“I’m so excited to share this party with you! Months before our lil’ guy’s 3rd birthday I had an idea of wanting to go with some sort of a carnival theme. Since our son loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I had started going in that direction of maybe a Mickey and Friends Carnival theme. I really wanted to try to do something different though. I also had some other ideas that were non-character themed as well. I kept running ideas past him to see which seemed more fun and exciting to him. Donald Duck kept coming up. Bottom line is that he’s a little boy (my baby bear) and it’s HIS birthday party and we want it to be a theme that HE loves and that HE’s excited about. Now that he’s getting older he can choose his party theme. I don’t mind going with a character themed party because I can always put my own creative spin on it.
“Who’s got the sweetest disposition? One guess, guess who…No one but Donald Duck!” That’s one of Donald Duck’s theme songs that debuted in 1947. This is a well-known song in our household since we love watching old classic Donald Duck cartoons (late 1930′s – 1950′s). Our lil’ guy refers to Mickey Mouse cartoons as Donald Duck cartoons, he loves Donald Duck the best and it’s Donald Duck this and Donald Duck that. He even won a photo contest this past October dressed as guess who…Donald Duck! :)
So one day while watching one of the old Donald Duck cartoons I was really inspired. At the beginning of the cartoon, while playing the credits, there was a white wooden fence with a Donald Duck face drawn in white paint. I knew that I wanted an old wooden fence as the backdrop to the dessert table. I didn’t have any other ideas at that point except that I knew I wanted an old fence backdrop. That’s what sparked the start of a Vintage Donald Duck County Fair birthday party! We checked with our son to make sure what theme he wanted and the vote went to Donald Duck!
One of the challenges was finding just the right venue. I researched and researched and finally found the perfect place for our party, Legends Ranch. It’s a private ranch that is used for weddings, birthdays and other events. This location transports you from the city and desert to a different place with green grass, big trees, beautiful backdrops and lots of vintage props. Beautiful!
Planning took months especially with the holidays and two lil’ ones at home. But it was so much fun! Most of the details were all handmade by me. A labor of love, is that what they call it? Yep, definitely a labor of love!
County fairs have so many features from rides, food, games to farm animals, baked goods, arts and crafts, etc. I was set on trying to include all or most of these features at our party and transport our guests to an old-fashioned charming county fair with cotton candy, hot dogs, cream sodas, classic games, quilts and of course Donald Duck. I had to keep all of these factors in mind when planning.
The Blue Egg Events did a gorgeous job of designing the custom invitation and accessories. The invitations really had the wow factor. I was super impressed!
I especially wanted the dessert table to resemble a mini county fair. I started out with a really old wooden fence backdrop. Hanging on the backdrop was a beautifully designed county fair birthday sign. The centerpiece was one of my custom cupcake stands that’s simple and rustic looking. It displayed gorgeous fondant themed cupcakes and a super cute Donald Duck themed cake from the very talented Juliette of Fairy Tale Cakes. The cake had the cutest lil’ fondant Donald Duck hats, bowtie and carnival marquee letter “C” as the topper. To the right of the cupcake stand was the ferris wheel, a miniature popcorn booth and swirly lollipops. To the left of the stand was a vintage looking pickup truck with homemade mini fruit pies and barn with farm animal sugar “cookie” cupcake toppers. The table was rounded out by rice krispy treats on a stick, a variety of cupcakes and custom designed sugar cookies up front. The tablecloth tied in beautifully with its matching colored ruffles. I love ruffles and was determined to make the tablecloth along with a really cute bunting tablecloth that was displayed on one of the food tables.
Another big display that I loved was the custom wooden popcorn/cotton candy booth. It was a great size for the kids. Not only was it a perfect prop but it folds for compact storage! The homemade cotton candy was beautifully displayed at the booth alongside yummy kettle corn popcorn, bottled cream sodas, retro paper straws and gorgeous custom designed county fair tickets, wow! Have you had strawberry lemonade flavored cotton candy? It is sooo good! Here’s a little trivia: Did you know that one of Donald Duck’s favorite drinks is strawberry soda? Yep, we had strawberry soda :)
I really like dressing up to match party themes. The Baer Essentials custom designed our lil’ guy’s birthday shirt to resemble Donald Duck’s suit. The suspenders on the shirt added to the vintage flair of the party along with the paper boy hat he wore. She also designed the cutest shirt for our baby boy with a bowtie and vest to coordinate. I wore a 1950’s striped full pleated dress from Vintage Frocks of Fancy. It was lots of fun!
I loved the custom birthday chalkboard poster by Moulage Collection! It’s a great item to hang on the wall and cherish for years. We love it!
Now I can’t stress enough how grateful and impressed I have been with all of the vendors I worked with in preparing for the party. Every single vendor provided not only great products/services, delicious one too, but outstanding customer service. Plus an extra huge thank you to all the very generous vendors. There were so many details that played a part in the party’s charm. Seriously, I could not have had all the details complete without you.
Thanks Wendhy for your beautiful photos! You captured the details wonderfully. It was a pleasure working with you again.
We had two great county fair helpers too! They were a great help. They passed out party favors such as the custom handcrafted prize ribbons for the boys and custom designed pageant sashes for the girls. They helped with the games, cotton candy/popcorn booth, etc. Plus they were excited to wear the bowties I made them. That was cool! Thanks!
My favorite part of the party was singing “Happy Birthday” and our lil’ guy blowing out his candles (cool #3 sparkler alongside the candles)! My 2nd favorite part of the party was our friend Tim the singer/songwriter/guitarist’s performance. He’s awesome and so much fun! He sang a customized birthday song (super cool), two of Donald Duck’s themed songs, “Hokey Pokey”, a rendition of Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” with some funny lyrics we sing at home with the kids and “Happy Birthday”. Loved it!
I do have to say our son was just head over heels in love with his custom Donald Duck themed piñata. It was exactly what our son wanted. He wanted a star piñata but he also wanted a Donald Duck piñata. Voila! His piñata was a star shaped piñata that was Donald Duck themed. About a week or two before the party he kept wanting to check on it, hold it, take a peek at the candy inside and show it off when Papa came to visit! LOL!
The best moments while planning the party were when our lil’ guy, the birthday boy would check in on the different items I had made and would say “That’s for my birthday? That’s pretty Mama” and “Thank you!”. That was from a 2 almost 3 year-old. Aaaahhh, that just melted my heart and put a huge smile on my face. How cute! Also seeing him have such a fun time along with our lil’ guests was wonderful. All in all the party was a success. Definitely worth it!
A super special thank you to my husband, my Dad and our friend Don who is the best woodworker ever!”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
The above red buckets are available in my shop. I simply glued on two white circles to make them look like Mickey Mouse. The same idea could also be used at a Minnie Mouse party…just get black buckets (or pink) and glue polka dots onto the buckets.
Make these hats out of regular red party hats from my shop and black paper circles. Simply attach two black paper circles to the back of the party hat.
Tutorial on how to make the above balloon wreath on the video at the top of this post.
Tutorial on how to make the cupcake liners in the below video…
Watch the video below to learn how to make these adorable Mickey Mouse Oreo pops!
With the ingredients below make these fun Mickey Mouse caramel apples! Tutorial on the video.
Make the below Mickey Mouse gumball machine by attaching black paper circles to the back of the machine with tape.
Tutorial on how to make the above Mickey Mouse favor bags in the video at the top of this post.
Tutorial on how to make these fun Mickey Mouse Oreo pops on the video at the top of the post.
All Mickey Mouse Party supplies used in this party are from Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
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