Elisabeth was first introduced to Minnie Mouse back in February when I was in a dear friend's wedding. The wedding was very close to Disneyland, and while Elisabeth did not actually go to Disneyland, my mom, who was also at the wedding, bought her a stuffed Minnie who was quickly named "Mimi". Since then, Elisabeth and Mimi have been the best of friends. This summer while we were in Florida for the Jacksonville STP, we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Disney World during the students' Orlando weekend. Elisabeth was able to meet the "real" Minnie and Mickey and had a blast!
Mickey did not get a hug as Elisabeth was partial to Minnie. He was a good sport about it. (Fun tidbit: the picture below is actually from a video clip we took as we did not have any photos from her meeting Minnie, just video. I was sad about that afterwards, but I discovered the day before her party that you can take a photo from a video using Windows DVD Maker. The resolution isn't that great when printed, but they look good in digital form. This is probably common knowledge, but I was so happy to discover this!)
When thinking about her second birthday party, it seemed perfect to have a Minnie theme as they are still the best of friends. She now has three Minnie dolls and we usually have one of them with us on most adventures.
Her birthday is this Friday, December 9, and we had the party at our house this past Saturday. It was so much fun! We had just a few friends over, and Elisabeth had a great time. All the kids were older than her, and I think she enjoyed watching and following them around. They were a sweet bunch.
I had a great time planning her party with the challenge of nothing too elaborate or over-the-top, but some fun little "Mimi" touches here and there. Elisabeth loves cupcakes, so I knew they would be a part of the celebration. When doing a Google search for "Minnie Mouse Cupcakes", I came across a cute blog where I ended up getting nearly all of my party ideas from. You can see the blog at The Idea Room.
Elisabeth's cupcakes were strawberry with strawberry frosting, which was fun because they both had lots of fresh strawberry puree in them. Yum! I found the recipe here.
My mom bought these cupcake tiers for our wedding reception, and when we moved this fall she gave them to us to bring to our new home. A little plastic Mimi, given to Elisabeth by her cousin Abigail, was the perfect topper.
Elisabeth had been waiting all day for her cupcake, so she was a happy girl after blowing the candles out!
The Idea Room blog had great ideas for using Oreos as Minnie Mouse ears, and I used them for the ears on the cupcakes as well as trying a fun experiment called Minnie Mouse pops. I took pictures of the step-by-step process because it was so fun, and the end result was delicious! Basically, they are chocolate-covered Oreos on a popsicle stick. Can't go wrong with that combination! We gave these as party favors to the guests.
We served light snacks which included Mickey mouse shaped cheese bites (I did not cut these out myself, you can actually buy them at Walmart.) I also made the same punch that my sister-in-law, Laura, made for my baby shower. It was delicious, thanks Laura!
The birthday girl was dressed as Minnie herself, and this is her first dress up outfit, which is very fun for an almost two year old!
All the guests wore mouse ears; Mickeys for boys and Minnies for girls. I found many online templates for making Mickey ears at home with headbands, foam board, felt, etc, and it seemed to be a bit much, so I was happy to find paper ears and then just hot glue pink bows on the Minnies. A time-saving, economical solution! I'll admit, they were obviously made for kids and looked a little "goofy" on the adults, but Elisabeth thought they were great and has requested that mom wear them even after the party.
The kids had fun playing "pin the bow on Minnie", instead of pin the tail on the donkey. We had coloring books and crayons available, and they each colored their own bow and then I cut them out for the game. Here are a few of the bows (Elisabeth's is the farthest one on the right. She took off her blindfold and then stuck her bow next to the rest. It was so cute!)
Jason was a champ and blew up pink and black balloons for the party, and they filled the front room. The kids had a great time playing in them, and we left them for Elisabeth to play in throughout the week!
Action shot:
This final picture is not from the party, but is a classic pose of Elisabeth and Mimi together. One of Elisabeth's favorite things to do is to bite Minnie's nose, and it absolutely cracks me up! Who knew those big mouse noses were so bite-able?
Happy birthday to our beautiful, spunky, funny, smart, delightful little two-year old! We love you so much and thank God for you every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment