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No Toy Gets Left Behind: Toy Story Party!

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As my daugh­ter, Anabelle’s fifth birth­day was approach­ing, we were throw­ing around ideas of the theme of this year’s par­ty. We tra­di­tion­al­ly try to find a theme that is gen­der neu­tral, espe­cial­ly due to the num­ber of lit­tle broth­ers there are in our gang, as we did last year in her Find­ing Nev­er­land par­ty. Though Anabelle is a girly girl through and through, she can def­i­nite­ly hang with the boys! She adores the Dis­ney “Toy Sto­ry” series and when the idea came up, she was dead set on hav­ing a Toy Sto­ry-themed par­ty to ring in the big FIVE!

The chal­lenge on my end would be to exe­cute the theme, while avoid­ing mak­ing it over­ly com­mer­cial. With the three dif­fer­ent movies and sto­ry­lines, the pos­si­bil­i­ties were end­less, but also a bit over­whelm­ing! So, in talk­ing with Anabelle, we decid­ed to focus on the lat­est movie where the toys’ own­er, Andy, is pack­ing up and leav­ing for col­lege and they are mis­tak­en­ly donat­ed to Sun­ny­side Day­care. I want­ed to play up the use of card­board box­es to rep­re­sent the toys being boxed up, as well as through­out the decor. I also thought the use of col­or was real­ly impor­tant to cap­ture the vibe of a school, while also cor­re­spond­ing to the rain­bow logo of Sunnyside.

Leave no toy behind with this Toy Story party inspired by the third movie in the animated movie series with DIY projects and inspiration!

The invi­ta­tions set the mood for the par­ty and when I envi­sioned them com­ing out of card­board box­es, I knew I had to enlist the help of the incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed Do from Pig­gy Bank Par­ties, who designs the most fab­u­lous and cre­ative print­a­bles and espe­cial­ly favor box­es! She made my dreams come true when she cre­at­ed these amaz­ing box envelopes (with editable text!) for both the invites, as well as labels through­out the par­ty! Too cute, right?! I found the most adorable illus­tra­tion of a lit­tle girl (resem­bling Anabelle) dressed up as her favorite Toy Sto­ry char­ac­ter, Jessie, by the artist Car­olyne Tillery in her Etsy shop oh hel­lo dear! I uti­lized it in the design of the invi­ta­tion, along with addi­tion­al graph­ics from Kika Esteves.

The guests were greet­ed with giant “mag­net” let­ters read­ing “NEW TOYS”, as the char­ac­ters heard when they arrived at Sun­ny­side Day­care. I want­ed the kids to feel like they were toys them­selves and the over­sized let­ters and alpha­bet blocks were per­fect! I enlist­ed the help of my father, who did such an amaz­ing job with the blocks with the use of wood/paper mache let­ters, mask­ing tape and paint! Oh, and my moth­er helped, too! I just adore how the blocks turned out!
The back­drop for the dessert table was built out of card­board box­es and filled with the Toy Sto­ry toys pop­ping out of them, while the ban­ner was strung with alpha­bet block letters.
The main attrac­tion on the table was the cup­cake dis­play made out of small­er box­es. I made fon­dant top­pers of the main char­ac­ters and placed them on cup­cakes in indi­vid­ual box­es. I also print­ed out addi­tion­al block let­ters, rain­bows (from Kel­ly Med­i­na Stu­dios) and addi­tion­al char­ac­ters (found at the Dis­ney Fam­i­ly site) for the rest of the cup­cakes dis­played on the table and inside plas­tic Slinkies.

Also includ­ed on the table were dif­fer­ent types of can­dy, as we want­ed to steer clear of any choco­late in the unusu­al­ly hot weath­er of 95* that day! They were dis­played inside clear paint cans and, as you can see below, in per­fect arm’s reach for the kiddos!

Instead of a table­cloth, the kids’ table was lined with draw­ing paper from a table­top paper hold­er from Ikea and all the toys… I mean, kids, had their own Sun­ny­side lunch box, to which I attached a graph­ic and a coor­di­nat­ing tag!

