For an afternoon, my tween and teen (and all their friends) actually acted like kids again and not little adults. I can’t thank Disney enough for that!
When I first found out that I was selected by MomSelect to host a DisneySide @Home Celebration, I was so excited. Then as I started seeing the box of goodies that they sent everyone to work into the parties, I got a little scared. My daughters are 11 and 13. How could I pull off a party with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed-party supplies while also working in RunDisney, the Muppets, HP Photo paper, and everything else?
Our family loves Disney, so I knew I could find a way. I wanted something that would be fun for the kids but also make the most of all of the great sponsored treats. After thinking about it for weeks, I decided on Karaoke. Here’s how we pulled it off.
The Set Up
First we printed off invitations using the photo paper provided by HP. Their site was really easy to use and made it easy to incorporate images and text. We went with a “Frozen” theme because we knew it would be one of the top movies for karaoke!
Next we started planning how the kids would pick the songs to sing. We decided to use a combination of all of our old movies, DVDs, and CDs plus YouTube. For the most part they looked through the stacks of media to decide on songs and then found the karaoke versions online. Who knew we had so many Disney movies in the house??
The food worried me the most. We were having the party in the middle of the afternoon, so I knew I would keep it simple. I also wanted to incorporate the Craisins that Disney had sent as well as the cupcake holders and paper cups. We ended up using the cupcake holders for M&M’s and the paper cups to hold snack mix. I purchased little pre-made 2-bite cupcakes and Mickey picks to put in them. At the center we kept it healthy with baby carrots and sliced apples. I couldn’t believe how many odds and ends of Disney cups, plates, and serving dishes I had!
Figuring out a way to incorporate the Run Disney signs was tricky at first but we ended up deciding on making signs that the kids could hold up to encourage each other while they were signing. Not only would it be fun, but it would include more people than just the singers.
At the very last minute we decided to set up a slide show of our 13 years of Disney trip pictures. It ended up being one of my favorite parts of the party! Before the karaoke began, we used music from a Disney song list we created on Spotify.
Party Time
As the guests started arriving, we switched from the Spotify music list to the actual karaoke music. For 3 hours there was non-stop singing in my living room! Some of the girls came in costumes or Disney shirts. For the rest, we had a pile of “props” like tiaras, tutus, and even High School Musical pompoms. While the girls sang quite a variety of different Disney songs (old and new), I think that I heard “Let It Go” at least 10 times..and there were only 9 girls!
My daughter and her best friend Sam got creative with their Anna and Elsa costumes. If only they had told Sam’s mom in advance that they were using her shower curtain!
At the end we had a “goodies” table for the kids (why don’t I have a picture of that??) with lots of fun things for them to take home including candy, Mickey straws, Muppets calendars, and a Mickey and Minnie print. But the highlight was definitely all of the pictures that I had been printing throughout the party on the HP photo paper. Each girl left with a reminder of the fun times spent with friends plus a box of paper for printing at home.
I can’t thank Disney and MomSelect enough for sending so many things for us to use to throw this party. The girls really enjoyed themselves and as a family we got to take a trip down memory lane looking through our old photos, listening to Disney music, and even pulling out long-forgotten toddler Princess plates. We love showing our #DisneySide and can’t wait until our trip there this summer!
What a great idea! Looks like a lot of fun!
I love the karaoke idea! We didn’t officially do that but everyone enjoyed bursting out into random songs during the trivia games!
This looks like such a great idea! It seems like they had a blast!!
Hmmm. A Disney karaoke party sounds about fun.
I love it! What an awesome idea. The girls look great, and I am sure they had a blast singing along to all of those songs. That’s a party I wouldn’t mind going to myself. 🙂
So fun! I wish I had thought of that for our #DisneySide party! We had a mix of tweens and younger kids, as I let each kid invite 4 friends. I think the karaoke would’ve been a huge hit.
OMG, this looks like so much fun. Karaoke is my favorite thing to do. 🙂 Looks like you all had a blast.
Awesome party! I’m a mom to a tween, and I work with teenagers. I firmly believe they’re still kids at heart. You did a great job bringing out their #DisneySide.
Love the invites, too!
SO fun. I’m glad to see that older kids enjoy and appreciate all things Disney too!
What a FUN time!! I especially love the slide show! We took our first family trip to Disney last summer and my husband and I are going for a kid free trip later this year (linked below).
We enjoy Disney time without the kids but sometimes I get sad that they are not with us. When I start feeling like that, I think about all of the freedom we have and quickly snap out of it! We actually took a short Disney cruise without them! We were trying to get to the next Castaway Club level before a big family trip that we took and it was a lot cheaper to take one without them…so we did! It was different but still a lot of fun and a trip that we are glad that we took.
What a cool idea!!!!! Looks like so much fun. I loved the way you incorporated so much into your party.