I have always liked Disney. I mean even before kids. I actually owned Disney’s Cars movie (and a few others) before I had those two cuties. I also visited both Disney World and Disneyland, before kiddos. For a long time I have wanted to take S to Disney World. It is such a great experience that I wanted to share with him, but then came kids, and the idea to wait until they are old enough to remember it. Well, this year will be “the year.” I couldn’t be more excited. So you can imagine how excited I was to be selected to host not just a Disney Side @Home Celebration, but a Cars themed party too! What a great way to pre-celebrate our upcoming trip with local friends! I received free products in order to host a Disney Side @Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I had a great time checking out recipes and activities on www.DisneySideCelebration.com, and Pinterest. Feel free to check out my #DisneySide board here! I will continue adding to it because this party was so much fun, I hope to do another one in the future.
I decided these apple and grape cars looked the most like Lightning McQueen, and luckily my kids agreed. I had a hard time finding healthy Cars themed snack options even on Pinterest. I was intentionally avoiding the “spare tire” doughnuts because I didn’t want to sugar my kids up too much. I think in the end we did well for a late morning play date, and had something for everyone.
Apple slices, red grapes, and toothpicks. If this was for an older age group I might have trimmed the toothpicks so that they fit perfectly, but … 1. That would be a lot of extra work and, 2. It would have made the toothpicks invisible to the 3-5 year old’s, and therefore dangerous.
Francesco anyone? No? Well I tried.
Celery, grape tomatoes, and toothpicks. You’re welcome.
We also had a try from Chick-fil-a and those cute little Lightning buckets, became “chicken buckets.” The kids liked having a little to-go bucket to carry around with them. It work out better than plates.
Carrot and bell pepper dip-sticks. Because I know you are dying to know the carrots were straight from our garden.
I also grabbed Cars and Princess pretzels (you can see them hiding in the back) that were available at Target for Valentines day. They fit perfectly with our theme.
These “stop lights” were everyone’s favorite, and they were gone before the afternoon was over. They were also the most time-consuming because of all.those.little.balls. I used a melon baller, on watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon. Then I used skewers. I made all the balls the night before and assembled the stop lights the morning of our party. Both of my kiddos, ages four and three, helped me assemble these. They both wanted to help, so I figured why not? So round-up the troops and get them to help you with your next party preparation, they might think it’s fun.
No party is complete with out some sort of cake. My daughter especially loves cup cakes. “Cone cakes,” perfect for the “pit stop.” I’m completely corny, I know. I am also okay with this.
I used Duff’s tye dye cake mix, but instead of tye dye I made rainbows. They were really fun to eat. Top with rainbow sprinkles, and it was the perfect lure for the three year old boy in my life. He successfully licked the frosting, and sprinkles, off of 4 cupcakes before he was stopped.
Our guests had a chance to view the latest Disney Parks DVD, in between snacks, games, and Frozen sing-a-longs. Seriously I couldn’t have planned the Disney magic that happened all on its own. Four girls randomly singing Let it Go, and requesting to watch Frozen, in Spanish. You know, you got to change things up every now and then. Sorry Lightning, but you did take a slight backseat to Anna and Elsa.
One part of this party that was exciting for me as a parent was watching the kids play games. In this preschool age group they are just learning about party games. What they are, and how they work, why they are fun, all that jazz. I had two games planned, and 2 craf-tivities. That was too much for the little cuties.
With the addition of a partial Frozen viewing we played one game, colored, and did one craf-tivity. You can see our “Planting Maters” activity , and it’s tutorial here. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with it, and I love sharing it with you.
Everyone had a great time with “pin the smile on Mickey.” They each took a few turns, some more than others. It was everyone first time playing this type of game. Well everyone under 30 anyway. How awesome is that! Mickey, in my opinion, is much better than a donkey.
I really enjoyed that everyone was all dressed in their favorite Disney. The moments when I felt that I was too corny, I realized everyone else was too! It was a great time. Our guests left with some swag too. Adults left with HP Photo Paper, Chore Charts for their kiddos, and Disney luggage tags. Kiddos got coloring pages, stickers, Cars pencils, and their living craft (plus whatever goodies they grabbed when no one was looking).
How do you show your #DisneySide? Have you been to a Disney themed party? What was your favorite part?
I received free products in the @ Home Celebration kit in order to host a Disney Side @Home Celebration thanks to Disney Parks and MomSelect. The opinions expressed here, as usual, are my own.