I want­ed the kids’ food to be exact­ly what a tod­dler would find in a packed lunch with a sand­wich, apple slices, rain­bow gold­fish crack­ers, fruit snacks and juice. I found the Toy Sto­ry sand­wich box­es, as well as the themed snack bags and tis­sues at the 99c Only Store, which were just perfect!

One of the char­ac­ters in “Toy Sto­ry 3” is Lot­so Hug­gin’ Bear, who {spoil­er alert} turns out to be bad, but once we saw this humon­gous, hug­gable stuffed bear at a Cost­co store, we just could­n’t resist! Anabelle’s great-grand­moth­er bought it for her and it is indeed a hugger!

We set up an art area with easels, col­or­ing pages and Sun­ny­side art box­es for the kids. Draw­ings from Andy’s room (print­ed from Pixar Plan­et Forums)were pinned across a string, while a blow-up book­worm from Ori­en­tal Trad­ing wel­comed the toys/kids.

I found the fun and col­or­ful art box­es at the 99c Only Store and attached the Sun­ny­side label to them with Mod Podge. Inside, the kids found a box of Toy Sto­ry crayons, char­ac­ter erasers and cray­on bubbles.
Some of the activ­i­ties we had in store were kept in these numer­ic mesh con­tain­ers from Ikea and labeled with the box cards. The col­or­ful para­troop­ers from Ori­en­tal Trad­ing were a huge suc­cess! The kids also had fun with the trash bag races and sav­ing char­ac­ters that I cut out out of card­stock with a grab­ber = the claw!
We laid out emp­ty box­es with an over­sized post-it note for guests to “donate” their gifts to Anabelle!
The adult food was dis­played sep­a­rate­ly in the “Par­ent Cafe­te­ria” sec­tion. The col­or­ful plates, cups and plas­ticware also came from Ikea, while the oth­er con­tain­ers were pur­chased as the 99c Only Store.

We were so incred­i­bly pleased when we hired Ms. Louisa last year to lead the chil­dren in activ­i­ties that we con­tact­ed Soul­fire Stu­dios to have her back again this year! I can­not praise Ms. Louisa enough with her abil­i­ty to cap­ture the kids’ atten­tion and bring so much joy in their imag­i­na­tive play! We received such great feed­back from not only the kids, but the par­ents who enjoyed watch­ing their kids play, rather than run after them the entire time! She read them the Toy Sto­ry 3 book, warmed them up and dressed them in cos­tumes that she brought.

West­ern dance to “You’ve Got a Friend In Me”! Yee haw!

Ken’s fash­ion show… walk­ing down the run­way to “Freak Out”!

Rockin’ the mara­cas and som­breros to “Ay Un Ami­go En Mi”!

For Anabelle’s sec­ond birth­day, we hired Bal­loons With a Twist to cre­ate bal­loon ani­mals and when they were hold­ing a pho­to con­test last year, we sub­mit­ted a pho­to of her wear­ing an elab­o­rate bal­loon crown the artist had cre­at­ed at the par­ty. We were so super excit­ed when we won the con­test and redeemed our prize with face paint­ing, per Anabelle’s request! We were so hap­py and thank­ful and the kids just loved it!
The kids had a fun time with the Toy Sto­ry col­or­ing pages and seri­ous­ly… do bub­bles ever get old?! Ummm, no! 😉
This Toy Sto­ry par­ty had such a dif­fer­ent vibe from last year’s theme, but the con­stant was the amount of fun had by the birth­day girl and her friends and that was tru­ly THE most impor­tant thing to me. The kid­dos had a fab­u­lous time at Sun­ny­side with the rest of the toys cel­e­brat­ing Anabelle’s fifth birth­day! And a spe­cial shout out to my fam­i­ly and my friends (Har­ri­et and Do) with­out whom I could not have done it all!
The favors were hid­ing in these “TOYS TO DONATE” boxes…

The kids went home with a set of Toy Sto­ry char­ac­ters and the note quot­ing Andy in the movie, who just donat­ed his toys to a deserv­ing lit­tle girl as he departs for college:

“Now you got­ta promise to take good care of these guys. They mean a lot to me.” So long, part­ner. ♥ Anabelle

Toy Story 3 party ideas ~ Lynlee's

Merci Beaucoup!



