A Toy Story Birthday!

This year Dave and I decided that since Sam's birthday was in February and Jack's birthday was in April, we'd throw them a joint party in March!  The theme, of course, had to be something that both of the boys loved but also that something that we hadn't already done.  We had done trains, we had done planes, we had done cars, we had done animals, and we had done pirates, so this year the boys decided on Toy Story! It was kind of an easy decision because Sam is obsessed with "Toy Tories" and Jack also loves it- luckily they get along so well that they like to agree with each other, so even if Jack wasn't totally sold on it, once he saw how happy it made Sammy he quickly and excitedly agreed!

The Invitation

The cake for the party was pretty simple... I wanted to go easy on it this year so that I wouldn't have to spend as much time on it- which turned out to be a good plan since I ended up being so sick as I was preparing for the party and the last thing I wanted to do was fight with the chocolate fondant (I found it incredibly difficult to work with the chocolate fondant, and even though it was freaking delicious I wished I had just gotten white and colored it myself).  I was pretty happy with how well it turned out since I didn't spend as much time on it as I usually do!  And even though it wasn't my best effort, Jack and Sam were thrilled when they saw it the morning of the party!  That's the whole point anyway, right?

As for the party plans, of course we wanted to do pizza for lunch since a big part of the first move is Andy's favorite restaurant, Pizza Planet!  I also borrowed Grammy's cups that she's had since I was a kid- the red ones that were shaped like cowboys boots and a gun!  They fit the theme perfectly, so I used them as utensil holders.  I also made aliens out of the goody bags, which I thought turned out pretty cute!  Another thing I wanted to do was to do Andy's Art Studio- in the movie he has a bunch of drawings all over his room, so I wanted to hang those up and let the kids draw with chalk on the sidewalk.  Unfortunately, once again it rained for our party so we had to move the party indoors.  Lucky for us we were able to fit the giant bouncer inside the Parish Hall at my mom's church so we could still use it, and we also have a giant roll of butcher paper so instead of sidewalk chalk for the art studio, we put the roll of butcher paper on the floor and gave the kids crayons and markers.  Also, the church had a chalkboard on wheels, so we were able to use that for the art studio as well!

 

 

We had a lot of fun coming up with games for the party, too!  I made Pin The Part On The Potato, and the kids had a great time trying to put Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head together!  We had two lines, one for the smaller kids and one for the bigger kids- it was so fun!  We didn't really have winners for either of these games- they were just really fun to play!

 

 

My favorite game was The Claw!  If you've seen Toy Story then you know what a big role the claw game has in the movie- I definitely wanted to incorporate that into the party!  I made a rocket-shaped claw game out of a bunch of cardboard boxes, got a "claw" from the store, and put a bunch of candy in and let the kids each have a turn to work the "machine" (to make it easier since we had both big kids and small kids, and to cut down on the time it would take to play the game, I put a bunch of smaller candies in a ziplock and they each got to grab one- that way everyone was a winner and we didn't have to spend forever waiting for each one to win!)

 

 

 

As I mentioned, we were very lucky that even with the rain we were able to have the huge bouncer that we had ordered!  We were expecting to have a lot of kids and we were so glad that we didn't have to scramble to think of something else for them to do- and they sure had a blast in that thing!  Sammy wasn't happy when mommy went in and left him out, but once he figured out that he could come in with me he perked right up!

  

 

 

  

  

The other things we did to occupy our time was of course singing happy birthday and blowing out candles...

And watching the boys open their gifts very enthusiastically (expecially Sammy- he was so animated while opening gifts everyone kept saying "I hope you're getting this on video!")

 

  

Immediately after opening gifts Jack naturally wanted to open up his gifts and play with them!  I told him he could pick two toys to open, he immediately talked his friend's dad into helping him put together the Lego set that his friend had gotten him

But the true "hit" was the gift that my sister had gotten for Jack- a Darth Vader light saber and helmet!  All the boys had a great time with that!  The boys have so much fun with it- they love to tease me by tricking me into thinking it's the real Darth Vader before taking off their helmet and saying "Don't worry mom, it's just me!"  They have so much fun, in fact, that Sam picked out a Clone Trooper mask from Toys R Us with the birthday money he got!  They have some epic battles, those two!

 

(Check out that kid's form! He's a natural Jedi!)

One more picture, I have to post a picture of Jack and his little friend from preschool!  This is who took over grandma's spot as Jack's best friend- we were so thrilled that he was able to come to Jack's party!  The whole time before he got there Jack kept going to the door and looking out, just waiting for his friend to get there!

It was such a fun day, and I so enjoyed celebrating my boys!!!