We Celebrated!!!

Okay, so yesterday was the day! Party time! I was feeling all kinds of pressure to make it fun and I think I actually pulled it off. I was up and baking cookies at 7:30 in the morning. Mickey-shaped cookies. Not a small task because I do not have a Mickey-shaped cookie-cutter. So I had to shape/roll them all by hand. I did them in chocolate chip and sugar cookies. I won't lie to you friends, I am not a baker, nor do I have a lot of patience, and there were a few batches that just came out like big ol' blobs of dough. Not pretty. Luckily I have a husband and son who gallantly offered to "dispose" of those for me so that no one would have to see my failure. Quality guys, those two.

We blew up balloons, I curled what seemed like MILES of ribbons and did my best to make it all pretty and fun. The Disney Mom people sent me this great box of stuff but other than the balloons, decorating was totally up to me. Luckily I can think outside the box. HA! Get it? They sent me a box and I thought outside it? Oh, sometimes I am just WAY too funny. Wait, let me wipe the tears of laughter away. ..... Okay, I'm back. So, many years ago I had to decorate a table for my MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers) group. We were allowed to use any theme we wanted so of course, I chose Disney. I had made Mickey-shaped place mats out of black oak-tag and I decided to go that route again. Only this time, a big larger. I started with basic red on the table and then added three giant Mickey heads that were large enough for party-platters.

Next, on my little server, I took those miles of curled ribbons and the Disney photo album they sent me and went wild! I covered our mirror in "What Will You Celebrate?" balloons and even made little Mickey-heads to cover my candle-sticks that are on there. I may leave those up because I'm not overly fond of the candle sticks and these look way more fun. I'm sure Frank will have something to say about that but let's see how long I can let that go before he does!

So my dining room was all set, I put some ballons up on the archway leading to it. I set up some little tables in the living room for various things from the box. The first was a sign-in type of table where my guests filled out a vacation DVD card that will enter them for a chance to win a diamond "Mom" necklace. I put more balloons up on there and even pulled out a favorite Disney picture from our last family trip and had them all use a lighted Tinker Bell pen. Festive, right?

The next table housed the party games that came in the kit. There was Disney Bingo (which we never even got to) and some sort of Disney Wish Maker thing for the kids to cut out and play with. I sent those home with them because the thought of them all using scissors while running around (and yes, with boys, they were all running at one point or another!) was just too dangerous. I thought it was a neat addition to their party bags. OH! And yes, there were party bags that each child got that I made little Mickey name tags for. Nothing great, just white Mickey-shaped (again) tags tied on with red ribbon. I thought they looked cute.

So now it was time to finish up my table. Mickey-shaped cookies? Check. Mickey-shaped cheese on fabulous vegetable flavored crackers? Check. Grapes, just to keep it slightly healthy? Check. Colorful fortune cookies from the Disney Mom people? Check. Beverages for every taste (cola, water, juice boxes)? Check. I have to admit, I LOVED the way the table looked and almost hated to see it touched. Luckily, we took lots of pictures BEFORE we let the kids dig in!

When everyone arrived, it was Disney-talking-mayhem! I found a music clip on Amazon.com where you can hear about a dozen different songs from Walt Disney World - only about 20-30 seconds of each - that I had playing when people came in but it only played through once! I was a little bummed at that, but I thought it was fun to set the tone. We took pictures, the kids went off and played a Star Wars game (????) while us moms just kicked back and talked about the place that we love so darn much it hurts! We all enjoyed the snacks, we played some Disney trivia (my friend Alison's son was AMAZING at this and put us all to shame), we looked at pictures and before we knew it, it was time for everyone to go!

And now it's time to say good-bye, to all our company....M-I-C (See you real soon!), K-E-Y (Why? Because we like you!), M-O-U-S-E!
Seriously, I have WAY too much time on my hands. Thanks, girls, for making it such a fun party and for sharing my love of all-things-Disney! You're the best!