Disney Inspired Party Ideas

Calling all Disney Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse fans! Have you spotted VTech®’s Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney collection yet? So cute! Little fans everywhere will be lining up to celebrate these fun playsets! To take things to the next level, here are some tips on how to throw your own Disney inspired party at home with the help of this amazing collection. Get ideas on how to create a colorful party table with the best food and decor.

Keeping VTech®’s Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney collection at the center of your party plan is key. Each set has its own adorable colors and patterns, and if you use those same colors, you can create the cutest party set up. These playsets also make the perfect gift for birthdays and beyond, and as an added bonus, they also make a great party activity. Thinking outside of the box, you can even use these adorable toys as an actual centerpiece on a party table!

Today, I'm showing you how to create a party table using the Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor as inspiration. You can totally use any of these fun toys from this collection with these easy tips! Ready to get the party started?

Minnie Inspired Party Ideas

Let me show you how to create a picture-perfect Minnie inspired party with fun food picks and decorations inspired by the Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor. To tie in our party ideas, we're going to use colors and patterns from the playset. Pink, purple and hints of blue are perfect for this.

Minnie Party Food Ideas

For party foods, I like to serve three signature eye-catching foods to match the party theme. Then, I will add in other more general foods on the side such as pizza, fruit or chips.

Here are my three fun food ideas for this party table.

Minnie Lover's Ice Cream Cake

Give a store-bought Ice Cream Cake the "Minnie" treatment by adding additional frosting decorations to match your party colors. I simply added pops of pink and purple frosting to transform this cute cake into our ice cream parlor theme.

"Ice Cream" Cupcakes

To continue with the ice cream parlor theme, you can bake cupcakes into small ice cream cones. Then top them with frosting in your party colors. You can even mix and match your colors to make them pop.

Polka-Dot Pudding

Another easy way to give a simple treat a party makeover is to use colors and/or polka dots with construction paper and non-toxic tape or glue. This works really great with pre-packaged snacks like pudding cups.

Disney Inspired Party Table Decorations

Now that we have some fun food ideas, it's time to bring the party together with the perfect decorative touches! The great news is that you don't have to go overboard to make your party table standout. Again, focus on only a couple of focal points and the rest can just be color-themed basics. Think colored plates, cups and utensils.

Minnie Inspired Balloon Arch

Save your budget and make your own balloon garlands. It's a lot easier than you think when you purchase a kit. For this party, I made my own balloon arch using a very inexpensive kit that can be used over and over again. All you need to do is hand-pick the balloon colors you would like.

In this case, I used the colors of the Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor. Light blue, light bright pink and some smaller purple polka-dot balloons woven in turned out SO cute and matched the toy perfectly! Feel free to mix and match the color and patterns that stand out to you.

Using Toys as Decorations

To bring your party together, be sure to add your favorite playset front and center, and build around it. Here are some of the fun Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney inspired playsets to get your creative ideas flowing:

● Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor

● Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Mickey Mouse Ramps Fun House

● Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Around Town Playset

The best part about this is that you can also use the playset as part of the surprise and make it a gift for your little one! Total bonus!

Ice Cream Themed Party Favors

For the perfect final touch to your Disney inspired party, don't forget the favors. To stick to the Go! Go! Smart Wheels®Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor theme, I went with the cutest little ice cream favors that can be filled with small candies. You can add a thank you note to them if you would like. Simple and sweet is the way to go.

Disney Inspired Birthday Gifts

If you are looking for the perfect gift for children between the ages of 1-5, we've got some excellent ideas for you! Go! Go! Smart Wheels® playsets work with each other, making them collectible, too. These playsets encourage pretend play and motor skill fun.

Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Ice Cream Parlor - Kids can take a ride with Minnie Mouse and her Ice Cream Truck while activating three SmartPoint® locations on the way. What makes this extra fun is that kids can listen to Minnie Mouse’s voice say fun phrases along the way.

Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Mickey Mouse Ramps Fun House - Join Mickey Mouse on a fun adventure in his convertible while exploring mix and match tracks that can form three different play routes. This set has two launch zones and includes two SmartPoint® locations. Kids can listen to Mickey’s voice say fun phrases and encouraging words along the way.

Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Disney Minnie Mouse Around Town Playset - Kids can hop in the toy car with Minnie Mouse and take a trip into town to explore the flower shop or grab a bite to eat while activating four SmartPoint®locations along the way. Kids can also press the bow to see Figaro welcome them home.

Each of the sets has its own songs and sounds that will delight children!

Now that you have the perfect gift ideas, that's a wrap!

Hope these thought-starters help you to start planning your own fun festivities at home.

Dawn Lopez provides resources that are practical with a touch of whimsy for busy families, women & moms on her blog Cutefetti.com. She’s been sharing easy to prepare recipes, crafty DIYs and adorable party ideas for the past 10 years. Dawn was a 2019 IRIS Awards Nominee for Photography and was awarded Favorite Food Blogger in the 2019 Sunshine Blog Awards.

Screen-Free Summer Activities for Kids!

Summertime is in full swing, and you’ll hear the words “I’m bored” at least a few times during the summer break months, so you’ll need some fun activities.

Keeping screen time low is something we automatically think about. It can be hard especially when it’s too hot or you just want to stay indoors. Although, it would be easier to just offer a tablet on those days, keeping kids engaged and not just staring at a screen is one task that they should continue even when they aren’t in school. This is especially true during those early years between kindergarten and 3rd grade.

That’s where summer activities come into play

Getting them going and moving with products they can enjoy is a piece of it. My oldest has been obsessed with dinosaurs since he was 3 years old. Of course, integrating some type of Jurassic and prehistoric dinosaur is a must when it comes to independent play for him. Finding activities that he will do has been relatively easy since we know what he enjoys during his downtime.

VTech® has always offered a variety of different products, including their VTech® Switch & Go® collection. These products are a group of prehistoric dinosaurs that turn into vehicles. These items are great to incorporate into different activities, which then calls for hours of imaginative play and even independent play.

My oldest boy loves to create an alternate living space for the dinosaurs, and he also likes to create rescue missions between them all and the machines they are able to transform into.

Summer activities you can do while using the VTech® Switch & Go® products

There are several different dinosaurs within this line that can be used during your summer activities. Below, you will find a few of our favorites and more info on the dinosaurs. Also included are different summer activities that can be used indoors or outdoors.

• Hide and Seek: Hide in plain sight a transformed dino and see if the kids can find it. You can also hide the dinosaurs indoors or outdoors and see how many they can find.
  

• Would You Rather?: Play a game of Would You Rather? Explain which dinosaur is which and ask your child why they would want to be that dinosaur. They can either explain or draw why.
  

• Dinosaur Charades: Act out being a dinosaur and guess which one the person is pretending to be before transforming into a vehicle. You can also pretend to be the transformed vehicle too!
  

• Create your own Jurassic Prehistoric Environment: Get some green and brown construction paper, grass or brown rice. Empty everything into a large bin to create a jungle with the dinosaurs.
  

• Dino / Transform Challenge: Transform a few of the VTech® Switch & Go® products into their vehicles and others into dinosaurs and see if you can guess their other form (what dino they are or what vehicle they are).

• Escape The Lava: Plan an escape using some dinos and transform others into vehicles to help get away from an island volcano explosion

We’ve been able to integrate the dinos into these activities, or what my son calls missions. We were so impressed with how each dinosaur is different, which helps keep his playtime at a maximum and he doesn’t get bored with these VTech® Switch & Go® products.

VTech Switch & Go Velociraptor Helicopter

My oldest is obsessed with raptors and Tyrannosaurus Rex so he always likes to challenge them against each other. This was the first dinosaur he opted to open. This raptor inspires imaginative play with animated LCD eyes and dinosaur sound effects and phrases. Plus, it has a rocket launcher, which makes for more indoor fun. It also transforms into a helicopter which in turn has its own sound effects. This turns into hours of fun since it has 70+ phrases and sound effects in both modes.

