Toy Story Birthday Party | Brothers Turn Three

Our third time celebrating our sweet boys’ birthday – how can it be! I can’t resist a good theme, so after a Brown Bear first birthday and Little Blue Truck second birthday, we went with a Toy Story birthday theme this year. They LOVE the first three movies (affectionately known as “regalee (regular) Toy Story”, “airport Toy Story” and “trash truck Toy Story” in our house) and funny enough, Shep really loves Woody while Hayes really loves Buzz. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me, Hayes & Shep are THREE!” felt like the perfect fit.

If you’re looking for neutral, retro Toy Story birthday party ideas or Toy Story themed food ideas, I hope you find some inspiration here!

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There are a million different directions you can go with a Toy Story birthday party theme (TWO infinity and beyond, reach FOUR the sky) but for our decor, I wanted to stick with neutrals, light blue, and pops of red, highlighting the cute little details more so than the characters – a retro feel but still “little boy”-ish. I’m so happy with how everything turned out!

I found this set of watercolor Toy Story character designs on Etsy and used the digital downloads to create the invitation and all of the signage in Photoshop (the fonts are Superclarendon, included with Adobe, and Aesthetic, free on Dafont.com). I had everything printed at Office Depot again and shipped to my house. Easy, quick, and affordable!

The Pizza Planet pizza boxes (16 inch size) were another Etsy find, along with a set of Pizza Planet stickers I put on plain white 16 oz cups. The wooden rocket ships are from Oriental Trading.

I love to do a plain white cake and add little themed details on top. For our Toy Story party theme, I envisioned the army men on a “mission” to the cake, so I had them starting to climb the rope on one end of the table, up and over our light fixture, and back down to the cake on the other end, using tape to fix them in place on the tablecloth and runner so little hands or a bump into to the table wouldn’t knock them all over. Turned out so cute!

We had Toy Story playing in the background of course, with a super easy DIY banner I made using strips of bandanas, brown and red cowboy hats, and clothespins. The other bandanas and hats in the set served as party favors for the kids to take home after wearing them during the party.

The roll of light blue paper I used to make the sky backdrop also served as the table runner, a runner on our kitchen island under all the food, and for gift wrapping. It was the perfect touch of light blue throughout the space!

I found this outline of the exact cloud shape from Andy’s sky wallpaper, and covered some Amazon boxes with kraft paper to make the town buildings – I used a Sharpie and went back over everything with brown crayon for those.

Gold candles for their “golden” birthday – they turned 3 on the 3rd of September!

This versatile, neutral checkered tablecloth was just what I was looking for to brighten up the room without being too busy. I layered two of them since our dining table has a leaf in it and I wanted it to still hang down pretty far on all sides.

With the extra wooden rocket ships, I made a very last-minute “Decorate a Rocket Ship” station with washable markers – it ended up being such a hit! The kids were so excited to color these and make it their own. Stickers would’ve been cute for this too!

And now for the food! I LIVE for a good punny food label. For our main food, we served pizza, but on the island, we had lots of sides and snacks to go with our theme. Keep scrolling for all the Toy Story themed party food ideas!

This funfetti dip was so simple to make and a huge hit. I had several guests ask for the recipe and caught a few kiddos sneaking giant spoonfuls :) all you need is 3/4 of a box of funfetti cake mix (heat treated, see note below), one tub of light cool whip, and one single serving size of vanilla yogurt (not Greek). Mix it all together, stirring lightly so the sprinkles don’t smear, and chill for 1-2 hours before serving cold with Teddy Grahams. It’s so fluffy! You can add more sprinkles on top if desired.

It’s not advised to eat raw flour, so you can heat treat the cake mix by spreading it out on a cookie sheet and baking at 350 for 5 minutes + letting cool before stirring in with the cool whip and yogurt.

Andy’s mom says this at the beginning of the first movie during his birthday party, right before she steps on the poor army guy. We had cool ranch Doritos and barbeque chips in his honor! Lol.

The tea party scene cracks me up every time! “Don’t you get it! Do you see the hat?! I am Mrs. Nesbitt!” We also had the “Not Poisoned Water Hole” next to the tea.

Here’s a recap of what we served for our Toy Story themed party food:

  • “Pizza Planet” pizza

  • Rex’s Cretaceous Crudités – veggie tray

  • Slinky Salad – pasta salad

  • Little Green Aliens – green grapes (in hindsight, I should’ve had some pre-cut for the littles)

  • Lotso’s Funfetti Dip – see recipe above, served with Teddy Grahams

  • Jessie’s Haystacks – Rice Krispie treats

  • “Here come the chips! I’ve got cool ranch and barbeque!” – Doritos + bbq chips

  • Bo Peep’s Sheep – Pirates Booty

  • “There’s a snake in my boot!” – Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers

  • Forky’s Friends – utensils

  • Mrs. Nesbitt’s Tea – iced tea

  • Not Poisoned Water Hole – water

  • Battery Juice and Rocket Fuel – juice boxes + Capri Suns

I always worry that I don’t have enough for guests to DO at parties, but between mingling and gathering around the food, opening presents (which was COMPLETE chaos with two at this age, hilariously so), and singing/eating cake, two hours went by fast! The kids loved coloring their rockets and running around in their hats and bandanas. Luckily we had great weather so they all played in the backyard, too, and had a great time.

Our big three-year-olds LOVED this theme – they loved seeing all the decor and details and were even more obsessed than I thought they’d be with their Woody and Buzz dolls they got to open (which by the way, now are interactive and talk to each other if you place them near each other!). It was a pretty sweet day celebrating these boys.

You’ve Got a Friend in Me –– Hayes and Shep are THREE! Thanks for stopping by!