Miggz Transforms to Three / Transformers Birthday Party

Our son Miguel’s third birthday came soon enough this past weekend!

Two months ago, I planned up a Transformers-themed birthday party for him as mentioned in this blog post. I promised to do some DIY event styling for this…to much success (I think!)

I didn’t go crazy, just a little splash here and there of some of his favorites (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the Rescue Bots).

Here are some photos from my personal event styling of my son’s third birthday…

Enjoy!

We welcomed guests with this homemade door banner –

I made this “transforms” photo frame and some cake pops –

The “transforms” frame featured photos of Miggz growing up (transforming) from birth to two-and-a-half years old, with a title frame in the middle saying the words “Miggz Transforms to Three” –

I LOVE how this frame turned out!! A keepsake we’ll treasure for years!

I made more cake pops! These were SO fun to do!!

These were candy-coated Funfetti Cake Pops. I also made chocolate-covered Strawberry Cake Pops…those went to fast that I didn’t have a chance to photograph them!!

I also made these small table-tent signs –

Another homemade banner…this one says, “Autobots Transform” –

DIY signs by the party favors –

The party favors –

Our only splurge…something I didn’t DIY –

Transformers Pull-String Pinata

I had a BLAST styling this party for my son!!

You can DO THIS too!!

Here are some easily accessible resources that made this all possible…

• Transformers Fonts and Symbols – available for free download (for personal use) at dafont.com…they have actually added more Transformers-style fonts since I was last here!!
• Autobots Images – simply do a Google Search which will take you to hundreds of images for Autobots/Optimus Prime/Bumble Bee images and symbols
• Rescue Bots Images – also from a Google images search. Images found came from TFW2005.com. Transformers World…obviously LOTS of Transformers-related EVERYTHING from this site! I have bookmarked it for Miguel’s future reference!
• Party Favor Cups – these come 12/$1 at Walmart and are actual cups! A cheaper alternative to those party loot bags…
• Toy Water Guns – 3/$1 at Target
• Transformers Party Blowouts – 8/$4 at Walmart
• Truck-themed Party Favors – 48 pieces/$2.50 on clearance at Walmart. I opted for these instead of the more expensive Transformers-themed party favors. These toys are not meant to last, and are only meant to entertain kids at the party. They most often get thrown out once the kids get home, so why splurge?? (BUT I did get LUCKY with these though…not often you see an ideal party favor set ON CLEARANCE right before your kid’s birthday party…)
• Transformers Pull-string Pinata – $20 at Amazon.com
• Office and Craft Supplies – glossy photo printing paper, scrapbook paper, mailing labels, pre-cut card stock, roll-on glue, glue gun, scissors, markers, banner string, Scotch tape, etc are all things I had in the house which you can get from your local office and craft supply store

Thinking Up a Transformers Birthday Party

It is late June and plans are in the works for Miguel’s 3rd Birthday Party. His current favorite is Transformers, toting along his Optimus Prime toy robot everywhere we go since we went on a trip to D.C. in May.

See?

Miggz plays with his Transformers Optimus Prime Rescue Bot in our hotel room in Virginia.

On the way back to our hotel room after his Uncle Jomil and Auntie Stephanie’s civil wedding, Miggz has Optimus Prime again. Yes, the robot transforms from truck to robot and back. That’s why he LOVES it!!

And here, his Optimus Prime Rescue Bot even made it to one of our sightseeing stops in D.C.–the WWII Memorial.

Naturally, we are making Transformers the theme for Miguel’s 3rd Birthday, coming up in August. Thankfully, I don’t have to think much at all about it. Pinterest abounds in inspiration, as usual. Take for instance, this pinner’s “Transformers Birthday Party Ideas” board. And here is another one. Also, if you do a Google search for “transformers birthday” and look at the images that come up, you are bound to see plenty of ideas as well.