VTech Switch & Go Velociraptor Racer

You can switch up playtime by transforming the dino into a turbo-charged racer with a few simple moves. Plus, you can watch how the dino’s eyes change on the LCD screen into a race car driver and hear how the voice changes too. This would make for a great rescue opp.

VTech Switch & Go T-Rex Off-Roader

This is another favorite. You can make the dino’s head shoot forward and its jaws snap. It has voice changing action like all the others but this one is fiercer, which makes for a great dinosaur battle. Plus, T-Rex always has the strongest bite and transforms into a rugged off-road driver.

These are just a few but below you can find six more VTech® Switch & Go® dinosaurs that you can include in your summer activities.

1. VTech® Switch & Go® T-Rex Truck

2. VTech® Switch & Go® Triceratops Bulldozer

3. VTech® Switch & Go® Spinosaurus Race Car

4. VTech® Switch & Go® Triceratops Racer

5. VTech® Switch & Go® Spinosaurus Stunt Car

6. VTech® Switch & Go® Stegosaurus Buggy

Each of these VTech Switch & Go products are sold separately and can provide hours of fun this summer. Let me know which one of these would bring the most fun and what summer activities you would include these in?

Baby’s First Birthday Gift Guide

First birthdays are a monumental milestone for parents. High five! You did it! You survived and thrived through the first year of your child’s life and such a milestone certainly calls for a celebration. Even after having three children in the past six years, I still find myself eager to celebrate each and every first birthday.

You’ve ordered the smash cake, and picked out the cutest theme, but now you are probably wondering what do you buy for a first birthday gift? Hitting age 1 is a tricky spot where you are teetering on the edges of babyhood and toddlerhood--all at the same time.

My favorite first birthday gifts to give and receive are those that will grow with the child. A few things that I look for in gifts are toys that are interactive, have educational elements and/or help my child burn off some energy. Here is a little gift guide to 5 of my very favorite VTech® toys for a baby’s first birthday that hit all of these criteria!

1) VTech Count & Win Sports Center

There is nothing a one-year-old loves more than balls! This toy is perfect---it is interactive with a scoreboard that counts and plays over 65 different songs. I love that this toy helps keep your little one active and using their muscles to kick the soccer ball into the goal or slam dunk a basketball! It’s geared for ages 1-3, but it is still a favorite with my almost 4-year-old!

2) VTech Stroll & Discover Activity Walker

The Stroll & Discover Activity Walker is what I credit for helping to teach my little ones how to walk. You can remove the front panel on it and use it on the floor as a standalone toy, or keep it attached to the front of the walker. I love that the wheels have two different speed settings, so a new walker can find their balance as they push the toy. The removable cell phone is also always a HUGE hit with my kids!

3) VTech Touch & Teach Sea Turtle

Books are one of my very favorite gifts to give. VTech’s interactive Touch & Teach Sea Turtle not only tells a story, but has buttons, lights and sounds to keep even the littlest one’s attention. It even has a carrying handle so that your little one can haul it around as he or she learns about sea creatures. We love using this on long car rides.

4) VTech Pop-a-Balls Push & Pop Bulldozer

The Pop-a-Balls Push & Pop Bulldozer is a great way for little ones to start becoming familiar with numbers and have fun! It comes with little balls that pop up as you push it with the handle, making fun noises along the way. It also counts the balls as they pop and plays fun songs.

5) VTech Gallop & Rock Learning Pony

Ride-on toys are the ultimate first birthday gift. This galloping pony starts as a rocking horse for young ones when they are still learning to balance, then transforms into a ride-on pony! One of the coolest features of this toy is that it has motion sensors. It uses these to make noises and play sounds to interact with your child when he or she walks by.

First birthdays are such a special time! Soak in the celebration, enjoy watching your little one open their gifts and explore their new treasures, and pat yourself on the back for rocking the first 365 days. These precious early days of childhood sure go by too quickly!

Mandy Roberson is a certified childbirth educator, mom of 3 and founder of Momma Society--the community for modern moms. She loves holidays and making memories with her children. In her free time you will find her crafting and creating fun printables for Magic Playbook--a monthly digital subscription for moms.