Gabriel & Damian's Toy Story Bash

Have you ever seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? Well, you know how Toula meets Ian and she tells him how big her family is and how Christmas is like in her family? Well, I can totally relate. I personally don't have  a big family, but I married into one. My husband only has one sister but his mom has lots of brothers who in turn have kids that now have kids and so parties always are huge affairs. No I am not Greek, but it's what my big fat Mexican birthday parties are like. Loud, lots of food, lots of family and you have to invite everyone or they get offended. I kid you not. So having two big birthday parties within a month of each other where you have to invite about 50 people just isn't gonna cut it. Damian was born August 7, Gabe was born September 21st which means the boys get to share a birthday party. Now, we aren't sure if we are really going to keep doing this in the future since now Gabriel has started school and will probably want to do something with his friends next year so we might just scale back and do something smaller but for now, this worked for us.

We decided on a Toy Story theme this year and had the party at a local park where we have had most of Gabriel's birthday parties at. And of course, we have to be as Mexican as possible and get a taco guy. This guy has actually done all of Gabriel's birthday's and I'm not going to lie, part of the reason we have the party each year is because we want this guy's tacos. Kidding. Maybe.

 Centerpieces for the tables was a flower pot with some toy story ribbon, tissue paper, and a variety of cake pops in Toy story colors (blue and purple for Buzz, a yellow and red plaid like Woody's shirt and a cow print for his vest) and a picture of the boys in their costumes. The only problem was that the chocolate started melting and the cakepops ended up looking pretty gross. Note to self- no cake pops on a sunny day!

 Sheet cake from one of our favorite bakery's since I wasn't about to bake a huge cake for all those people. I mean, I'm crazy but not that crazy.

 Buzz and Woody piñatas and Gabriel being his usual dorky self.

 We had to get in the Toy Story theme too! So we dressed like our minis. Both of our Toy Story Shirts (technically mine is a dress) are from Hot Topic.

 My little sister and I finally got a decent picture together, I was surprised!

 Most of the pictures we ever take end up looking like some variation of this:

 "To infinity & beyond!"

 Gabriel never really liked piñatas. Most years he would barely tap it twice and then pass on the stick to someone else. I expected Damian to not pay much attention to them either or cry when they would hit his piñata but he surprised us all!

 He ended up crying anytime you tried to take the stick away from him because he wanted to keep hitting the piñata. We eventually got another stick so the rest of the kids could hit the piñata.

After the piñata we handed out goody bags which I made to look like the little three eyed green aliens and were filled with candies, a toy story pez dispenser, toy story temporary tattoos, a sheriff's badge and a hershey bar that I customized using photoshop and putting the boy's picture on it and their names

 

It was time for cake after all the kids got their goody bags. We attempted to get a good family pictures but this was as good as it got. Such is life.

 Someone is very ready for cake...takes after his momma!

 Gabriel was very excited to open presents, Damian wasn't too interested so Gabriel open both his and Damian's. Gabriel got tons of Legos (yay! Have you guys ever stepped on those? OUCH!), Damian got lots of cars and they both got some clothes as well.

 Chuy's parents and sister spoiled Gabriel this year and got him an Ipad mini. He was beyond excited with that gift, can't say I blame him! I wish I got an ipad for my birthday!

We had a great time and more importantly, Gabriel and Damian did too. Gabriel is already planning his and Damian's birthday party for next year. He loves sharing his special day with his family and his friends and I love making the kid happy.

Deep in the 100 Acre Woods where little Damian plays

The day of Damian's birthday we celebrated our little Pooh bear with a small dinner and dessert celebration. Both Grandmas, grandpa, aunts and great grandma along with a few cousin's joined us for a 100 acre wood inspired meal since Pooh is Damian's favorite character and he is our cubby little tubby all stuffed with fluff. I checked Pinterest for ideas and things that really stuck out for me was cute little bee cupcakes, "hunny pot" smash cake, tigger tails and a few other things. I had made cute labels for the food on photoshop but I was so busy cooking and cleaning and setting everything up that I forgot to print them, mommy fail! Also, this was my first cake pop attempt and I was really hating it all. Seriously, major props to those that can make beautiful looking cake pops! You all make it look so effortless!

Hunny pot & Bee cake pops with some Tigger tails

 I saw these when we went to Disneyland this past June and I was already planning on having a little Pooh party for Damian so I figured I could copy the idea. I used cookie pop sticks that I bought from Micheals and some marshmallows and dipped them in orange candy melts. The color was really pale and to be honest, the pops looked sort of phallic so I covered them with orange sugar and then drizzled some black candy melts.

The cupcakes were just a chocolate cake with some of my favorite cupcake frosting  from the ladies of Our Best Bites. I think I could eat a whole batch of that frosting by itself, the best part is that it uses regular granulated sugar and some flour and milk! Super easy and sooooo amazing. Anyway, I colored the frosting yellow and then used a jumbo round tip to make the swirls and added some sugar honey bees I got off Etsy. The cupcake liners were a red gingham pattern.

 This is where the food labels would've been cute but, like I said, I was lacking sleep and stressed out trying to make everything nice and perfect. It is what it is. I put out a try of "Veggies from Rabbit's Garden" with some dip. We also had "Hunny baked ham" which was delicious and the birthday boy loved. Also, I could not find ham anywhere! Luckily, the super nice butcher at Safeway found one for me and I almost cried tears of joy. Like I said, I was stressed out. I also made a "Tigger's bouncy pasta salad", and some mashed potatoes and rolls. I had pink lemonade "Piglets Pink Lemonade" for anyone who didn't want soda and put the utensils and napkins in a painted terracotta pot that we had from Gabriel's first birthday party and just added the words "Hunny" to it.

 Daddy and the birthday boy. He of course had to wear his Pooh outfit without the hat since we lost it at Disneyland.

 He realized there was cake next to him so he did what anyone would do....

 Little Pooh bear with his smash cake while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Damian's cake was a white cake with blueberries (his favorite fruit) and buttercream frosting. The good thing was that the cake didn't have to be perfect since the honey was supposed to look like it was spilling out. I added two of those sugar honey bees that I put on the cupcakes and the pooh candle I got off Amazon.

 This pretty much summed up the cake smash, looks like he ate a smurf.

 

The remains of his cake...Poor cake never stood a chance!

 

 There wasn't really a choice but to give him a quick bath and a wardrobe change before he opened a few presents

Overall, the celebration was a success. Nothing too big or too fancy since we were having a bigger party for both boys later on that month but something to celebrate the actual day of his birth. He had a blast and loved having everyone over at our little home. And while it was tiring and stressful to throw something together, it was super fun.