Let’s sail away with Mickey! Michelle Stewart of Michelle’s Party Plan-It took the plunge and created the cutest Nautical Mickey Mouse 3rd Birthday in any of the seven seas for her little sailor, Liam! From the cute Mickey inspired desserts to the nautical decor, this party is full of adorable treasures!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Nautical dessert table with “boat shelf”, lighthouse decorations and anchor printables
• Personalized Disney inspired sailor cap party favors
• “Message in a Bottle” Birthday Wish Jar
• Mickey Mouse Cake Pops and Steering Wheel Cupcake Toppers
• Lobster pinata + “Pin the Anchor on the Boat” activities

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Michelle…

Details & Decor

• To set the tone, I started with the invitation utilizing traditional nautical elements with some Mickey Mouse inspired details in red, white, aqua and navy blue.
• With the nautical theme being trendy right now, it was easy to find decorative items to coordinate.
• I even found Seagulls to hang overhead for that extra touch.
• I reused several elements from past parties in the same color palette to stay within my budget.
• I handcrafted most of the paper items using my cricut and I also learned to make paper boats and sailor knots on YouTube.

Favors

I personalized sailor hats for each child and hand painted muslin favor bags with red anchors and filled them with foam boats, whistles, anchor tattoos, bubbles and fish necklaces.

Food & Dessert

• We served grilled salmon and lemon herb chicken, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, crab salad, green salad, cheese toast and clam chowder.
• The dessert tables were filled with candy and cupcakes along with Mickey cake pops, marshmallow cereal treats and cookies made by my friends Jamie and Theresa.

Fun & Games

Planning a nautical themed birthday party in February calls for flexibility. Weather is very unpredictable this time of year in Southern California, I needed to have a back up plan in case it rained. It rained days before the party and right after, but luckily we had a gorgeous day filled with sunshine. The kids enjoyed playing a pin the tail on a donkey type game called “Put the Anchor on Liam’s Boat” along with a Mickey Lifesaver Toss game that I created. It was also the perfect theme to finally use a Pin the Tail on the Shark game I picked up at a yard sale for $2 some time ago, what a deal!  The smaller kids enjoyed coloring on the Activity Placemats I created.  We also hosted a boat race in a kiddie pool along with the not-so-traditional pull string pinata. The pinata proved to be a dud, since the pull string didn’t work, but the kids still enjoyed snatching up the candy once I tore the poor lobster apart. Next year the bat is coming back! To memorialize the event, we asked all the guests to leave a message in a bottle for Liam that I will give him on his 33rd birthday. My hope is when he opens the bottle in 30 years, he can reflect and appreciate all the love that surrounded him on this special day.