I’m so excited to share Jaden’s Toy Story Birthday Party!
After writing about personal time management, especially when it comes to events and projects, it made me reminisce about all the fun parties we’ve thrown over the years!
I said this in my post about Jaden’s Paw Patrol Birthday, but I. LOVE. PARTIES!
I have always been all about events and planning. The theme. The decorations. The invitations. The events planned during the party. Making the ALL the things for the party.
It’s just the best!
PLANNING THE PARTY
Jaden had loved Buzz and Woody for years at this point so it only seemed fitting to plan a Toy Story Birthday Party for him!
We had been the whole gang for Halloween just a few months before his birthday so the costumes still worked as well. (I plan to do a post on all our Halloween fun over the years soon! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything!)
Although, last minute of course he decided he wanted to be Woody instead of Buzz… luckily I had already made both costumes! More on how I made them in a bit!
When we started planning this party, I was about 12 weeks pregnant with Parker James. I. Was. So. Sick. With Jaden I had the WORST morning sickness (as in – I threw up 6-10 times daily until I was about 24 weeks and lost 20 pounds my first trimester).
With Parker James it was crippling migraines. I would wake up with a headache and by the afternoon could hardly open my eyes. Driving home from work was next to impossible!
I was in bed the minute I stepped foot in the house until the next morning. Let’s just say… it was rough…
This, of course, made planning a Toy Story birthday party seem impossible. Just like I said in my personal time management post, I had to use every little bit of time I could just to be sure all the things got done.
I also had to be sure to do them when I felt well enough to work!
A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE
While I was planning the party, I realized that I would be about 16 weeks along with my pregnancy. This meant we could find out the gender!
For Jaden, our first baby, we threw a WHOLE big gender reveal party. Since Jaden’s birthday was around the same time, we thought we’d just double the party as a gender reveal!
I didn’t want him to feel overshadowed by the gender reveal so I came up with a plan to let him be the one to show everyone the gender.
After we went to the ultrasound, we had them tuck the gender info away into an envelope (we didn’t want to know until the party!). We gave the envelope to a friend and had them stuff a pinata with colored confetti (blue for boy – pink for girl).
At the party, we let Jaden pull the strings and open the pinta to reveal the gender! It was SO special! He got a baby BROTHER for his birthday! So fun!
A memory we will hold all our lives!
THE DECORATIONS
THE BACKDROP
For the Toy Story Birthday Party backdrop I wanted it to look like Woody’s shirt. Like I said in the Paw Patrol Party post, I am ALL about doing things as “budget friendly” as possible.
SO! I went to Dollar Tree and grabbed 4 big yellow posters.
I also found at Hobby Lobby SKINNY duct tape! SO cool! I used red “skinny” duct tape for the lines of the backdrop to form a grid pattern similar to Woody’s shirt
For the curtains around the backdrop, I grabbed some plastic tablecloths from Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby (Dollar Tree didn’t have cow print tablecloths…) and hung them around the backdrop!
It turned out PERFECTLY for his Toy Story birthday party!
TOY STORY BIRTHDAY PARTY CLOUD LOGO
For the backdrop, I wanted a focal point that said Jaden’s name similar to his Paw Patrol badge (check out the Paw Patrol Party post!).
I thought it would be best to make one as close to the Toy Story logo itself.
Just as I did with the Paw Patrol badge, I used Dollar Tree poster boards to cut shapes and letters out of.
I like using poster boards rather than just cardstock because the posters are obviously bigger and can go farther with a large birthday sign. But also because I frankly think it’s cheaper than buying a ton of cardstock that I’ll only use a portion of!
To make it, I just cut a white poster board into an abstract cloud shape. Next I did my best to draw letters on the poster board and cut them out with the yellow on blue double layer.
To give the sign a pop of color, I cut out an angled red rectangle to give it a fun quirky kid feel.
The sign fit in perfectly for the Toy Story Birthday party theme!
OTHER DECORATIONS
For the table, I draped a rope across the front. (that we used in the party! Stay tuned!)
I also twisted some streamers across the ceiling with some balloon bunches for a little bit of a festive pop of color!
To tie in the theme for the party favor bags, I bought green bags from Dollar Tree and used a neon lime green poster board to cut out shapes to look like the aliens in the movie!
In high school I took a Photoshop class and fell in love with it! Since then, it’s really come in handy so many times for invitations, party signs, etc. I love using Photoshop to make themed water bottle labels too!
