So, as you can tell that this post is about a birthday party based on Disney’s Toy Story. Amna loved the movie series and of course the character of ‘Jessie’. She loved Jessie so much that even her class teacher told me once that she wants to be called Jessie in class instead of being called by her real name. Hence Amna’s 5th birthday was based on the theme.
Let me first tell you the background of this birthday party and why I went all crazy. So this is in 2013 when Hassan was about 6 months old, I was literally going MAD in my home.. Two boys under 2, life was all about diapers, feed, burp cycle (sigh…. that wasn’t an easy time at all). When Amna expressed that she wanted a Toy Story themed party… I jumped at it. It was therapeutic for me. After the kids slept, I would look for ideas, make stuff for the party etc etc.. You will get an idea of how desperately I needed this therapy, after you have a look at the pictures 😉
Since I am professionally trained to plan ahead (that’s not “ALL” what we Project Managers do.. but yeah its one of the most important factor in the success of project), I got a ‘few’ decorations like balloons, wall décor, table covers, bandana napkins, costumes for kids and fabric stickers of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head for our shirts, from US during our summer holiday. The rest of the décor I made myself and I will tell you how..
The Photobooth was so sooo much fun!!! (I love Photo booths!). Here I made it…For the backdrop, I pasted blue paper on a cardboard paper and cut out a white paper in the shape of clouds to paste all over. This was to resemble the wallpaper in Andy’s room in the movie. Next, I downloaded the Toy Story Font and designed the personalized sign saying ” Violet is turning 5″ (You don’t need to be a graphic designer and know Photoshop to do this.. I did in MS Word) . For the props I these amazing found free printables ( links provided at the end of the post), which I printed, posted on cardstock paper and then attached to some chopsticks 🙂 I also made an Etch A Sketch frame, made of plain red cardboard. Needless to say, the photo booth was a HIT! Kids and Parents both enjoyed taking fun pictures!
One of the games I made was “Knock out Mr. Potato Head”, where the kids had to knock out as many cans as possible with the ball in one throw. I had no issues (AT ALL!!) in finding cans for the game – I had two kids on Formula Milk at that time in my home 😛 (You can ask any of your friends for these empty cans who has an infant).
And of course, the Jessie themed three tiered cake that was made by me and my bestie! (still makes me happy when I look at it… :). And btw she makes the yummiest Red velvet cake I bet you ever had! ( craving it right now as I write.. )
For the Party favors, I got plain paper bags from the local craft store and pasted prints of Woody , Buzz and Jessie on them (free printable in the resources section at the end of this post).
I also made the personalized water bottles by ordering a printable on Etsy.com (link provided below). It was a digital downloadable file (cost less than $5) that said “Amna is turning 5”.I printed and pasted these on the water bottles in place of their original labels.
I designed some food labels for the Buffet Table. Luckily I found some very inexpensive plastic label holders (which I have used in every party/dinner that followed). If you don’t have them (Don’t worry..) you can simply paste these on a cardstock paper and put these on the buffet table.
Resources:
Here is a list of useful links and some of my own designs to help you throw your Toy Story themed party.
Prints for Personalized Water Bottles
Pin The Tail on Bull’s Eye Game
Hope you have fun planning your next Toy Story Party and find this post helpful. Happy planning! Till next time.. Ciao.
Photo Credits – Omar Mohatarem.
DIARY OF A PMP MOM 
