With Toy Story 3 in the Cinemas, you can be guaranteed that lots of children will want  Buzz Lightyear, Woody and all the gang as the theme to their next party.  Merchandise for  movies like this is bound to be expensive so here’s how to do it without spending a fortune.

The Invitations.

Take advantage of the current nature of this theme and search for Toy Story colouring pages on the internet.  You can get your child to colour them in and then cut them out to stick on to some card for invites.

The Party Room.

You don’t need to buy anything expensive to decorate the room.  A good way to set this up in a practical way is to make a rocket for the centre of the room.  You can do this with a cardboard box and some extra card to make a cone shape for the top.  Have your child help you decorate it.  It could be painted and then decorated with cut outs of planets and stars or just covered in silver foil if you want to keep it really simple.  Cut out a window and cover the opening with black paper.  Then stick glow in the dark stickers of planets and stars on the black paper so that when the children are in the rocket it looks like they are looking out into space.

Next set up the party game areas.  These can be the planets all around the rocket.  For Planet  1 line a large shallow cardboard box or paddling pool with foil.  Print off some LGMs (little green men) from one of the many internet sites and stick a metal paperclip on to each one.  Then make a Claw (like a fishing rod) with a stick, some string and a magnet attached.  The object of this game will be to rescue the little green men with the magnet.

Planet  2 can be a colouring station where the children can colour in cut outs  of their favourite character (again printed from the internet) and when they are coloured, stick them on to a head band made from cardboard and they can wear them for the rest of the party.

Planet  3 will need a little bit of preparation beforehand.  Mix some baking soda with water to make a paste.  Cover some small plastic toys – you can pick up the Toy Story characters as plastic figurines fairly cheaply – one for each party reveller with the paste and bake in the oven for about 30 mins until the paste has hardened and resembles a rock.  Cut a hole in a cardboard box and stick a black sack to the opening.  Fill the black sack with the “space rocks” and let each child delve into the “black hole” to recover  one.  (Tip: If the party is for very little people tie a knot in the end of the black sack so that the children will be able to reach).

On Planet 4 have the space laboratory (a large container of vinegar).  Each child can put their space rock into the container and watch as it fizzes away leaving them with their very own character toy to take home.

Depending on the room you are using, you may need planet 5 to be the kitchen area as this will be the eating planet.  Use cookie cutters to make sandwiches in the shape of moons, stars and planets.  If you are very artistic you could even make them into rocket shapes.  Laminate some mini cut outs of characters and stick them to cocktail sausage sticks.  You can then put these into chunks of fruit or pretty much any food you want the kids to eat!!   You can make a very simple cake and just decorate it with rockets, cowboy hats etc and if you are not that talented with icing you can buy some little plastic ones and stick them on top.

Party bags.

Remember the children already have their plastic figure and the character headbands they made earlier for their party bag.  If you want to put in something really special you can make your very own colouring books with the Toy Story print-outs discussed earlier and make it very personal by typing a message on it to each child from your child thanking them for coming to the party.

Have a great Toy Story Party!!!  If there is a theme you would like included on our blog just let us know, e-mail karina@childrensparties.ie

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