Xander has his birthday party at the movie theater every year.  We have done Toy Story, Wreck it Ralph and this year, Monster’s Inc. We started off the party planning with a photo shoot for his invitation.  This was a tough one because I had Xander on a black screen and he didn’t understand what I was trying to do.  I told him to pretend to be scary but he was a little confused.  I tried showing him a picture of what I was doing, but I think he thought giant Disney World characters in Monster’s Inc. costumes we going to walk in the door at any moment, so that didn’t help.  Luckily we got a usable shot.

The movie theater provides the entertainment… which is the featured film.  They also provide popcorn and water.   So Xander’s party prep is usually fairly simple… candy bags, party favors, the birthday cake, and a montage video of the birthday boy.

I made Mike Wazowski candy bags.  We bought a few packs of green paper bags.  And using my die-cutting machine I turned them into Mike’s eye.

                      
I also used my die-cutting machine to make Monster’s Inc. hard hats.   I bought these hard hats.   And then I added the logos.  If you don’t have a die-cut machine, you can still make both of these projects with a regular printer.  Purchase some label or sticker paper, then print and cut out the eyes for the candy bags, and the logos for the hard hats.  To be honest after making them I think the label paper might have been cheaper and easier and probably would have looked essentially the same, so don’t stress if you make them with your regular printer.

The next project was the cake!

My cousin Becca helps me make amazing cakes!  Last year it was a huge Wreck it Ralph cake, so we knew we had to do something special again.   We did some googling and we merged a couple different ideas until we came up with an awesome design.  I bought this half ball cake mold and we used a regular square pan for the bottom.   We experimented with fondant for the first time which was pretty interesting…  kind of like clay.  We used a grass icing tip to make the blue and purple fur.  In the end I think we pulled it off, not only did it come out better then I expected, it looked and tasted amazing.

The last project was all my husband.  Every year he makes our boys a video on their birthdays to highlight all the fun we had.   Xander’s birthday is fun because we get to show it in the big theater.  Bradyn’s birthday is in the summer and we set up a projector in the back yard and we have a drive in viewing.

We film our kids throughout the year and we shoot little 10-30 second clips because any larger and its hard to edit.  I do my part by going through all the footage and selecting the best clips.  I also try to make sure all Xander’s cousins get in at least one clip of the video because I know they love seeing themselves on the big screen.  I look forward to the finished montage every year.  These videos make me tear up when I see the whole year put together like this.  My husband’s videos are truly amazing!

 

We play Xander’s montage video right after the movie.  And then we sing Happy Birthday and eat cake!  This year we decided  to all go to the playground across the street from the Theater to burn off some energy after sitting through the movie and eating a bunch of candy and cake.  His birthday is in March so the weather tends to be yucky.  It was a little cold this year, but the kids still had a blast on the playground. Here is a short montage video I made to sum up all the fun we had. I can’t wait to start planning his movie theater party for next year.

 

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