Minnie Mouse is another one of those totally timeless birthday party themes for little girls – well, I know a few big girls that would like it, too. The theme is easy to customize and put your own spin on – think black, red and white polkadots or some variation of them. Here is some inspiration for you:

1. Minnie Mouse Cupcakes found on Pinterest
2. Easy to follow tutorial on how to make Minnie Mouse Party Hats from Love & Sugar Kisses
3. Minnie Mouse Favor Boxes as seen on Catch My Party
4. If you have a girly girl who loves having her nails painted, you can do Minnie Mouse Manicures
5. Easy to make Minnie Mouse Oreo cookies are just the cutest snack for this Minnie party – this photo and more Minnie Mouse party ideas at Catch My Party
6. Minnie Mouse printable invitations, cupcake holders, bottle wrappers and more on Etsy.

And here are even more items you can use for inspiration or to add to your Minnie Mouse Birthday Party:

Disney Minnie Mouse Deluxe Party Pack Disney Mickey / Minnie Mouse Party Backdrop Minnie Mouse Party Favor Value Pack Disney Minnie Mouse Sticker Sheets (4) EK Disney Sticker Minnie Mouse Disney Minnie Mouse Party Favor Box Disney Minnie Mouse Shopping Cake Topper Disney Minnie Mouse Edible Icing Cake Topper Disney Minnie Mouse Centerpiece Clubhouse Minnie Mouse Pink Toddler / Child Costume- 2T Disney Minnie Mouse Ears Headband Disney Minnie Mouse Standup Disney Minnie Mouse Tablecover Minnie Mouse Head Jumbo 28" Foil Balloon" Minnie Mouse Tin Box Carry All Disney Minnie Mouse Hair Ponies Assorted (8) Disney Minnie Mouse Invitations (8) Disney Minnie Mouse Bracelet Sets Assorted (8 sets of 4) Minnie Mouse Award Ribbon Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – Pink Minnie Mouse Drawstring Treat Sack Disney Minnie Mouse Tumbler (8) Disney Minnie Mouse Blowouts (8) Disney Minnie Mouse Deluxe Adult Costume – 12-14 Disney Minnie Mouse 18" Pull String Pinata" Disney Minnie Mouse Giant Wall Decal Disney Minnie Mouse 1st Birthday 18" Foil Balloon" Disney Minnie Mouse Fun Pack Activities

Sock monkeys are a classic toy that are making a huge comeback for a new generation even bigger and better! If you are planning a Sock Monkey birthday party, baby shower or just have a thing for sock monkeys in general, take a look at some of the fun sock monkey party inspiration we found!

Last year my daughter wanted to have her birthday party at the local ice rink. Since her birthday is in late December, the ice rink was the perfect party destination and we settled on a snowy theme. My friend (the same one that made the gorgeous tween zebra striped cake) made my daughter a custom ice rink cake.

The cake was two layers with the top layer being smaller than the bottom. She used fondant to create the ice pond, snow balls and even the little puppies and bears ice skating. Not only was it so cute – it tasted amazing!

Finding ice skating themed party goods is nearly impossible, so we just settled for snowflakes. We found the Snow Flurry Deluxe Party Pack and used plain blue table cloths.

The party itself was very easy. The girls all skated around the rink for about 45 minutes and then came back to the party room for pizza, cake and gift opening. While my daughter opened her gifts I put crayons and some coloring sheets out on the table for the girls to color. The one most of them liked best was this cute picture of mice playing in a pair of ice skates. (click on image to view and print full size).

Overall this was one of the easiest kids birthday parties I have hosted. Everyone had fun and for most of the kids it wasn’t something they do on a regular basis so it was a real treat.

Owls are the latest animal theme to show up with oh so cute, new found popularity!  So how about an owl inspired birthday party? It would be such a hoot – especially if you have an owl cake and matching owl cupcakes to go with it:

(photo: Flickr)

Add in a tasty owl snack – Owl S’mores from Living Locurto:

Print out this complete the owl coloring activity (or check out more owl coloring pages):

SimplyBirthdayStuff.com has an adorable Owl party set that includes everything from owl invitations to owl candy bar wrappers, owl lip balms and more! Click on the images below to get ordering information for everything you need to make your Owl Birthday Party a total hoot!!

