Morty's Mustache Bash

We had a great time with Morty's birthday this year.  He loves to be photographed and take pictures, and he also really liked the Groucho funny face glasses & nose that we got him last spring, so I decided that a mustache party would be perfect.

I sent these invitations out through Punchbowl.  They even had an option for little mustaches on the inside of the envelope!

The centerpiece of the party was a photobooth!  I put together a diy photobooth made primarily from pvc pipes and fabric (I can't find the actual tutorial I used, but there are lots of ideas if you just Google something like "diy photo booth pvc").  I used an iPad app called "PocketBooth" - it worked out perfect and everyone seemed to love it - kids AND adults.  We had a bunch of props - mustaches, lips, glasses, hats - and let everyone pick whatever they wanted.

We had a "Pin the Mustache on Morty" game.  Since it's mostly 3 year olds and younger, we didn't blindfold anyone, but I think they liked to put their mustache on the big picture of Morty.  We had planned to print this picture out on a plotter at work, but forgot, so we looked into printing at Staples.  That was so ridiculously expensive for our plans, that we just used Microsoft Publisher, and printed a 2'x3' picture on 8x11 cardstock and taped it together.  No one was the wiser, and we saved $40.

We also had a mustache crayon craft for the kids.  There's a ton of tutorials out there for this - here's one.  Basically you break up crayons in a silicone mold and heat it in the oven on a low setting for a few minutes.  I think the kids liked breaking the crayons better than anything.  We used these as the party favors.  (Plus, in preparation for the party, Morty and I spent a lot of time a couple of nights in sorting out the colors and dropping them into bags - good OT activity.)

I made red velvet cake (from a mix - I'll admit it) and followed these directions on how to make the mustache shaped cake.  I used this Cake Boss icing recipe for the cream cheese frosting.  I'm definitely not an expert at frosting, so I ended up putting a bunch of chocolate sprinkles on it to help hide some of my messiness.  Plus, it looked like whiskers!

For food, we ended up ordering a variety of mini burritos from Boloco.  I didn't know how it would work for the kids, since Morty doesn't eat a lot by mouth.  But it turned out perfect.  They were small enough that the kids only needed one, but the dads could try several if they wanted (and some of them did).  Plus, they had veggie/vegan options for a few of our friends.  And we certainly love Mexican food at our house!  I also made some fresh salsa and Texas Caviar and served it with corn chips.

Morty's Grandma Gove also made these great mustache sugar cookies.  Grandpa Gove created a cookie cutter the day after Thanksgiving by bending an angel (?) cookie cutter into the mustache shape.  They turned out great.

I don't have a great picture of the tables, but you can kind of see what we did here.  It was just a basic Target tablecloth with a runner made of a novelty Alexander Henry "Where's My Stache" print fabric that I got at Fabric Place Basement.  Similar here.

I also made a few mustache pillows.  Two were shaped like mustaches and made out of soft Minkee fabric.  The other one is just a rectangular pillow with a black mustache made with Heat'n Bond.  All of these are actually still sitting on our couch.

We also had t-shirts for all three of us.  I used printable iron on sheets from the craft store and printed out sayings to iron on each of our shirts with a mustache picture.  Morty's shirt said, "If you Mustache I'm Three".  Jim's shirt said "I mustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later".  My shirt was supposed to say "Girls with glasses make passes at boys with mustaches", but I had problems doing an iron on with a dark red shirt, so mine just ended up being Heat'n Bond with glasses shape and mustache shape.

And for a little fun, I bought variety sheets of mustache stickers and put them on white paper cups.  (I think someone thought I drew the mustaches on with marker - I'm a little crazy, but not THAT crazy)

We had a great time and this theme was really fun!  And strangely easy to find decorations and materials, especially given the post-Halloween and Movember (check it out if you've never heard of it) timeframe.  We had lots of Morty's friends over, including Allison & Caitlyn who have been Morty's nannies, and Wendi & Nancy, who are a couple of Morty's Early Intervention therapists.  Luckily, having these folks there really helped keep Morty calm in the chaos!

Morty loved turning 3 - we have been asking him how old he is:
us: Are you one?
Morty: No
us: Are you two?
Morty: No
us: Are you three?
Morty (big smile): eah! (yeah)