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Comments

  1. OH MY WORD! This looks like the funnest par­ty EVER! You thought of every­thing! AMAZING. Love the Ken’s fash­ion show walk — so clever! Your fon­dant mas­ter­pieces are so stink­ing per­fect! Anabelle looks like she had a blast! FAB job, mama!

  2. Ahh­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­h­hh, this is unf­reakin’ believ­able! What a great way spin off of the Toy Sto­ry char­ac­ters and theme. You KNOW I love the box­es and you prob­a­bly have as many at your house as I do right now. I love the whim­si­cal vibe and it looks like a super FUN day!

    • My box twin! Thank you so very much, Jen­ny! I tru­ly appre­ci­ate it and you know I just adored your son’s mail par­ty! Mer­ci beau­coup, sweet friend! ♥

  3. You are amaz­ing lady!! What a fan­ta­sy of a back­drop and dessert table! My favorite pic­ture is Anabelle blow­ing her can­dle, she’s so beau­ti­ful; hap­py birthday!!

  6. Bril­liant, Sweet Cakes! It just proves that a card­board box is the best thing in the world! Every detail is amaz­ing and the cup­cakes in the boxes…adore. Thanks for let­ting us be a small lil’ part of Anabelle’s spe­cial day! ♥ Hon­ey Ham

  12. SO adorable Lyn­lee!!! So cute, so cre­ative. Total­ly made me feel like I was there. Amaz­ing job <3

  13. Lyn­lee!!!
    I am dizzy after look­ing at all of the cute­ness. I seri­ous­ly stopped breath­ing when I saw the box envelopes, got in a quick breath, then stopped breath­ing again when I saw the huge blocks & cup­cakes! Lol!!! You are SO stinkin’ tal­ent­ed & your daugh­ter is one lucky petite fille!!! xo

  15. What’s the word.….. hmm­m­m­m­mm.…. okay still speech­less!
    Seri­ous­ly girl, OMG. You are amaz­ing­ly tal­ent­ed and extreme­ly detailed. You real­ly thought of EVERYTHING pos­si­ble and made it work soo well togeth­er. I am tru­ly impressed with your par­ty skills. Lucky lit­tle girl you have 🙂 Keep it up my friend, you are a true rockstar!!

  16. OOOO MMMM GGGG! LYNLEE! This par­ty rocks my world. I can­not even han­dle how cre­ative this is. The BOXES! Holy Cow. The “box” labels from Do! Not using a table­cloth and mak­ing it look like a rum­mage sale. I can­not even han­dle this. This par­ty made my whole week. Seriously.

  19. Love, Love , LOVE!!!! OMG Lyn­lee!! Seri­ous­ly what a FUN and AMAZING par­ty. Every detail is beyond per­fect. Annabelle is the CUTEST! She is super duper lucky to have you!! Great job AGAIN!!

  22. I seri­ous­ly think this is one of the most cre­ative and orig­i­nal par­ties I have seen in a while. I love every­thing about this par­ty! You are sim­ply amazing!

    Michelle

  27. I have always been a “think out­side the box” kin­da girl, so this “out of the box” par­ty com­plete­ly stole my heart! Love, love, LOVE your atten­tion to detail and how it all came togeth­er! Anabelle is one lucky lit­tle girl! 🙂

  28. Anabelle birth­day par­ty looks amaz­ing, I love every sin­gle detail. It was super great the job you and your father did with those big alpha­bet boxes…perfect! 🙂

  29. It’s real­ly hard to be orig­i­nal these days with so many tal­ent­ed, won­der­ful ladies in the par­ty busi­ness but, girl, YOU HAVE DONE IT! So adorable! So unique! And best of all, it looks like the kids had a blast! Thank you so much for shar­ing your amaz­ing par­ty with us:)

  30. WOW! You real­ly out did your­self! Looks like a lot of work but such a won­der­ful pay­off! The kids look like they had a won­derul time! Every­thing is per­fect! I bet the par­ents were just floored! Great job!

  32. Salu­dos des­de puer­to Rico. Sim­ple­mente, ESPECTACULAR, te felic­i­to!!!!, No habia vis­to que alguien se dedicara a com­plac­er ver­dadera­mente a los ninos!!!! Muchas bendiciones!!!

