Ya know, this year has had its fair share of ups and downs. I can definitely attest to that. In fact, I'm sitting here now writing this after having a semi-abrupt surgery just yesterday. I'll be trying to catch up on my blogging in the next few weeks so I will talk about that soon. The whole thing was so crazy and I can't wait to tell y'all about God's goodness once again. It's just so mind blowing to me.
After so much time away from my family earlier this year due to our VERY long hospital stay with Ollie, I welcomed home quarantine with open arms. I was so thankful to get to spend so much uninterrupted time with my older babies who I had missed SO much. One thing that that hard time gave me was a renewed outlook on motherhood. Being trapped at home with a baby, toddler and 5 year old was hard, of course. But when I would've previously been losing my mind, I was rejoicing. Rejoicing that I still had all THREE of my babies in my arms. Rejoicing for health. Rejoicing for time spent together. Rejoicing having my husband home with us. Rejoicing that I didn't have to put pants on for 2 weeks (a month living with no privacy was really affecting me in that sense 😅). And rejoicing because absolutely nothing is out of our good Father's hands. My life has been a living testament to that this year. Phew.
Another thing being trapped at home gave me was SO MUCH CRAFTING TIME! My favorite 3 year old benefitted greatly from this because I got just a "little" carried away with his birthday party this year. Quarantine crafting got the best of me. I was so excited to see the joy on his face as I created a Toy Story wonderland in our own house. I couldn't stop. I just kept crafting until I was completely out of ideas. The result was worth it. The amazement in his eyes made my heart melt. And THAT is why I do it. And it's super fun for me too which is obviously a bonus.
So now to the reason you're here! I introduce:
“Hey Howdy Hey,” it's Leo's birthday!
Now hop in your rockets and join us to play.
“To infinity and beyond!” It’ll be a CABOOM!
We’ll have fun with the toys in Andy’s room.
We’ll say “So long, Partner,” to naughty number tw”OOOOOOOO”
And blast off to three with a snake in our shoe!
So don’t be a Stinky Pete. It will be GREAT!
Bud’s got a friend in you, so come celebrate!
My Bud Bud. I was so excited to celebrate his sweet, naughty little self and his passionate love for Buzz and Woody. We love you to infinity and beyond, Leo. Our favorite space ranger.
I got my inspiration from Pinterest and from watching each of the Toy Story movies appx 3849 times each. But who's counting.
I will walk you through the party from the front door to the backyard, including all the details in between.
ARE MY BABIES NOT THE CUTEST EVER??? I'M BIASED OK BUT THEY'RE WONDERFUL.
I bought Leo and Ollie's costumes at Target and created Presley's. She wanted to be Bo Peep but I didn't like the costume version. She already had this cute denim romper so I just modified it. I just sewed lace ribbon I already had on the front and around the bottom cuffs. I used loose, wide stitches so I could easily remove the details after and it could go back to normal. I tied pink ribbon around her waist that I also already had and got the pink, sparkly hairbow at Hobby Lobby. I made the cape out of royal blue velvet and added a big, dramatic button at the clasp. She already had a superhero cape so I used that to trace out the pattern then sew it together. It connected with a little piece of velcro. Super simple.
The front door:
The letter blocks. I had a hard time finding perfectly square boxes without writing on them so I made my own. I got these square, cardboard cake boards from Hobby Lobby instead. I got 3 packs of 6 and just hot glued them into cubes. I used regular acrylic paint to add the details. I used our own wooden blocks as an example to copy. One of my favorite details.
I threw out some cones to look like that's how the toys arrived (In Toy Story 2 they used these cones to disguise themselves as they crossed the road). The good news about this theme was that, being there are 4 movies, I had lots to work with.
I bought the wood hanging on my door for 25 cents at a garage sale (lol) and wrote on it with Sharpie:
"Hey Howdy Hey! It's Bud's Birthday!"
I think the guy I brought it from thought I was crazy for wanting it. It was falling apart and he felt so bad that he threw in a rather nice basket for free. As if 25 cents was too much. Haha. A few nails later it was just what I needed.
I got the jump rope and bag of army men at Dollar Tree and glued the men to the rope. There were army men all over my house spying on the party. Making sure Leo didn't get any new toy that would show anyone up. They've been burned before.
I was excited to find the "Andy's Room" sign on Google images, along with more of Andy's art (seen inside). I just printed it on a full page and went over it in crayon so it didn't look printed out.
The entry hall:
We had Alexa play the Toy Story soundtrack throughout the house and backyard to set the mood as you open the door. Always one of my favorite ways to immerse our guests.
I bought the balloons in Twister colors at HL, blew them up with my pump and sewed them together to make a garland. Once you tie them off just use a thick thread and needle to sew through the tied off ends (obviously not the inflated part). I hung them up using command strips and by the grace of the good Lord they stayed! I just stuck the strip on the ceiling and the balloon on the strip. After living there for 3 days it fell down an hour after the party ended. Nailed it!
I had already hung these parachuting army men in Leo's bedroom so I moved them downstairs for the party. I think I got them on Amazon. I love using Command hooks for my parties because they make it easy to hang things and they don't ruin paint.
I found the orange Barrel of Monkeys at a consignment sale for a whole dollar that I hung from the chandelier.
The Potato Head sign was another piece of Andy's art I found on Google and colored over.
Lastly, the party favors. I got the boxes on Amazon. I liked these because they looked like mini moving boxes. They included some cute themed toys from Dollar Tree: Little Buzz/Woody figurines, markers with TS characters (the younger kids got crayons), sheriff badge, TS stickers...I think that's it. Just a few happies.
