In a scurry to plan a birthday

For Paityn's first birthday, we went to Disneyland.

For her second, we spent the day at the San Francisco Zoo and took her to Disneyland in September (not nearly as hot).

This year, she's finally old enough to enjoy the work that I would put into a birthday party, so for her third birthday, Paityn is channeling Minnie and going pink and polka-dotted.

It's hard to believe, but August is just around the corner.  I'm trying to get a lot of planning done now so I can work through everything and not have to try to cram it all in during the last week.

Pinterest has been my organizational hero for my planning.  Here are some of the ideas I have been pinning to my birthday board:

I'm loving these cookies and it would save me some baking.

This dress is adorable, and I could get a matching one for Livie.  But there are so many cute Minnie dresses on Etsy that I can't decide.  The nice thing is that we are going to Disneyland in September and Disneyworld in January (for Livie's first birthday!) so these will get lots of use.  (And I can't forget Halloween.)

This Minnie birthday was decorated beautifully and offers some wonderful inspiration.

I love these Mousketool favor boxes.  Too cute.

I'm going to make Dan drink a ton of Starbucks drinks so that I can use these for glasses simply because they are adorable.  He likes Starbucks, so I promise, it's not torture.

I'm going the cupcake route instead of a cake.  Paityn just eats the icing, anyway.  These look easy for me to decorate.  Now I just have to find a recipe.

I think I've decided on these as the invitations, but I'm also liking these.

I've also booked a sorta-Minnie Mouse character to come for an hour, so I don't even have to worry about entertaining!  Paityn loves characters, so even though this isn't exactly identical to the Disney Minnie, I'm sure she will still love her.

This will be my first kid party, but I am keeping it pretty small, so I should be able to pull it off.

Fingers crossed.

Get an update with my after-party posts:

It's a Minnie Party: Favors! 
It's a Minnie Party: Decorations!
It's a Minnie Party: Outfits!