We recently celebrated my “baby’s” 6th Birthday.
Yes, my littlest love is now 6 and no, I have no idea where the time has gone.
He is one funny kid, this one – all three stooges in one little body as we like to say. He has an exuberance for life that takes my breath away. Usually because I am constantly running after him in 100 different directions at once. And such a sweet and fun loving spirit. Planning his parties is always a joy!
For the longest time he wanted this birthday party to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme and I had gone to sleep many nights with ideas and thoughts of turning giant crime stopping, smack talking martial artist turtles and their rodent sensei into a party.
And then we saw Despicable Me 2 this summer and, as it so often is with kids, everything changed. After that, I went to sleep with ideas and thoughts of turning a Ukrainian (I’m guessing) accented super villain, three sassy little girls and the most ridiculously adorable little yellow minions into a party.
In the end, it was really the minions who stole the show, as it is in the movies. Nathan LOVES the minions and belly laughed so hard at their antics that he had the entire theater laughing along with him. It is one of the things I love most about this kid, his exuberance.
You’re invited now to come on in and see how we celebrated this incredible little person … Despicable Me Style!
The Invitation
In my last party post, A Duck Dynasty Birthday Bash, I told you that I love to design my own invitations. Images from the internet make it easy and fun to customize your own invite in whatever theme you’ve chosen.
If you would like to use my invitation, you will find the printable here … Minion Birthday Party Invitation Printable. You can easily go into the text boxes and customize the invitation for your party. I printed my invitations on plain white card stock.
Welcome to the party …
The Party “Welcome Sign” on the front door, if you can call all of Gru’s rules welcoming, is a fun way to greet guests and let them know they are at the right place.
I printed up the images on white cardstock, mounted them on poster board and then attached them together with paperclips that I had bent and twisted into submission.
I also had a couple of friendly minions welcoming guests through the windows.
Printables …
The Favors
I kept the party favors pretty simple. Disposable cake decorating bags make great gift and favor bags (they are also great for hot chocolate treats – I’ll share that fun project with you as we get closer to the holidays).
I just filled the bags with a little candy and then topped each one off with a Minion and tied the tops with ribbon.
The Minion Figures were purchased through Amazon; Option 1 – Option 2.
Gru made a “Freeze Ray” for each child, just like his. Well, almost like his. The didn’t actually have the capability to freeze anyone, which was probably for the best. But they did squirt water, which is something.
The “Freeze Ray” Printable can be found here – Despicable Me Party Signs.
The Food
Despicable Me 2 Spoiler Alert! Eduardo Perez comes off as a friendly restaurant proprietor known for his famous but very secret salsa. BUT could he actually be the despicable villain El Macho; long thought dead? Hmmmmm …
Whomever he truly is, he inspired the “Taste of Mexico” menu for our party!
- Blue and Yellow Corn Chips
- Salsa (of course), Sour Cream and Guacamole
- Queso Cheese Dip (just Velveeta and Rotel Tomatoes melted in the crock pot).
- Taquitos and Quesadillas (served on the white platters shown above).
- And grapes and watermelon wedges – always a kid favorite!
An easy but festive, kid friendly menu!
El Macho and Salsa & Salsa Sign Printables.
The drink station included water, lemonade and iced tea for the parents. I love to put orange slices in my iced tea and a few lemon slices always jazz up a pitcher or container of lemonade!
Now for the best part … cake!
The Minion Cupcakes
Floating all over Pinterest is this great idea for turning Twinkies into Minions. It couldn’t have been simpler. Make your favorite cupcakes (I made vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes) and frost them with blue butter cream. I put the frosting in a pastry bag, snip off the end and swirl it on. Cut the Twinkies in half and with ready made frosting tubes, put on the eyes (Wilton now makes candy eyes that you can find at the grocery store) add different funny expressions and hair and then place a Twinkie Minion atop each cupcake. I had a few more cupcakes than Twinkie Minions so I frosted those yellow and sprinkled them with blue sugar for a little variety.
