Age group(s) for this birthday party activity:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Birthday party planning information:
Mickey and Minnie's smiling faces are loved by all who are young at heart. Many a child has a plush Mickey or Minnie to ease thoughts of things that go Bump in the night. The movies and videos have brightened many a rainy day. So, why not invite Mickey and Minnie to a special birthday!

Food is central to any gathering of little mice. Cheese and crackers are a favorite; offering many shapes and textures of crackers can make it more interesting. Watch the size of the cheese chunks for the younger set; the smallest they can pick up may work best.

Cheese Sandwiches also rate highly with little mice. Mickey Mouse cookie cutters can help create some wonderful sandwich shapes; if your cookie cutter is plastic, you may need to cut each layer individually. If metal, perhaps several layers can be cut at one time.

Fruit (thin slices) and Milk or juice are excellent accompaniments.

Dessert? Of course! Let's talk 2 ways to make Cake: first is the lazy Mommabear way. Make cake (any size, any shape), frost w/ready-made frosting, and apply the Voila! touch of Sprinkles. Add Mickey and Minnie toys (wash, rinse, and dry first) to the top of the cake. I'd suggest a brand-new "play set," with age and safety Very much in mind. Maybe Pluto will be there, too! Add your candles, a li'l bit away from the plastic items, and you are all set.

Another way to do Cake would be cupcakes, w/mouse faces and ears. Your fave flavor, and pink icing, plus a bit of chocolate brown icing at the crown and sides of the head (refer to a Mickey picture). Round chocolate cookie wafers form the ears. Mini-marshmallows and mini chocolate brown M&M's form the eyes. A chocolate chip for each nose, red string licorice for a smile, and a bit o' red Fruit Roll Up for Minnie's bow.

If you are serving cupcakes to children under 4, please consider using Frosting and/or gel for all Mouse facial features, due to choke hazards. Icing and gel in tubes, from the grocery works fine; warm it a bit first (in a glass of warm water) and it will flow more smoothly.

Activities will vary, depending upon age; "the Farmer in the Dell" nursery rhyme and circle dance may be fun for awhile, especially if an adult has the "honor" of being the Cheese at the end. Pin the Nose on Mickey probably works fine.

Get out your collection of Disney music, and Dance!

Disney "Fun with Music" videos are great to watch, as are classic Mickey and Minnie cartoons.

Check the library or bookstore for Mickey Mouse stories, or any good Mouse stories (like "Mouse Mess," a good prelude to dining! ;-)

Mickey Mouse book possibilities, for reading aloud or for take-home parting gifts for young guests, include board books for the young set, coloring books, sound books (w/push buttons), and "Little Golden Books."

Disney items are widely available in a million things kids enjoy. With stickers, you can expand the range of Mickey Stuff even further. An example would be: putting a Mickey sticker on a bottle of soap bubbles, or...even on a bar of soap!

A nice red bar of glycerin soap would work nicely. After smoothing the sticker on securely, apply a coat of clear nail polish over the entire sticker. Allow that to dry; apply second coat. When that has dried overnight, wrap the soap(s) in bright tissue, and apply even more Mickey and Minnie stickers! Also, add a plain paper tag or sticker that says "Tubby Fun, from Mickey and Minnie...and me!"

A Mickey or Minnie sticker on an ordinary memo pad (or "doodle pad," quite inexpensive in quantity at office supply places) transforms it into somethin' special. Kids of all ages love to scribble!

Other suggestions or comments:
Encourage informal dress, so that children will be able to move freely. For an evening party, Pajamas might be really Fun! (Mickey and Minnie are sometimes available on toothbrushes, too... ;-)

Plush Toys and other Mickey/Minnie items the child already owns can be a decorative touch about the room...as long as the Birthday Child is not of at the "mine, mine, mine!" phase of life. If that be the case, you may very well prefer the Party Goods method of rounding out the decor. Plenty of other occasions to learn more deeply about sharing; we adults have things we don't want to share with anybody, don't we?