For once, I didn't sweat it. I saved my attention for the important things - my sons and the guests.

Thank You Cards

Mickey Mouse Pirate Party

Mickey Mouse Pirate was my son's choice of theme for his 4th birthday party.  Since his baby brother was expected to arrive three weeks before his birthday, we decided to have his party hosted at Pump It Up so that the organizing, setting up, cleaning up, catering and entertaining the kids would all be taken care of.  All that was left for me to do was somehow tie in the theme.

So here are what I made:

Invitations (sort of) - to hand out to the kids to establish the theme.

I love to use Trader Joe's brown paper bags in ANY way I can!

I copied the idea from : http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/60/d6/96/60d69669c1b3ebed7befd682c28d93a1.jpg. I am unable to find the original post, only the link to the image from http://www.pinterest.com/explore/bag-lunches/.

The words on it were made up with help from my brother and my husband.

Pirate Hats and Eye Patches - for the kids to get in character.

For the hat, I used freehand drawing and made a template out of A4 paper.  I sealed the sides and the top and found that it did not fit my son's head.  I was wondering what size the paper should be for the hat to fit.  I made another trial one with 9x12 inch card stock, stapled the sides and left the top open - this made the hat one-size-fit-all for adults and kids alike.

Here is how I constructed it.  I took 9x12 inch card stock and folded 1 inch along the length.

I took 2 such sheets with folded edges facing outside and folded them in half lengthwise.

I placed the template on top for reference and cut out the curved shape.

I opened it up, stapled the sides at the bottom and left the rest open.

I cut out circles and glued them to the front of the hat to give it a Mickey Mouse touch.

And that's all there is to it!  I realized you could make hats like this for any theme with just a little imagination.

For the eye patch, again I used freehand drawing to create a template and cut out the shape from a foam sheet.  I made holes on the sides and threaded a 1 mm elastic chord through them and secured it with knots.

Here is how it looks!

Treasure Chests - for party favors.

Here is a find that I treasure:

http://www.hgtv.com/video/paper-treasure-box-video/index.html

I made treasure chests of smaller dimension and used rubber bands to keep the lids closed.

My son also wanted pirate ships, so I made Origami boats to serve as thank you notes.

http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-boat.html

 The Party Room

I got balloons and serve ware in black, red with/without white polka dots to represent the theme.