For the cake topper, I added text to an image from the internet, printed it out on white cardstock and the mounted it on yellow cardstock. I taped two of the yellow striped drinking straws to the back and stuck it into the cupcakes.
A few candles and the Minion Fireman (“be-doh, be-doh, be-doh”) to keep everything in line and the cupcake tower was complete.
Yes I had far to much fun coming up with Minion hairstyles. Do you see the comb-over in the back on the left? That is really my best work.
Minion Birthday Greeting Cake Topper Printable.
Shrunken Moon Bites (donut holes dipped in white chocolate – if you are really ambitious you could do these as cake pops), Coco-Nutties (Vector’s favorite cookie – conveniently purchased at the grocery store), an Ice Cream Cone station and a dog “food” bowl (just like in the movie) filled with candy finished out the treat table.
Despicable Me Party Food Printable.
Despicable Me Lunch Plates, Cake Plates, Cups, Lunch Napkins, Beverage Napkins and Yellow Striped Paper Straws.
Despicable Me Figures of Gru and the girls, Kyle the Dog and four minions used to decorate the cake table were purchased on Amazon.
The Fun
There’s that precious birthday boy!
We all wore Minion T-Shirts, which was very fun but of course, I didn’t take a minute to have someone photograph our family together in our shirts. I’ll have to make everyone put them back on and fix that! Sara did have a minion shirt but must have changed into something more fashionable after swimming. Oh to be a tween and still have someone else doing your laundry.
I have learned over several years and A LOT of birthday parties that planning a ton of games and activities really isn’t necessary. What the kids really want to do, especially when they are little is run around and play together. At our house, there is a lot of room to run and many imaginative adventures to be had. And with the boys having birthdays in June and September, they also want to swim (Sara’s is in December so even in Arizona, swimming is out).
So, while I had a lot of different games in mind, (freeze tag, boogie robot freeze dancing or musical chairs, etc.) I ended up only putting one together – The Space Killer Carnival game from the first movie.
I printed up images of the space aliens from the game in the movie in varying sizes and then glued them to a foam presentation board. The kids used Nerf guns to shoot at the stacked cups.
“KNOCKED OVER!” Of course I had to include an image of Gru after he blew the whole thing up.
If you have not seen the movie, you really must. And then get the second one when it comes out on Blue Ray soon. They are so clever and very funny!
Of course we sang happy birthday, blew out candles, had cake and ice cream …
and opened presents – my friend Eileen had a captive audience as she read birthday cards.
And then after a lot of fun and a little too much sugar, some down time racked out with your buds watching your favorite movie is a must. You can get away with this when you’re six.
Speaking of buds …
Hayden is one of Nathan’s favorite buds of all time. Hayden and his wonderful family were our neighbors for many years. When Nathan was a baby and Hayden was about eight, he would pop over all the time to play with Nathan. As they both grew, Hayden never got too big to hang out with Nathan. I have a picture of them together at each of Nathan’s Birthdays. It is great to have a friend who has loved you your whole life! We just wish he was still right over the fence.
We love you Hayden (and Michael, April and Hope)!
So that’s it. One more birthday party down for the record books.
Whaaaaaaaat? The Party’s Over?
Yes, the party’s over. But around here, it won’t be long until there’s another one!
Thanks for coming!
Thank you note printable.
All of the party printables shared in this post are made with images found on the internet and are for personal use only and not for sale or distribution in anyway. Please play fair and have a fantastic party!
Kid party planning is the best fun…and you do it to perfection!
Thank you Audrey, you are too sweet. Kid parties are absolutely the most fun, which makes them easy to do – especially if you tend to get a little carried away. 🙂
Thank you so much for all these wonderful ideas they really helped me out a lot. You are so awesome for making all those signs accessible for everyone. I really appreciate it, thanks again!!!
Amazing! Loved it all.
Thanks Shally and thanks for reading!
Super reflection for kids fun and smiles ,excitement and surprises ,wonderful post.
Thanks Michael, I appreciate that so much!
