Oh Two-dles: A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Themed 2nd Birthday Party

Ohh Pinterest. You tricky, tricky witch. You are so full of ideas and "easy" DIY decorations and perfect tablescapes for parties, how I love to loathe you. Last year we went all out for my older daughter's first birthday and this year I wanted to "scale back". We may have cut down the number of invites but did I really scale back? You be the judge!

Someone is Turning Two-dles!

My husband said no one would get it but I didn't care. My daughter loves Mickey Mouse and loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The star of that show is of course, Toodles. Now, I would love to say I took credit for this amazing play on words but we all know I didn't come up with it. Search Toodles or "Two-dles" Party and you'll find a ton of pins and as with anything on Pinterest some ideas are much more elaborate than others. I knew I wanted to scale back from her 1st birthday party and have a BBQ at the house but I also knew I wanted it to be fully decked out!

My parties however are not "Pinterest-Perfect", they are more "Pinterest-Realistic". So I compiled a bunch of ideas and came up with a few on my own, then I picked the easiest ones to accomplish because Martha Stewart, I am not.

The Food

This party was all about keeping it simple so BBQ favorites of hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled veggies, garden salad, pasta salad and a Caprase salad made up the main course. For pickings before hand we had chips with salsa and guacamole along with Mickey's 90th themed Goldfish because how could we not?

The Dessert

This is where I get into trouble. I love cake and I love grand desserts. But I also wanted to keep it simple, remember? So instead of a full on cake I opted for a cupcake tower and one giant cupcake to present to the birthday girl herself. Along with a tray of cookies and a tray of watermelon cut into the shape of Mickey heads (of course).

The Decorations

Here is where things really get fun! My favorite way to fill up a space is with balloons! They are easy to get and require little work. All you have to do is go to your local party store and pick them up! I ordered two balloon trees that consisted of giant Mickey and Minnie heads with latex balloons of yellow, red, black, and pink respectively.

​The greatest balloon invention had to be the air-filled letters. I bought all the letters I needed to spell out "(daughter's name) is turning Twodles" then I strung them on ribbons and hung them up in the backyard on the fence.

I'm always thinking about what would make a great picture so I knew I wanted something to block out as much background clutter as I could from behind the birthday girl when we were singing to her and while she was eating her cake. I purchased this Mickey Mouse Clubhouse wall-hanging set off of eBay and used it to create the perfect backdrop. 

The Finishing Touches

"We've got ears, say cheers!" When it came to the little added details, I wanted to work in as many taglines from the show as I could. Again, maybe not every family member got it but I know some of my family did because they had kids who watched the show too. I purchased Mickey and Minnie ears off of eBay (a set of 24 for like $20) and they were perfect! Obviously these are not "Disney-sanctioned" but they still got the job done and made for fun photo ops!

Next up we had the "Hot Diggity Dog & Burger Bar" with our "Handy Helper" utensils but my favorite was our welcome sign that read "Come Inside It's Fun Inside" as you entered and "Thanks For Stopping By" on the back as you left. I actually used a hot glue gun for that project, I'm a real mom now, right?

So did I scale back? Maybe,  maybe not. But hey, a girl only turns Two-dles once!