Added Touches for a Disney Dinner

To celebrate the 3 year mark of hosting my monthly dinners, I decided to throw a typical 3-year old birthday theme in October of 2009.  I looked up common themes for 3 year old parties, and Disney was top on the list.  Hence, the Mickey Mouse theme which I titled Three Years of Fun.

Decor:  I used a red tablecloth and Minnie Mouse stuffed animals as the centerpiece. (I chose Minnie because these dolls were given to my daughter when she was born, so I didn't have to purchase anything). I wanted it to really look and feel like a little kids party, so I bought the Mickey party plates, cups, and party hats from Party City. I blew up red, yellow, and black balloons to have at the front entrance.  The place card and the Mickey head on the napkin are actually paint swatch cards from Home Depot!  There is a Disney Cricut cartridge that can make things like this, but I don't own it, so I improvised.

Home Depot swatch!

Menu: Serving an elegant meal would not have fit with my little kid theme, so I decided to do something typical, but spice it up a bit...hence, Mickey Mouse hamburgers! I just shaped the burgers with Mickey ears before I grilled them and then used pickles and olives for the eyes, a tomato for the nose and ketchup for the mouth.  I served these with my mom's recipe for potato bites (super easy & yummy), and finger jello in circles and stars.

 No birthday party is complete without a cake.  I made the Mickey Mouse cake pictures at the top of this blog using 2 sizes of round cake pans - one for the face and the other for two ears.  I piped on the frosting to create Mickey's face.

As a parting gift, I wanted to give the girls something to remember our 3 years of Monday dinners.  I had been saving the corks from our wine bottles since the first dinners, so I decided to make each guest a wine cork trivet.  Very easy to make...just used hot glue to adhere the corks together in a square. I wrapped them in Mickey Mouse wrapping paper to tie it with the theme.