(If you have no clue how to use Photoshop, you can always buy printables on Etsy!)
I also made a star sheriff’s badge banner that said Howdy, stuck some Mr. Potato Head pieces into a cantaloupe, and made some themed food labels (slinky dog dogs in a blanket, Woody’s lassos (pretzels), Buzz’s Space Gobs (green grapes) etc.)
PRO TIP:
For all this tracing on the poster board and cutting out the shape, I’ve learned that drawing on the poster board first and trying again if I mess up is not the way to go.
I always grab an extra poster or two to use as a stencil. For every shape I have to cut out, I draw it first on my stencil poster board.
That way when I erase and try again it doesn’t matter how many pencil or eraser marks there are all over the shape. (Posters are terrible about showing marks!)
Always use some sort of cardstock and draw all your shapes and cut them out THEN trace them onto the correct color poster for a clean shape.
This way you can really get the shape right the first time!
THE GAMES
Some of you may be wondering how I come up with all this stuff and how I know how to execute it.
Yes… I am creative. BUT! I also used to work for a birthday party company! The company would not only send characters such as Elmo or Barney to a birthday party but they would also host themed parties in their small event space!
The themed pirates had CRAZY themed decorations, themed games, themed music, themed plates and utensils. You name it… they had it.
We did pirate parties, spa parties, fairy garden parties, circus parties, Mickey Mouse parties, dance parties, fashion parties, and the most popular, PRINCESS parties!
(It was pretty fun going to a birthday party or being hired for a large event as Cinderella. You basically were a celebrity everywhere you went! It was awesome! And yes… That’s ME as Cinderella!!)
For every party, we did the same format for everything from the decorations to the games and music. We would just adjust each part of the party for the theme.
I learned SO much about all the little details of an event and how to make it extra special while working there!
For Jaden’s Toy Story birthday party, I used the rope draped across the table for the limbo!
I just turned on “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and let the kids go in a circle, around and around under the rope.
Of course, the rope got lower every verse or two! By the end of the song they’re all crawling on their bellies under the rope. TOO much fun!
We also played “Mr. HOT Potato Head”.
I never liked making the kids get “out” (especially at younger birthday parties). So instead, whenever the music stops, if they’re holding Mr. Potato Head, they get a prize from the prize bag!
(I made sure to play enough songs and stop the music on every kiddo! To make the game longer, you could even go around twice!)
COSTUMES
Since it was a Toy Story themed birthday party, Jaden OF COURSE wanted to dress up as Woody!
To make his costume, I just grabbed a plaid yellow button down shirt from Goodwill and a kids white T-shirt. I cut pieces of black felt into “cow spots” and hot glued them to the T-shirt after I cut it into the shape of a vest.
We found a kids cowboy hat at Goodwill as well. So after we tied a red bandana around his neck, he was set!
I found a red felt hat at a thrift store and glued a white ribbon around it to look like Jesse. Also, I added a strap so the hat could hang on my back.
With a white maternity top, jeans and my cowboy boots, I pulled off a prego cowgirl look! HA!
For everyone else at the party, we had a basket of bandanas so everyone could get in the festive spirit!
THE CAKE
If you read my post on my signature birthday cake recipe, I described how I make my cakes.
Basically, I make a two tier cake with a chocolate base and white cake topper.
To fit the Toy Story birthday party theme, I used blue buttercream icing (see my favorite recipe here!) and white fondant clouds. And for the bottom layer, I used white buttercream with black fondant cow print.
I wanted the candle to go with the theme, so I grabbed a Dollar Tree #4 candle and panted it white then gave it some cow spots!
So the two layers had a “clean seam” I made a cowboy rope out of fondant as well.
I couldn’t find brown fondant at any of the stores, so I just bought orange and kneaded some black fondant into it. The two colors together made a great rope color!
You can’t really see the rope in the picture, but I basically just rolled two pieces of fondant out and wrapped them together! Easy peasy!
Lastly, I grabbed Jaden’s two favorite toy buddies and placed them next to the cake. I also ordered a custom Toy Story cake printed cake topper from Etsy for a “pro” look.
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Needless to say, we ALL had a GREAT time! It was such a wonderful Toy Story birthday party! Be sure to subscribe to hear see more posts and never miss a thing! (I plan to write about Jaden’s Peter Pan 5th Birthday soon too!) Follow me on Instagram and Pinterest too!