The dining room:
I bought the background stand on Amazon many years ago for a photobooth I made at my church for an event. I've used it appx 3930 times since then. WORTH IT! I bought this cloud backdrop on Amazon as well and attached it to the stand. I then made another balloon garland and attached it to the top to conceal the top edge. I used balloons filled with helium to camouflage the sides.
I already had the decorative paper circles I bought years ago from HL. I taped more Andy's artwork from Google on the background. I also tied more army men to some jute and hung it down the side.
Instead of a table cloth I used the game Twister, which we already had. I bought a few extra Toy Story characters here and there over the past few months (a lot of them were super cheap on clearance one day at Target- score for me), but we already had most of them. I found the mini Barrel of Monkeys at the Dollar Tree to hang from the chandelier.
For the food we had cake (had to dust off the old pans for this one and I had so much fun), a fruit tray with a pineapple potato head, Bagel Bites (with Pizza Planet sign- I got the vinyl on Etsy and stuck it on paper and laminated it), Forky string cheeses (just drew the faces with Sharpies, hot glued on the eyes from DT, and wrapped them in pipe cleaner arms), chocolate coins to go under Hamm (available in season at Trader Joes OR at the checkout counters at HL), and alien marshmallows (marshmallows on a stick dipped in white melting chocolate dyed green with eyes- I bought white confetti sprinkles and used an edible marker to draw the pupils). For the marshmallows, be sure to dip the stick in the chocolate BEFORE putting them in the marshmallows and let that harden again. THEN dip the whole thing in the chocolate.
Please enjoy this video of Bud seeing his cake for the first time. It put the hugest smile on my face. Made all of the hard work SO worth it.
For a memento I always have a themed book for party guests to sign. I put these books in my kid's keepsake boxes for them to read down the line. I hope they love looking through them one day. I always get my paper/plastic goods at DT because they have every color and they're so cheap!
I made this Etch A Sketch out of scrapbook paper.
The kitchen:
This room was simple. I used the piñata we later hit outside as the centerpiece. I got the cowboy boot at HL and filled it with little snakes (Dollar Tree) and lots of Halloween candy. Because, ya know, there's a snake in my boot! I hot glued a big snake to the front as well. I already had the Happy Birthday banner I made for a previous party. I had already bought the cow fabric and checkered table cloth for another v important party coming up in January. Of course I had to put a "Trash" sign on the trash can. It just made sense. Lastly, Presley made some beautiful Toy Story artwork of her own to hang up on the bulletin board. We added a Sunnyside flyer as well.
The bathroom:
This is where I was a little extra. 2 words: Forky. Toilet. Gross? Endearing? Idk but this is what I meant when I said I crafted until I ran out of ideas. This was the end for me. (And I want to point out that the toilet is very clean, it's just 50 years old and needs replacing- Maybe I shouldn't post a picture of my toilet on the internet. It's fine.). I also hung a "Bonnie's Room" sign on the door.
The living room:
I made the "To Infinity and Beyond" banner out of scrapbook paper. I recycled the "You've Got a Friend in Me" art from Leo's bedroom (I made it a few months ago). The banner was made from scrapbook paper (had to paint on the red plaid and the cow spots). And the letters were recycled from Budasaurus! The "O" was actually already a dinosaur so I just added the head at the top to look like Rex. The "L" was already blue so I just removed the spikes and painted on the clouds. And the "E" I painted from scratch. I plan on reusing these again and again for parties to come.
I actually found the Woody/Buzz cutout on Zulily and bought it at the beginning of the year!
But my FAVORITE part of the living room was the bar. Excuse me. The Refueling Station. I got the space backdrop on Amazon and created the claw. I am way too proud of my claw. I measured and cut it out of foam core board and covered in aluminum foil. I got the cups and googly eyes at Dollar Tree and duh I can't have THE claw without WHITE Claw! I think the adults appreciated it :) The "Alien Slime" punch was a mixture of frozen orange/pineapple juice, Sprite, and green Hawaiian Punch. We just mixed it till it tasted good. It was so tasty. Lastly, I covered the bottom with star confetti from Amazon.
LASTLY, the place where most of the party took place:
The backyard: Woody's Round-Up!
This was where the kids played for hours. The backyard was another quarantine project I will blog about soon. I was excited to share it with more kiddos. I decorated it in a Western theme to go with Woody's Roundup.
I got the cow print table clothes at Hobby Lobby along with the banana/cow print banner, wooden deer head (He was on clearance for $2 because 1 antler was broken, but I made new ones with paper and glued them on), and bananas on the table. I got the little wooden cactus' at Dollar Tree and painted them myself.
I hung one of the cow print table cloths on the fence and made a sign out of cardboard that said "Stinky Pete's Photo Booth." It was accompanied with a basket of Western-themed photo props from Hobby Lobby. I made a few other cardboard signs to hang on misc things in the backyard that included "Jail", "Saloon", and "Bank."
The kids has fun hitting the piñata outside too!
Lastly, Bud Boulevard (will be included in my backyard blog post) finally got some action! I set out some cars and made little road signs that pointed to Pizza Planet, Second Chance Antiques, Al's Toy Barn and Sunnyside Daycare.
Well, I think that's about it! We had so much fun celebrating our Bud. A much needed happy place/distraction from all of the craziness going on in the world today.
Stay tuned for more quarantine project posts! They've been abundant. I've been out of control. It's fine.
As always, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed! And don't forget to always "Reach for the sky!"
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