Here's how to throw the perfect toy story birthday party! From themed menus, outfits, goodie bags, invitations and decorations - you'll find a thorough collection of all of my favorite Toy Story birthday ideas!
Table of Contents
Toy Story Birthday Ideas
Before I threw my first Toy Story birthday party, I went straight to pinterest to get inspired. Of course, there were hundreds of great ideas all of which helped make my kid’s “two infinity and beyond’ 2nd birthday party a success!
If you would like to see all of the original creators who I was inspired by, feel free to check out my toy story birthday ideas Pinterest board!
When it came to the menu, I wanted something that was both kid and adult friendly. I also knew I wanted most of the dishes themed while also being easy and approachable.
Since it was going to be a bonkers day, I wanted to be able to do half of the prep work the day before so the day-of wasn’t so bananas. For convenience, I used a ton of my favorite recipes all of which are linked below.
I also linked the rest of the party materials in this post (the clickable blue text) but if I missed something, you can always comment on this post or find me on instagram and send me a message.
The Menu
Here is the menu that we ended up with. I highly recommend it because it was easy and totally delicious for everybody at the party.
- Spiral Cut Slinky Hot Dogs
- Woody’s Mini Cheeseburgers
- Jessie’s Caprese Sandwiches
- Planet Pizza Bagel Bites (which I burned but I’ll talk more about that later on lol)
- Bo Peep and Her Lamb’s Pirate Booty
- Hamm’s Golden Coins (Ritz Crackers) and Dips
- Mr. Potato Head Fruit Salad
- Slink’s Spiral Pasta Salad
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Space Stars
Menu Details
To save myself some time, I created a to-do list that broke down the day before prep and the day of prep.
The day before, I shaped and seasoned the burger patties, made the smash burger sauce and cut the hot dogs into spirals. For the burger recipe, I stuck to my butter smash burgers with my famous smashburger sauce.
And for the hot dogs, I cut them in spirals to mimic the shape of slinky dog. For the kids, I served with ketchup and mustard. And for the adults, I paired them with kewpie mayo, sriracha and the Asian slaw from my Asian Hot Dog recipe.
For the vegetarian guests, I made my ciabatta caprese sandwich recipe and cut them in half. I know that these are not Toy Story themed but the red and white matched jessie’s cowgirl hat perfect so I named them in her honor. These were def the hit of the party for both meat eaters and vegetarians alike!
The planet pizza bagel bites were my original idea but after burning the first batch, I was feeling overwhelmed so I ordered two large cheese pizzas from the pizza place down the street. I asked them to cut the pie into squares and slapped a Pizza Planet Sticker on it. I just googled an image and printed it out using the sticker paper that I use for my cookbook shipping labels. 10/10 highly recommend taking this route.
I saw this Bo Peep idea on Pinterest and had to replicate! I stuffed ziplock snack bags with Pirate’s Booty and then printed out her lamb’s face on my sticker mailing label paper and stuck them on. Before serving, I added a little bo-peep doll in front of the basket to tie it all together.
For more snacks, I ordered Hamm off of amazon and then made a big platter full of ritz crackers to resemble coins. I also added some celery behind him for the gluten-free people. For dips, I did beet hummus, my spicy pimento cheese dip, and my tzatziki dip.
A few days before the party, I was food styling for First Watch and came home with a ton of fresh pineapples. I grabbed my kid’s Mr. Potato Head toys and stuck the eyes and mouths right on the pineapple. It was so cute! For the fruit salad that was served with it, it was a mix of strawberries, cara cara oranges, kiwi and blueberries.
For the pasta salad, I used rotini in honor of slinky dog’s coils. I used my caprese pasta salad recipe but swapped the mozzarella for grilled halloumi and broiled the tomatoes so they’d be nice and jammy.
And for the picky eater kids, I made a few peanut butter and jelly’s. I used my star shaped sandwich cutter to make them a little more galactic and put some aliens around the platter.
As I’m writing this post, I also realize that I totally forgot to make the kids rocket fuel juice and the adults their “buzzed” cocktail. Oh well!! Maybe he’ll want another Toy Story birthday next year?!