I must say if it was fun to read and look at all the photos, the real party has got to be one super duper time! Happy Birthday to your littlest baby! They grow so fast, too fast.
And you my dear, is one helluva party planner! Lucky children to have you as Mama!
Thanks Debjani, kid parties are my favorite! The real party was a blast. All of the kids really seemed to have a great time and had so much fun together. In fact, the adults did too. My baby is so big and it has gone so fast. I miss my baby but I sure do love the big kid he is becoming!
VERY Cute! Love the twinkies used as minions!!
Kenley
Thanks Kenley. The twinkie minions are very clever – what did we do before Pinterest?
I am so sad we missed this. I have been waiting for this post!!! You did an amazing job as usual! You are wonderful!
Thanks Jenn, I’m sad you guys missed it too. But there will always be another party! Oh, and you are wonderful too!
What an amazing party, I love the twinkie minions on the cupcakes. You really put a fantastic party together. Happy Birthday to Nathan!
Thanks so much Suzanne! Kid parties are so much fun! The Twinkie minion cupcakes are genius and so easy. I just wish I’d thought of them!
So, so, so cute! I don’t care that I’m supposed to be an adult; Despicable Me is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the minions (and Agnes) definitely steal the show!
Kid or adult, Despicable Me is wonderful and I agree the minions and Agnes do steal the show!
What an incredible party!! Those cupcakes were the cutest things ever. It all just looked like tons of fun. thanks for letting us share it all!
Thanks Rhonda, it was tons of fun and I am more than happy to share!!
Oh my gosh, you’ve got to be the most fun mother EVER! None of my kids’ birthday parties were ever like this one. I just love how much heart and energy you put into making these celebrations special.
Thanks so much, Marlene. Could you please tell that to my daughter who is currently grounded until she is about 30? 😉 The truth is, these parties are way too much fun for me to do!
We’re probably not doing our job right if they’re happy with us all the time!
Thank you so much for all the ideas and printable links. Do
you happen to have a link for the thank you note at the end? I am
going to use a lot of these ideas for my sons party. THanks, again!
sarahdechant@hotmail.com
Hi Sarah, so glad to hear you can use some of the printables and ideas for your party. Sorry I don’t have that link up yet, I forgot all about needing to do it and will get it up today. I hope you have a wonderful, I mean despicable party!!
Wow, what a party! It looks like everyone had a great time!
Thank you so much! It really was a lot of fun!!
Wow, this is great! You did such a wonderful job! Thanks a bunch for all the ideas and printable links. Do you happen to have a link for the thank you note at the end?
Thanks Thia, and thank you for stopping by. I will get that printable link to the thank you note up ASAP! I hope you have a wonderful party!!
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What a wonderful job! Thanks so much for sharing your inspiration. Looks like all had a great time. I am in the midst of planning a party for my oldest (11 years) and would love to use your thank you printable. I am not having any luck – can you re-post or can you somehow e-mail me a copy? Thanks so much.
Thanks Tina! Getting that thank you note linked and printable has been on my “to do” list for a very looooong time. I need to just do it, today! Thanks for your visit to Welcome Company. I hope you have a wonderful party!
Thanks for sharing all the great work you did! My girls’ Despicable Me party is going to be awesome with lots of help from you!
Wonderful ideas. however I am unable to find the thank you printable.
I am so sorry. I have promised to get that fixed for a number of visitors. I will get that link up this weekend if it is the last thing I do. Thanks for stopping by!
Could we also have the party’s over printable please?
thank you so much for sharing! would you mind sharing the thank you note? it’s very cute
Hi, this party looks like a blast! Can you please post the thank you link?
Your ideas SAVED my sons party! Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful suggestions:) he would love to use the thank you not to send to his friends if we could get the link……thank you.
This is awesome!! Thank you so much!!!
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Hi! I’m so impressed with all of these ideas. We have a party in a few weeks and didn’t know if you linked the thank you note & the party is over note?? They are soooo cute & I am NOT that talented! Thanks for the ideas!