It seems my daughter gets really interested in something after it's had better days. Last year she was loving Bear in the Big Blue House. Go back four or five years and you'd find Bear things everywhere. The Disney store even used to have a whole section devoted to him.
But in fall of 2005 when I wanted to buy Bear things, they were nowhere to be found. No Bear cakes. No Bear plates. No Bear goodie bags. So I managed to find a set of Bear figurines at a Disney store. We picked those up and placed them on a cake from the store. Our napkins and dessert plates were simply some cute 1-year-old birthday decorations.
This year it seemed we'd have better luck. She was liking Elmo, even though we've not watched Sesame Street yet. She knows him from books and from her diapers. But then, while Keith and I were in NYC, my sister brought two Disney singalong song videos to my parents' house. One is an "Under the Sea" video with songs relating to water and it has mostly cartoons in it. The other seems to be some sort of promotional thing for Disneyland. It shows kids and other scenes from Disneyland, including some of the characters that walk around the park. Some of the songs are Disney -- "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "It's a Small World." But there are other songs, too, that I don't recognize as Disney.
It doesn't matter though. What matters is that Autumn loves it and wants to watch the video (aka "Mickey") all the time. She constantly asks for it. This rainy Saturday, she alternated between asking for Mickey and for Bear. It's hard to hold her off for long.
So, anyway, I bought a Wilton Mickey face cake pan. Tried it out and it seems I can, indeed, make a cake that looks like Mickey. The hard part is finding things to do with it. I've been to Party City, Factory Card Outlet, Wal-Mart, Target, Ollies and all over the Web looking for Mickey party decorations. Party City said they used to stock Mickey, but it was discontinued. They do have two giant Mylar balloons -- one of Mickey's head and one of Minnie's -- that we'll probably get, though. It seems that the only place I can buy anything is online and then pay not only an arm and a leg for the napkins and cake plates, but for the shipping, too.
I have my Mom on the lookout at a Party store in Warren, Pa., today. Last night I found Mickey invitations on eBay. Friday we'll swing by the Disney store in Mentor, Ohio, and maybe get a stuffed Mickey. Ironically, the Disney store doesn't seem to have Mickey party things, even online. So we can't count on getting those things directly through Disney.
It seems, then, that we'll be decorating the tables with yellow or red tablecovers. We'll use solid color plates and cups. But I guarantee this, we'll also have a Mickey cake and BIG Mickey and Minnie balloons.
I know it's spoiling my little girl. I feel guilty when I think about it like that. But there's not much I wouldn't do to see her eyes light up and a big smile form on her face as she looks up and says "Mickey," "Minnie!"