Aria + Vivi's Minions Pandemic-Safe Birthday Party

We had planned to do a "Minions theme" birthday for my daughters ever since seeing the previews for "Minions 2: Rise of Gru" last year during another movie. Unfortunately, when the pandemic happened, the movie release date was postponed to Summer of 2021, instead of Summer 2020 (which would have been before our August 2020 birthday.) What is interesting and actually worked out in our favor was that the marketing and product branding/licensing for the movie still occurred this summer so the Minions were all over Happy Meals, snacks and toys which worked out great for our party!

We love the existing Despicable Me + Minions movies so we were still happy to continue with our theme even without the new movie coming out this year. We did, however, want to take all the proper precautions to keep our party safe but still fun.

Instead of sending a "normal" invitation in the mail, I designed illustrations for a 4-page long invitation that I sent as a PDF attachment via email. I used fun graphics and fonts to explain the rules for the party and let guests know what safety precautions we were taking. We limited the guest list to a very small amount of people, and scheduled arrival and departure times to lessen exposure and shortened the party to 1.5-2 hours per group. I sewed Minions masks for all guests and we provided hand soap and hand sanitizer for everyone to use as needed. We also made the food and drinks single serving prepackaged whenever possible. We rented a tent, tables and chairs so the party could be 99% outdoors (guests only came in to use bathroom or wash hands-- and had to wear a mask when indoors). We cleaned the bathroom in between guests. Outdoors, tables and chairs were spaced out so guests could be socially distant. Tables were wrapped in yellow plastic tablecloths with denim-printed table runners. We also came up with games and activities for the kids that did not require touching each other or being too close together.

The game we did was "Pin the Eye on the Minion" which they wore their mask over their eyes, were spun by their parent and then put an eye on the Minions on the fence. It was a lot of fun! We also provided foam noodle water shooters for each guest and did a water fight activity which the kids loved!

For the food, we were able to buy a bunch of pre-packed fruit snacks, Teddy Grahams, Ritz Bitz and other items with Minions already on them. The entrees were hotdogs for kids (which I packaged in foil hotdog envelopes for both safety and to keep them warm) and I even got tiny packages of ketchup and mustard for those! I made sandwiches for adults (which were wrapped in sandwich wrappers). Guests helped themselves to a bag of chips and any other packaged sides they wanted. I felt this was much safer than doing buffet or family style dining which is what we usually do. One of the best prepackaged items were the Minion twinkies, which I made by downloading wrappers from this link:
https://www.tonyastaab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Despicable-Me-2-Push-Up-Cupcake-Wrappers.pdf

The Minions Twinkies were a huge hit--But nothing was better than the cake that my friend Marriam of Flour & Flowers by MK designed for me. I asked her for a few things, 2 cakes, bridged with a realistic-looking banana, with 3 Minions (Bob, Kevin and Stuart) and one of the Minions needed to be eating a tiny piece out of the cake. We did chocolate with strawberry buttercream in one cake and vanilla with buttercream in the other. It was great as each of my birthday girls technically had their own cake! The cake tasted as amazing as it looked!

The amazing cake was the focal point of the round balloon arch display I designed. The display included a circle of Minions-colored balloons along with Minions stuffed animals, Minions MegaBlocks sets, and small floral arrangements I designed with yellow carnations and Minions balls from McD's Happy Meals in the middle. Simple, cheap and perfect for the theme!

Of course we had to make a big impact in our front yard too, so I did a balloon cluster on the house and in the front yard. As a family, we dressed up as Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith and Agnes from the Despicable Me movies. The girls loved dressing up and they had the best time. They had not seen any friends the entire summer so even seeing a couple of friends at a time for a small amount of time was a joy for them. I am so glad we decided to have this SAFE, small, party for our girls!

We can happily report that playing it safe and being cautious seems to have worked out well, a little over a week after the party and no one that attended it has any Covid-19 symptoms or is feeling ill. So that's even better!

VENDORS:

Planning, Balloons, Flowers, Illustration, Signage, Masks: Kio Kreations
http://kiokreations.com/

Photography: Jennifer Kaye Photography
https://jenniferkayephotography.com/

Cake, Cookies + Meringues: Flour & Flowers by MK http://www.flourandflowersbymk.com/

Tent, Table + Chairs: Kids4Jump

Table Runners: Tableclothsfactory.com

• What People Ate

  Guests enjoyed single-serving pre-packaged snacks (many minion's themed) and homemade sandwiches (vegetarian, Italian, Club) wrapped individually and also hotdogs for the kids.

• What People Drank

  Water, Juice, LaCroix, Pop

• Desserts

  Cake and cookies + Minions Twinkies

• Party Favors

  Minions-themed Covid mask inside Minion's themed goodie bags which also had water shooters, stampers, stickers, Lip Smackers, treats + more!

• Activities / Games

  Water shooters/water play, Pin the Eye on the Minion

• Kio Kreations

  Planner, Designer, Balloons, Floral Design

  Kio Kreations (me, Kristen Janes) designed this party for two of my daughters who love Despicable Me and Minions and we made it as safe and fun as possible!

• Jennifer Kaye Photography

  Photographer

  Jenny took the photos of the event and family

• Flour & Flowers by MK

  Cake + Cookies Maker

  MK made the amazing cake, edible (fake!) banana and figures, plus the cookies + meringues! She's amazing!