The Desserts
When it came time to plan the desserts, my immediate reaction was to buy all of them which I probably should have done since I’m challenged in the baking department. And you’ll see exactly what I mean when you scroll down a little bit. But since I have way too much confidence in the creativity department, I went all out.
- Alien Cupcakes
- Snake in my boot Dirt Cups
- Pixar ball Cake Pops (just wait lol)
For the alien cupcakes, I used funfetti cake mix and these cute bright blue cupcake wrappers. For the icing, I whipped together equal parts cream cheese icing and marshmallow fluff. The icing was insane!!! It was so good. To get the perfect alien green color, I used this neon food coloring and these edible googly eye sprinkles.
To display them, I put some on a large cutting board and the ohters on this space themed cupcake holder.
My daughter insisted on pink cupcakes too, so I used the same cupcake/icing setup but mixed them with neon pink and purple food coloring. I spritzed each one with pink edible shimmer and made the yellow sprinkle bark with the discarded candy melts from the Pixar ball fail. On top, I sprinkled some rainbow sprinkles I let harden before breaking them into irregular chunks and then squished them into the cupcakes.
The snake in my boot chocolate pudding cups were another idea I got from Pinterest and they were so cute! I ordered these cowboy boot shot glasses off amazon and filled with with instant chocolate pudding the day before. I kept them in my fridge until about an hour before the party began. I then topped them with crushed Oreos and snake gummies.
And now let’s get to the best and worst part of this party. These damn Pixar ball cake pops were almost the death of me. I used my strawberry shortcake Oreo truffle recipe but swapped the Oreos out for peanut butter Oreos and left out the strawberries. The taste was spot-on… yet the look was dead wrong.
Since I suck at desserts, I figured I could add some neon yellow food coloring to melted white chocolate but it instantly seized up… Which is what I used to make the yellow sprinkle bark on the pink cupcakes above. I sent my husband to the store for some yellow candy melts and they were AWFUL!!! As soon as I dipped them in, they started separating and driving me insane… but I wasn’t going to let them defeat me. I ended up just going with it because YOLO.
For the blue stripe, I used blue raspberry sour belts and the red star was a edible candy sprinkle that I just stuck on. The sticks were a last minute addition and they barely stuck so you know what, maybe don’t take my advice on this one! Hahahha
Toy Story Invitations
If you don't want to make a toy story invitation yourself, there are two options! You can either buy them on amazon or buy a digital one on Etsy.
I found one I liked on Etsy, downloaded it, then edited it in canva to make it work for us.
Even if you don't have computer skills, this is super easy to do and was the quickest option for us.
The Goodie Bags
For the goodie bags, I wanted them to look like the aliens. So I started by ordering plain bright green bags. I then used a sharpie and drew on their weird little mouths then I glued on large googly eyes. The look was so easy to achieve and the whole thing took about 20 minutes.
For the goodies inside the bag, I used these cute Toy Story character stickers, Toy Story lollipops, temporary tattoos, a bag of the Bopeep Pirates Booty, a few army men and a DIY forky kit that I made from this kit that I ordered on amazon and some blue puffy paint for the mouth. Instead of glue, I added mini play-dohs to each forty kit.
The Outfits
Since my son is obsessed with Toy Story, he decided to wear his woody halloween costume with a buzz sweater on top. It was such a funny combo but so cute!
My daughter wore her cowgirl dress that she totally thought was Jessie’s outfit even though jessie wears chaps!
My husband and I rocked these Pizza Planet shirts that we found at target!
Toy Story Decorations
Since my kids have way too many Toy Story toys, I decided to lean into that and not spend a ton of money on decorations. My husband and I started collecting them around the house all week and putting them in a basket so we could easily have them on hand for decorations when it came crunch time.
The only thing I ordered was a Toy Story themed plate and cup set, some army men, 3 different color streamers, slinky dog hanging swirl decorations, and a woody and buzz mylar balloon set.
For the streamers, I used blue, white and green and put them around the house. For the balloons, I didn’t even use helium….I just blew up the balloons and just taped them to the wall. Very low key but it worked!
All in all, it was such a fun party and the kids (and adults had a blast!)
