Our Minnie Mouse First Birthday Party

Today my Baby Minnie turns one.  What a year it has been!  To celebrate this milestone, we decided to take her to my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama to meet her Southern family. We invited family and friends to join us on Minnie's special day.  (She hated the car seat for a long time so this was our first trip home since we made a quick stop during our move from Oklahoma to North Carolina.)  

The birthday girl

Big sister, Tink

No offense to those people who plan the very elaborate parties I've seen online but I have no idea how they have any money or sanity left after all that.  We had to carry the decorations and such over 600 miles and still have room for ourselves in the van so we kept it fairly simple.  When the Disney Store was having their big 25% off sale, I bought the light pink personalized ear hat.  I ordered Minnie Mouse headbands, a Minnie Mouse first birthday bib, pink sprinkles, and three styles of cupcake liners from Party City.  I don't think they showed up in any of the photos but for the cupcakes, we had Minnie Mouse, pink with white dots and black with white dots.  I bought lunch and dessert sized plates and napkins at Walmart.  They had polka dotted napkins that perfectly fit the theme and were cheaper than the Disney version.  The noisemakers, table covers, streamers, balloons, and Minnie candy were also from Walmart.  I picked up utensils and such at Dollar Tree.  The three section Mickey bowl was from Target a few years ago and I found the small Minnie bowls there a couple of months back.  I also already had the white Mickey serving plate.  The Mickey pretzels were from the store at Old Key West from our recent WDW trip.  I had also meant to look for more Disney candy while we were there but it slipped my mind so the ears of the black bowl were filled with strawberry whoppers and strawberry cheesecake jelly beans.

My parents deserve a huge amount of the credit for the party being such a success.  DisneyDad was in charge of the food and we had yummy hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, baked beans and potato salad for lunch.  Mom baked and iced the cupcakes.  I can only take credit for adding the pink sugar sprinkles on the top.

For entertainment for Tink and the other children, I brought a large and small hula hoop and several bottles of bubbles.  However, none of that was really needed.  Chris brought his dog, Tiger Lily, and all of the kiddos liked playing with her.  Also, we were at a nice park so the children played on the swing set and just generally ran around.  Tink became pals with the son of one of my friends.  He had brought his magnifying glass so they went exploring Sid the Science Kid style.

The headbands were really cute. 

This isn't a very good shot but I wanted you to see the napkins and plates.  Chris helped me combine the stacks so the pink and black would alternate.

DisneyDad is the hardest working man in birthday parties  

Mickey pretzels in a Minnie bowl

We had 25 people at the party so we had four dozen cupcakes.  (Thanks Mom!)

Destined to be smushed

Chris (Ridge) and me 

The girl of the hour and her proud daddy

DisneyDad in a rare still moment as we prepared for the party

Me 

Singing "Happy Birthday"  

The bib was a little too big since she wasn't in a high chair 

Messy girl

Tink and "Sid the Science Kid" had a blast

Uncle Chris and Andy trying to shed some light on the situation

Tink and her Aurora from Uncle Chris 

Minnie and her Belle from Uncle Chris

My Magical Blogorail pals recently did a loop full of ideas for a Minnie Mouse birthday party.  Click here for my article or here to start at the beginning.  

It was great to spend time with family and friends and celebrate Baby Minnie.  Thank you to those folks who were able to come out and join us.  We knew we wouldn't see everyone on a holiday weekend but that's when we could travel too.   Readers, thank you for joining us today for our virtual birthday party.