i shall call you...minnie me.

disclaimer:  i received free products in order to host the disney side @ home celebration.  the opinions expressed here are my own.

our disney side party day dawned beautiful and bright, on a sunday morning that found me awake at 6:30 despite having gone to bed at a pretty late hour the night before.  i guess the partyzilla in me will never die, huh?

as i scurried around getting last-minute prep done and picking up around the house (which really means shoving all the loose stuff into the guest room and hoping nobody opened that door by mistake), the hub got the bean going on a little vacuuming.  on roller skates, no less.

meanwhile, i'd finished what i was doing and had moved on to setting up the various activity stations at the dining table.  you know, fun stuff like nail art - with minnie-themed colors like pink, red, white and black:

cookie decorating, using the same color scheme:

tattoos and face painting crayons were at the end of the table.

and a party favor buffet.

have you seen these disney tsum tsums?  they're adorable, and we'd picked up a bunch of the mini minnie plushes for everyone to take home.

there was a lineup of fun prizes, too:

plus some kid-friendly nail polish to take home.

oh, and what's a minnie party without a set of ears to wear?

there were things for the moms to take home, too.  my disney side box had come with stacks of festively wrapped photo paper, along with some disney vacation club-sponsored luggage tags.

the living room was a crazy mixture of valentine's day decor and minnie heads hanging from the ceiling.

our front door welcomed everyone to the party:

the minnie rice krispy treats were ready to go:

and i arranged some pita chips and hummus dips in an theme-appropriate fashion.

the bean and i had cute new minnie t-shirts just for the occasion.

as our party guests started to trickle in, they all made a beeline for the bean's room to play while the moms hung out and chatted around the table.

lilcee and mini cee came bearing gifts - this life-sized minnie mouse piñata.  she was amazing (and we couldn't bear to smack her to bits).

the cookie decorating station was quite a hit.

so were the snacks.  because DUH.

the girls had fun playing the games, too.

my friend nanette came with her collection of jamberry nail stickers, which she happily applied for whoever asked.

of course, the bean was her first customer.

we had a great afternoon, just hanging out and enjoying the company of our friends.  and as they started making their way out the door, i got them all to stop at the "photo booth" for a quick picture.

this one cracks me up every time i look at it:

and the selfie stick came out again for me and the bean.

many thanks to the disney side celebrations crew, as well as their fabulous sponsors!  we got to have a fabulous playdate and show our disney side, and i'm super grateful for the opportunity.  so much fun, and i hope we get to do it again next year.  i guess we'll see.

playdate prepping

disclaimer:  i received free products in order to host the disney side @ home celebration.  the opinions expressed here are my own.

so last month, i shared with you that i'd been chosen to receive a fun box of supplies to throw a disney side celebration.  it's basically a big ol' playdate, semi-sponsored by disney, with games and activities and all sorts of fun things to do.  i was excited to have some friends come over, spend some quality time together, and immerse ourselves in some disney magic.

looking over the items in that magical box, i decided to do a minnie mouse-themed gathering - a little cookie decorating, play a game or two, serve fun snacks, do some nails.  we could set up stations around the table for the various activities and just hang out and have a good time.

the bean and i had been to a birthday party the weekend before that gave me some fun decorating ideas.  one of the things i'd seen and liked was something i knew i'd pinned a tutorial for on pinterest - tinted mason jars.  like this:

pretty, right?  and so i went straight to my "stuff i wanna make" board in search of that pin, and when i found it and skimmed over the directions i figured it was worth a shot.  with a little diluted food dye and some glossy mod podge later, this went into the oven to dry:

while that was baking, i busted out some craft tools i hadn't touched in ages.  well, besides the scissors.  the other stuff hadn't seen the light of day in at least a couple of years.

inspired by photos i'd seen of other people's disney side celebrations, i threw together a quickie "photo booth."

and one of our games - a beanbag toss.

my die-cutting machine came in quite handy, too.  i used it to create some little minnie heads and bows that i strung on bright ribbon and hung from the ceiling:

this was actually supposed to be a "put the smile on mickey" game.  except that mine arrived without the smiles.  and so i cut out a giant version of minnie's bow, found a sharpie for some eyelashes, and turned it into "pin the bow on minnie" instead.  i'm a genius, right?

also pilfered from that birthday party - a pretty ribbon garland.

i'd bought some face painting crayons at party city, and the bean was dying to test them out on me.  when i finally sat down to take a party-prepping break, she got right to work.

of course, she had a turn too:

as for snacks, well - we had to minnie-fy those too, right?  the bean was more than happy to help me work on these sweet & salty pretzels.  first, i dipped the top half in some black candy melts:

when they were dry, the bottom half got some pink treatment.  the bean's job was to quickly sprinkle some white nonpareils before they got too dry:

and they looked like this.

i thought it'd also be fun to have some minnie-shaped rice krispy treats.  i mean, who doesn't love those, right?

this turned out to be kind of a pain - i'd cut out maybe three pieces before the cutter got too sticky from the marshmallow and wouldn't work anymore.  so i cut, cut, cut, washed, dried, and cut some more.  using some leftover candy melts, here's the finished product:

i was pretty happy with how they turned out, though, so i guess it was worth it.  right?

oh well.  either way, we were ready to party!