When I was growing up my mom always made a big deal about my birthday and to this day I can tell you exactly how I spend each one.  I didn’t have elaborate parties but nonetheless she always seem to make them extra special.   Now that I have a child of my own I’m extremely giddy about planning her 1st birthday party.  If you follow me on Pinterest you have probably seen my Mickey & Minnie board.  It isn’t a big surprise to anyone that I would start with a Disney theme for my daughter’s 1st birthday because after all Walt Disney did say, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”

1.) Date

My little Buttercup’s birthday falls on a weekday so we decided to celebrate it on the following Saturday.

2.) Time

My mom was shocked when I told her the party was only going to be 3 hours long and I had to explain to her that it’s a kids party.  I think that 3 hours is more than enough time for a 1st birthday party.   I have given my Hubby instructions to make sure our little Buttercup takes her nap before her party.

3.)Theme

Choosing Mickey and MInnie was a given but trying to decide on what colors to use was a little more work.  I can’t seem to find the traditional colors for Minnie so I’m going to have to DIY most of her things.  I’m going to stick with the classic red, white, black, and yellow as colors for the party.   Oh and you bet there will be a ton of polka dots everywhere.

4.) Guest list

Deciding on who to invite is always hard for me because I want to include everyone in our lives.  We’re inviting immediate family, close friends and a few of the Hubby’s co-workers.   I hope there’s a ton of kids because I’m planning a lot of surprises for them.

5.) Venue 

Since we don’t have a house to hold my daughter’s birthday at we had to look for a venue that would allow me to bring in lots of desserts and it had to be indoors.  We are lucky to live in Southern California because we have a lot to choose from too bad most of them cost an arm and a leg.

6.) Menu

I really hate going to a kids party where only “adult” food get’s served at.  We will be serving lots of kid friendly foods and I’m still trying to finalize what to serve the adults.

7.) Invitations

Another things that irritates me about parties nowadays is when parents send out invites through email or through a Facebook announcement.  For heaven sakes please do yourself a favor and go to the dollar store and pick some simple invitations.  I believe that if people are in a budget then they can hand them out themselves rather than sending them out. I’m going to be making my little Buttercup’s invitations because I love the process working with stationery.

8.) Decorations

I’m doing all the decorations myself with my new Cricut machine but if you have never been to a dollar store please find your nearest one.

9.) Games or Entertainment

Hopefully the weather cooperates with me and I’m able to setup carnival like games outside otherwise I’m going to have to have a backup plan.

10.) Fun! 

Once all the planning is done and it’s the day of the party I’m planning on enjoying every bit of it.  The reason I’m crazy about planning every last detail is because I’m less worried if anything goes wrong the day of the party.  I mean I can’t do anything about the weather or about who’s going to show up so I’m not going to stress out about those things.  I’m going to sit back and have fun.

Don’t worry in the next few months I’ll come back to this list and elaborate a tad on each item.

If you are planning a Mickey and Minnie in the future come back to check out my DIY projects and a mini giveaway I will be hosting early next year.