If your little girl or boy is a big fan of Toy Story, then this Toy Story themed birthday party will take the cake! We recently saw one of our amazing members in our Moms with Tots Facebook group, Becca Fisk, share her adorable pictures of her son’s 2nd birthday party, and we had to share them with all of you. Becca did lots of research and thought of the cutest ways for you to celebrate your little one Toy Story style! Here are some Toy Story birthday party ideas that we think you’re child is sure to love. 🙂
Becca, this Toy Story birthday party for your son is too cute! How did you come up with this birthday theme? What were you inspired by?
At age two, kids are starting to have opinions about what they like and don’t like so I wanted to make sure that I picked a theme my son would be interested in. But also at age two, it feels like what kids are interested in changes from day to day so I didn’t want to decide too soon. I waited until a couple of months before his birthday to make a final decision. My son has always loved watching Toy Story, but he also loves all construction vehicles. I ended up letting him decide! I asked him every day for about a week what he would like for a party – Toy Story or construction trucks – and he answered Toy Story every time!
You came up with so many great ideas to create an amazing Toy Story birthday party! Where did you find all of your decor items?
I’m not going to lie, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest getting ideas for different party elements. I pinned so much! The next step was to look at the space I had to use and plan how to place everything. I’ve been going all out with parties since before my kids were born so this step seems to get easier every time. Here is a list of the products that I found for our party:
- Invitations: Digital file purchased from Etsy (printed at home)
- Cloud Backdrop: Amazon
- Balloon Garlands: Amazon
- Army Men: Amazon or Target
- Name Blocks: Walmart for the boxes (I cut the letters with a Cricut and painted the borders)
- Toy Story Stacked Star Balloon: Party City (picked up inflated from store)
- Large 2 Balloon: Party City (picked up inflated from store)
- Make Your Own Forky Kit: Amazon
- Brady Turns 2 Sign: Homemade with a Cricut
- Flying Duke Caboom: Target
- Red and white pennant banner was hand cut using cardstock and then put together with string. The “Yes I Canada” sign was a SUPER last minute add to cover up a “Home Sweet Home” sign that already existed – if I had it to do over again, I would have made this with the Cricut so the handwriting looked more polished.
We see that you even put thought behind the food. Please share what you did and any recipes!
The food is where my husband usually rolls his eyes. He’d much rather have a potluck where guests bring anything, but I always want it to go with the theme. Sometimes this is the hardest part for me – I want everything to relate and sometimes it’s a huge stretch of the imagination. We only had the grandparents over for the party, so I didn’t want to go too overboard with portions. My sister is a chef, so she will probably be shaking her head as she reads this because it was almost all prepackaged foods to help control portions and budget.
- Alien Jello: This is just Great Value Lime Jello with some candy eyes placed on top right before people came over
- Cloud Cupcakes: Packaged vanilla cupcakes with frosting. I used a Wilton cupcake decorating set to frost the cupcakes and make the clouds (had it leftover from a previous party)
- “Space Ranger Specialty” Drink: Green Hawaiian Punch
- “Watering Hole” Drink: Water with a few lemons
- Pizza Planet Pizzas: Bagel Bites
- I picked up empty pizza boxes from a local pizza restaurant to put these in and found the Pizza Planet logo online to print
- Slinky’s Dogs: These are just regular hot dogs in buns. I found a slinky dog image online and printed a bunch of copies of it. Then I just cut them out, taped them to toothpicks, and stuck them on each side of the hot dogs
- Rex’s Fruit Salad: I can’t take credit for this one! When my mother-in-law asked what she could bring, I said that we needed some fruit. She asked if I wanted any special way and I said my dream would be a dinosaur head one (and sent a picture of one super similar to what we ended up having). They showed up the day of with a PERFECT dinosaur head fruit salad that my father-in-law made!
- Hamm’s Ham & Cheese (not pictured): Rolled ham and cut cheese appetizers
- Mr. Potato Head’s Chips (not pictured): Potato chips
Even though people couldn’t come over to celebrate your son’s birthday because of COVID, we absolutely love how you thought of a way to incorporate friends and family. How did you come up with this idea?
We had the advantage of knowing that we wouldn’t be able to have a big in-person party when we started our planning. I feel so bad for everyone who had planned their typical parties and then had to change everything once the shutdowns started. I knew right away that I wanted to schedule a Zoom meeting for everyone to sing Happy Birthday to my son. But I still wanted to be able to help people have a physical presence too.
My kids LOVE coloring! When the pandemic started, we began sending our coloring pages to grandparents, aunts, and uncles and they always let us know how special those pictures were. One day when I was putting the kids’ newest creations together to send out, I came up with the idea – it would be equally as special for us to receive art from our family and friends.
I found free Toy Story coloring pages online, downloaded them, resized them to be smaller, and printed them out on cardstock. I wanted to make sure to make it as easy as possible for people to send them back. The smaller size made it so that people could use any size envelope they had around the house. I also included a stamp to use when sending the colored picture back. We had some heart-shaped sticky notes around the house, so I put one on the back of each coloring page with a note that said: “Because we can’t be together, I’d love for you to color me a picture. I’ve included a stamp to make it easier to send back to me.”
It was so fun to get these back in the mail. The kids loved it even more than I thought they would!
How did your son react to the Toy Story birthday party? What was his favorite part?
My son loved the party more than I thought! Because he’s two, the reaction wasn’t huge when he saw the setup, but he loved the different elements. Toy Story has so many different characters that you can use. It was great seeing his realization of each one that I was able to incorporate. He also really enjoyed making his Forky project and then carrying him everywhere after. There were lots of heart-melting moments, which makes the time spent putting everything together totally worth it.
What was your favorite part of the party?
My favorite part was seeing his reaction as he looked through the house. Also, seeing him interact with family and friends during the Zoom session. And watching him put his Forky together, watching him devour his cupcake, and seeing his smile all day. It really is all about the prep work. Once the elements I planned started coming together, I got more and more excited leading up to party time. And once the party started it really was a “sit back and enjoy it” day, which was really nice.
Our thoughts
We are seriously blown away by Becca’s creativity and crafting ability! This Toy Story birthday party is two infinity and beyond adorable! We hope you enjoyed learning about it as much as we did. To see more of Becca’s party supplies, check out her Etsy shop here!
