Isla's Minnie Mouse Themed 2nd Birthday Party

I'm a bit of a slacker with the blog lately, but here are all the details from Isla's second birthday party on Friday night.

I decided to have a Minnie Mouse themed party, because Isla likes Minnie Mouse.  And it seemed like a pretty easy theme to pull together.  And I needed something easy during this stage in our lives.

So, first:  The Decorations

I really did try to keep everything super simple.  I covered the tables with pink tablecloths and black/white polka dot wrapping paper.  For centerpieces, I made these styrofoam ball Minnie Mouse heads.   I hot glued them together, and spray painted it all black.  The only annoying part was purchasing the styrofoam balls.  I had to make eight trips to Hobby Lobby to purchase them with 40% off coupons.

 

I also made a wall with some pictures on it.

And hung a few things around the cake table.  That was about it for decorations.

The Cake
While I have enjoyed making cakes in the past, I got smart and hired someone to make the cake this time.  I figured trying to make and decorate the cake myself without my own kitchen wasn't a smart plan.  And it was so nice to have someone drop the cake off right at the party without having to lift a finger!  It was super cute; I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

 

The Food
 We served dinner and had a "Minnie's bow" pasta bar...featuring bowtie pasta, marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, meatballs and Parmesan.  I also had breadsticks, veggies and dip.  It was a fairly simple and cheap meal to serve, and I thought it was a fun fit with the theme.  Plus, pasta is one of Isla's favorite foods!

The Favors
 For the girls, I knew I wanted to give them a Minnie Mouse bow.  But then it was hard to come up with something for the boys!  I ended up buying bowtie shaped hair bows and renaming them "mini bowties" to give to the boys as favors.   The boys may have thought this was a lame favor, but I did throw in some pink and black candies to hopefully keep everyone happy.

I had a Minnie Mouse movie playing, and I had a few coloring pages for the kids, but I didn't plan much for the kids to do.  My plan was to keep this party short and simple.  The kids just ended up running around like crazy all around the room, but it was a pretty short party, so the chaos only lasted for a short period of time!  They all had fun eating cake and watching Isla open her presents.

It's crazy how fast the past two years have flown!  Isla is such a fun little girl.  She is developing quite the personality.  She knows how to make you laugh, and her facial expressions and tones of voice are so much fun.  She is gradually talking more and putting more words together.  If she can't tell you what she wants with words, she will find a way to get her point across!

Happy second birthday, Isla Kate!!