Owl Blossom Deluxe Party Pack for 8 Owl Blossom Cupcake Boxes (4) Owl Blossom 18" Foil Balloon" Owl Blossom Party Favor Box Owl Blossom Invitations (8) Owl Blossom Personalized Birthday Banner Medium 24" x 80" Owl Blossom Centerpiece Owl Blossom Giant Wall Decals Owl Blossom Stickers (4 sheets) Owl Blossom Blowouts (8) Owl Blossom Activity Placemats (4) Hippie Chick Owl – 22" x 20" – Super Shaped Mylar Birthday Party Balloon Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Squiggle Shaped Birthday Party Invitations Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Squiggle Shaped Birthday Party Thank You Cards Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Classic Personalized Birthday Party Favor Boxes Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Mini Personalized Birthday Party Favor Boxes Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – 20 Personalized Mini Candy Bar Wrapper Sticker Labels Birthday Party Favors Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Personalized Candy Bar Wrapper Birthday Party Favors Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Personalized Birthday Party Placemats Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Body Butter Personalized Birthday Party Favors Owl – Look Whooo’s Having A Birthday – Lip Balm Personalized Birthday Party Favors ""19"""" Owl Blue Pull-String Pinata"" ""19"""" Owl Pink Pull-String Pinata"" Owl Rubber Stamp American Girl Crafts: Owl Case Sewing Kit American Girl Crafts: Owl Sew & Stuff Kit Martha Stewart Crafts Stickers Owl On Sign Post

How cute is this peace sign birthday cake made by my super talented friend Jess?? The peace sign and vibrant paint splatter shapes (which look like tie-dye to me) are done with fondant and would be the perfect centerpiece for a birthday party for a tween or teen girl.

A Peace, Love, Fun or Hippie Chick style party is a pretty easy party theme to do for girls. There are a myriad of easy tie-dye and 70′s inspired crafts you can make with them such as:

• Easy Friendship Bracelets
• Safety Pin Bracelets
• Tie Dye Decoupage Monogram Frames
• Stenciled Frames
• Flower Power Shadow Box Frame Craft
• Beaded Ribbon Necklaces
• Tie Dye Wall Letters

There are some super fun peace sign inspired party products available now, too. I love how the Hippie Chick pattern incorporates butterflies, the very popular owl (there is an owl resurgence going on now – check out these cute owl cakes), and pinks and browns. You can’t go wrong with tie-dye party supplies either! Click on the images below for ordering information.

Hippie Chick Deluxe Party Pack & 8 Favor Boxes Tie Dye Party Deluxe Birthday Box Hippie Chick Dinner Plates (8) Hippie Chick Tablecover Hippie Chick Temporary Tattoos Assorted (24) Hippie Chick Birthday Invitations (8) Hippie Chick Notepads Assorted (12) Hippie Chick Nail File Assorted Hippie Chick Pencil Sharpeners Assorted (12) Hippie Chick Crepe Paper (1 roll) Hippie Chick Hip Hat Hippie Chick Buttons Assorted (12) Hippie Chick Birthday Confetti Hippie Chick Headband Hippie Chick Friendship Bracelet Kits (12) Hippie Chick Bubble Bottle (1) Hippie Chick Jump Rope Hippie Chick Tin Box Carry All Hippie Chick Flip Brush Hippie Chick Pencils Assorted (12) Hippie Chick Owl Mylar Balloon Hippie Chick Personalized Mini Zipper Pull Hippie Chick Mylar Balloon Alex Toys Tie Dye Party tie dye activity kit

How cool is this?? You can get party supplies with your child’s photo and your own personal message on it. And we are not talking about generic, ho hum party supplies either. Celebrate Express – my favorite source for Kids’ Birthday Party Supplies has just launched a new product line that allows you to upload your child’s photo onto 5 different items in a party pack. Items that can be personalized include:

• 9″ Dinner Plates (2 lines of text & Image)
• Invitations (Front- 2 lines of text & Image | Inside- Party Details)
• Thank-You Notes (Front- 2 lines of text & Image | Inside- not personalized)
• Centerpieces (2 lines of text & Image)
• Empty Favor boxes (2 lines of text & Image)

Personalization is available on 14  exclusive party themes with more themes to be added in 2010. Click on images to pick your perfect party theme and start personalizing! (and save $20 on orders $100 or more! )

Lil’ Princess 1st Personalized Party Theme Lil’ Prince 1st Personalized Party Theme THE PIG Personalized Party Theme Pink Skull Personalized Party Theme LadyBugs: Oh So Sweet Personalized Party Theme Girls’ Lil’ Cupcake 1st Personalized Party Theme Construction Pals Personalized Party Theme Monster Jam Personalized Party Theme Mod Monkey Personalized Party Theme Pink Poodle in Paris Personalized Party Theme Horse Power Personalized Party Theme Yo Gabba Gabba! Personalized Party Theme Rock Star Personalized Party Theme

My daughter turns 9 just a few days after Christmas, and while we have decided to have her party at the local bowling alley like we did for her sister’s birthday this year, we haven’t quite decided on a theme. One of the themes we are looking at right now is the Penguin Candyland theme from Birthday in a Box. Its wintery, not too cutesy, but still fun.