I don’t plan on going crazy and spending much–if any–for Miguel’s upcoming birthday party. But I have some DIY ideas inspired by the Pinterest boards I’ve mentioned above to hopefully make his 3rd birthday a memorable one. I showed Miggz pics of those Pinterest pinboards and his eyes already lit up! What more if he sees what I plan on creating…

Stay tuned 😉

Memorables and Mentionables–From His 2nd Birthday Party

Truth be told, I was hoping for a simple and stress-free birthday party. But then again, when you have kids involved…is it EVER going to be simple and stress-free?

Party Theme. CHECK.

We’ve decided on the theme months ago. While on vacation in Orlando, we came across some Little Einsteins party supplies and immediately decided that they would be perfect. Miguel just LOVES The Little Einsteins.

Party Activity. CHECK.

Over the next months I’ve TRIED to think up ways on how to celebrate his 2nd birthday in the middle of Arizona’s August simmer (and the still looming monsoon season). The only thing I could come up with was WATER. Lots and lots of water. Miguel LOVES playing in, swimming in, and jumping in water.

I’ve thought up things that involved water in the toddler pool, water toys, water balloons…just NOT water coming from the sky (last year we got a pretty hard downpour that rendered the backyard useless on the day of his birthday party). Thankfully, despite some rain, wind, and yes, blowing dust up to a day prior, the weather cooperated. The sun shone brightly on party day.

Party WOW Factors. UN-CHECK and UN-CHECK.

I had grand ideas in the back of my head for some additional OOMPH for this party (I wanted to make a home-made Little Einsteins Rocket pinata, as inspired by this blog post; and I also wanted to create some melted crayons reshaped to form Rocket to place in the giveaway bags, as inspired by this blog post). Unfortunately, these didn’t quite materialize (maybe in another time, another place, another form…they will). Cool as the Rocket pinata and crayons might have been, they would have taken so much effort on my part, only to be destroyed in mere minutes at the party.

Thankfully (or more like, SUPER thankfully), our guests–both young and old–were über easy to impress…

Miguel WOWED at the simple party banner that had his favorite characters (Leo, Quincy, Annie and June! He made sure to name them all…)

Kids went crazy over these party blowouts I got (note to self for future…GET extras of these!!!)

My Mom’s labor of love cooking had guests–even non-Filipino ones–coming back for platefuls of dinuguan, kare-kare, her own version of pancit Malabon, and mami. And the kids and grown-ups enjoyed even the no-cook meals we added on (rotisserie chicken, store-bought lumpiang Shanghai, baked vegetable lasagna, and the dinosaur chicken nuggets from Costco…gosh those were such a hit!)

Outside, it didn’t take much effort for the kids to play with–and enjoy–the kiddie pool, slip and slide, and bevy of sprinkler-type contraptions Terrence had set up. They enjoyed it so much that we all forgot about the water balloons (a shame…because I was looking forward to those!!!)

And to think I was considering renting a giant water pool/slide for this party! Insane.

Inside, we all equally enjoyed the Carvel ice cream cake my sister bought for Miggz. There is an enormous lack out there of Little Einsteins cake decor. You can buy them…but I guess due to Little Einsteins being not-too-popular any more…the little supply of cupcake decorations and cake toppers bearing any resemblance to Little Einsteins come at a premium. My sister instead, had my brother DRAW Rocket on the ice cream cake. It was INGENIOUS!! And it came out great!

To think my sister ALMOST paid $80 to commission her co-worker to make a proper a la Cake Boss Little Einsteins cake!!

At the end of the day, we all DID keep it simple. AND fairly low-stress. I think it’s so easy to get carried away with going over the top for a birthday party that we forget what really matters: celebrating a milestone in your child’s life…

Seeing that smile, could all we’ve prepared have been enough?

I think so.

And NewMammas out there…if you think a simple birthday song and your son about to blow out his two-year birthday candles don’t have the power to move you to tears, you better think again.

I almost did.

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Here is a look back on that day, in photos:

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