Lily's Round Up!

After I told Lily that we were going to have a birthday party, we got right to work with picking the theme. Although she kept bringing up Tangled, she finally decided that she wanted a Jessie (from Toy Story) birthday party. The only thing is that most of the Toy Story merchandise is marketed toward boys and there isn't a lot of Jessie stuff out there. The result was a very...home made...party.

I stuck with the traditional Toy Story color theme which was easy to incorporate into everything else

I made a paper banner with sparkly cut out letters from a free "Western" font I found online...I love pennant banners!!

To make the kitchen and dining room a little more festive, I put up a saloon door decoration that I bought at a party store

After spending hours online searching for party ideas, I found a cookie recipe on Disney's website. These are supposed to be Jessie's hat made out of sugar cookies and candy...I'll go ahead and say this was a total failure, they looked terrible!!

Instead of cake, I baked cupcakes and let Lily decorate them herself

But to keep the party "Jessie" themed, I did buy a few sets of Toy Story party decorations

To create a Western ambiance, I decorated parts of the house so guests could get right into the theme. Luckily, I already had lots of brown project paper so the only things I had to buy were the bales of hay. I decorated the downstairs bathroom to look like an outhouse and added a cowbell outside the front door. I cut the project paper into 8.5x11 sheets and just used our computer printer to make the signs.

I gave a red bandana and badge to our guests when they arrived so we could all be in character

For dinner, we had a western style menu with pulled-chicken sandwiches, corn on the cob, and mashed potatos. Thankfully, it was a perfect night for eating outside and playing games!

The games were simple enough for everyone to play and I did give out small prizes. The best part was just being outside together!

Like last year, Lily obviously snuck a few tastes of frosting before we sang to her

I think her favorite part of anyone's birthday party is the singing and candles, so this was a fun moment for her

Although the party was small, she still received a lot of gifts! At this point in the party, she had been up for twelve hours without napping and things could have spiraled out of control, but she stayed in a great mood and opened all her gifts without any meltdowns!

One item she received was a pair of sparkly red Jessie boots from the Disney store that I know she is going to enjoy!!