The Carver Crew: July 2013

My son, Max, is obsessed with two things in life-- balloons and Mickey Mouse. A little example of how obsessed he is with Mickey? Recently, we were in the Dollar Tree. At the top of his lungs he exclaims, "Say it with me now. Meeska. Mooska. Mickey Mouse!" Yes, there were snickers from fellow shoppers, and I half expected someone to respond with a "Meeska. Mooska", but I think they decided to spare me more "attention".

For months he's been telling me that he wanted a Mickey party. If we were wandering through a random store and he happened to spot something with Mickey Mouse on it, he'd tell me he "neeeeeded" it for his party. I put his desires in the back of my mind, but honestly, wasn't sure if we were even going to have a party this year, or whether we were just going to have a simple celebration with a family outing. That is, until I saw some amazing treats on Instagram and knew the Clubhouse was coming to our house!

Most party planners will tell you, it's very hard to scale back to something simple, especially when it comes to your own child. However, when you wait until 2 weeks before the big day, simple is about all you have time for.

I am so grateful to two amazing businesses who saved the day! Bella's Bakery & Bowtique (cake pops and Oreos) and Sweets from Heaven, Outlets at Orange (candy kabobs) sent custom treats to coordinate with our theme.

I pulled out some red popcorn boxes from my stash of leftover party supplies and gave them a Mickey update with some scraps of scrapbook paper and an oval paper punch. I filled some pots with Styrofoam and paper shred and made some cute centerpieces using printables from Amanda's Parties to Go that I had leftover from a previous party.

Candy bars were wrapped with darling "Oh Toodles" wrappers from Amanda's Party to Go's collection.

Mini candy bars and Hershey Kisses were "dressed up" in fun labels and wrappers and displayed in serving dishes from my stash.

I printed a banner and tied scrap ribbon to it. Doesn't get much easier than that. (Thanks again, Amanda's Party to Go for the printables.)

I made these letters after being inspired by one of Amanda's Parties to Go customers. They are a fun DIY project using 3-D cardboard letters from JoAnns, some spray paint, various scrapbook paper & embellishments & printables.

Here's a glimpse at our table top. Mickey plates were made by gluing smaller black plates from The Dollar Tree to larger black plates. Each place setting included a napkin with a cute coordinating wrap, plus a drink wrapped in a cute Mickey themed beverage wrapper with a fun yellow striped straw and Mickey Mouse topper made with my Cricut machine.

We used homemade cupcakes for our centerpiece embellished with some colorful printable cupcake toppers attached to sucker sticks and bright polka dot cupcake wrappers I had in my stash. Polka dot balloons helped to tie everything together.

A friend of mine (thank you Kate!) found these darling Mickey Mouse cups at Target last fall. They made the perfect holder for the Mickey cake pops. Aren't they adorable? When the cake pops were all eaten, the table still looked cute! (Not as cute, but still...)

Because there were already so many sweet treats, we kept party favors simple. Each guest received a little bag of Mickey Mouse labeled Hershey Kisses to take home and some bubbles to play with in the backyard.