If we go with this theme I think we could really have fun with it. The party will be in the afternoon and I will order pizza for the girls at the bowling alley. Rather than make a big cake, I am thinking penguin inspired cupcakes. The party pattern is actually good inspiration for a penguin cupcake and I don’t think it would be too hard to make the penguin face just with icing or even icing and a few candies. Or I could simply ice them with white frosting and top them with penguin finger puppets from Oriental Trading. Or I could really take the easy way out and simply ice them and create cupcake toppers from the printable penguin gift tags created by my good friend Jen Goode. I will most likely display the cupcakes on my friend’s 3-tier serving tower again which just happens to be red and white. If I add some gumdrops, snocaps, and peppermints on the trays with the cupcakes I think it will look really cute.

For the goody bags I found super cute penguin bubbles for 29 cents each and peppermint candy erasers for 39 cents a 6-pack at Birthday in a Box (see below for ordering details). Oriental Trading Company also has a ton of cute penguin erasers, notebooks, craft kits and pencils that I can easily add to the goody bags without spending a fortune.

If we end up going with the Penguin Candlyand theme for my daughter’s birthday I will take plenty of pictures and add them to this post. In the meantime, here is the whole Penguin Candyland collection – click on the images for details and ordering information.

Are you tired of giving out the the same old party favors? How about some unique party favors your guests will love and they are very affordable, too?  Each of the following party favors are less than $4.00 a piece and are available from Beau-Coup, one of my favorite suppliers of high quality favors and inspiration for parties, weddings, baby showers and other celebrations.

Which one is your favorite? I personally love the mini candy dispensers because there is so much you could use them for afterwards.

Take a look at those cuties!! Next time you are having a birthday party, need favors for a wedding or baby shower or want a fun way to spread the news about your company, take a look at PartyBeans. The PartyBeans team sent me some of their products customized with my website logo on them so I could see first hand what a cool idea this is.

For under $5 a piece (for most of their products) and even less if you are ordering in bulk (as low as $1.29 each), you can completely customize a party favor your guest will hang on to!

So you start at the Party Beans website and you select what kind of tin you want to work with – they have all shapes and sizes including a jelly bean shaped tin, dog bone shaped tin, the snip-snap tins (that left my daughter saying, “ooh this is sooo cool” in her teenage voice) and others. Next, you select what candy is going to be in it – Jelly Belly jellybeans, M&Ms, wicked cool mints, chocolate lentils or get them without a  filler and fill with your own favorites at home.

And now the fun really starts! You get to customize the container. Pick from PartyBeans large selection of backgrounds and clip art images or upload your own photo, design or logo. Make it truly your own – a favor your guests will love! Add text if you want as well.

The PartyBeans team work magic because your order is shipped out the very next day! So even those of us who are known to procrastinate just a bit (uh, yes, that would be me) can have the coolest favors at our event.

As a mother of three boys, Lego is a very popular activity in our home. Lego means “play well or build well” in Latin I am told and these little blocks provide hours of entertainment in my house. My oldest son Nicholas inspired this cupcake as part of a summer project we are doing together. Nicholas has started his own Lego Blog (with my help) and as a surprise I made him these cupcakes to celebrate.

I found the most amazing “Lego like” candies in my grocery stores bulk section and from there the Lego cupcake was born. (Get Candy Blox online)

You can actually play with the candy and build with it, so if you are hosting a Lego themed party you can place them on a cake or make each cupcake unique.

To make the cupcakes I baked a batch of cupcakes using a boxed cake mix. Then I colored some icing in Kelly green with food color gel from Wilton and added it to my piping bag with tip number 233 Wilton Piping tip also known as the “grass tip”. I covered the cupcake with the green icing and stacked my “Lego candy” on top. These are really easy cupcakes to make and even if you do not like to pipe icing on your cupcakes you can use a knife and cover your cupcake with any color icing and add your candy as I did.

You can also add small Lego figures to the cupcakes as take home gifts, as well. I found these collectible Lego mini figures at Toys R Us or you can order the LEGO Community Mini-figure Set – 256 Pieces and have some for the cupcakes and some for play. Whether you are having a Lego Party or just a Lego playdate these easy cupcakes are sure to have the wow factor you are looking for.

~ Karen Owen aka Karenmomofthree