  33. One of the most clever, stun­ning and absolute­ly love­ly par­ty I’ve seen in w while!! LOVE every detail, and your ADORABLE lit­tle girl is to die for!!

    Way to go on anoth­er fab­u­lous par­ty my dear!! Your cre­ative skills and incred­i­ble fon­dant art just put a HUGE smile on this big kid’s face!! 🙂

    XOXO
    Bird

  37. Such an incred­i­ble par­ty and the details are just amaz­ing! I hope you don’t mind, but I linked you up to my new Wednes­day link par­ty and I’d love to fea­ture it one day if you’re up for it! 🙂

  38. How the dev­il did I miss this amaz­ing sto­ry? You did an absolute­ly amaz­ing job and being the Toy Sto­ry series is my all-time favorite, it’s even more spe­cial! Can I link in a future Fies­ta Fri­day feature?

  41. WOW!!! I am start­ing to think you are not human because you cre­ativ­i­ty and genius is just OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! I clicked a link from anoth­er site and was brought to your world and I could­n’t be hap­pi­er. You are tru­ly amaz­ing and I love every par­ty idea and exe­cu­tion I have seen so far. WOW is all I can say!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Oh my good­ness, Tamishia!!! I can­not even begin to express how grate­ful and hum­bled I am by your incred­i­bly sweet words! I am so very hap­py to have you here! Mer­ci beau­coup for your sup­port and gra­cious­ness and I tru­ly hope I can con­tin­ue to pro­vide inspi­ra­tion! I appre­ci­ate it so very much! ♥

  42. Oh my gosh — this is amaz­ing! My son LOVES Toy Sto­ry — we’ve seri­ous­ly watched all three movies more times than I can count. I’ve been think­ing about doing a Toy Sto­ry Theme for his next birth­day but since it’s still 7 months away I’m try­ing real­ly hard to not start plan­ning already. 🙂

    • Thank you so, so much, Cheryl! We are also huge fans of the entire series! Don’t feel bad… we’re already plan­ning my daugh­ter’s next birth­day and it’s 6 months away! Don’t tell any­one I’ve already pur­chased some items! lol! ♥

  43. Hi! Awe­some par­ty idea and dec­o­rat­ing! We’re mak­ing giant ABC blocks for our kid’s Christ­mas play and I was won­der­ing where did you find the box­es? Were they all the same size when you got them or did you build them indi­vid­u­al­ly? Thank you so much 🙂

    • Hi! Thanks so much for the sweet words! I actu­al­ly ordered the box­es online from Home Depot because I need­ed quite a bit of them for the entire par­ty. They were all the same size and I was specif­i­cal­ly look­ing for square box­es. Hope this helps! 🙂

      • What size let­ters did you use? I want to use this idea for my friends twins baby show­er for the babies names.

        • Ooh, I want to say they were approx­i­mate­ly 12″! I would look at the box­es you are plan­ning to uti­lize and scale it down a bit from that size so that it sits nice­ly in the cen­ter. Hope this helps! 🙂

  44. this par­ty is AMAZING!!! my lit­tle girl wants a toy sto­ry par­ty too and I am in love with your invites. I’m won­der­ing, did you buy a print of the jessie paint­ing and use it on the invites? or did you have a dig­i­tal version?

    • Thank you so, so much, Laci! I tru­ly appre­ci­ate it! As far as the Jessie illus­tra­tion goes, it is a dig­i­tal ver­sion! If you scroll up to the top of the post, you will find the link to the Etsy shop. Hope this helps! ♥

  45. Hi! Fab­u­lous par­ty! Where did you get those large ABC blocks from? I am look­ing for the same thing for my son’s Sesame Street birth­day par­ty. Thank you!

    • Thank you so much! I actu­al­ly made them with square box­es, paint­ed wood­en let­ters and col­ored duct tape! 🙂

    • Ooh, it’s been a few years, but if you look up small square gift box­es, you’ll find options from stores, such as uline.com. 🙂

    • Thanks so much, Danielle! I made the labels with clip art from the var­i­ous graph­ic ven­dors linked above! 🙂

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