Despicable Me Minions Birthday Party

This year for my sons birthday, he wanted to do a Minion Birthday Party.  I was very excited because I LOVE these cute little yellow things and couldn't wait to get started.  The only problem was, I couldn't find ANYTHING for his party that didn't cost an arm and a leg.  I'd rather spend the money on gifts and location rather than party stuff that will only get tossed in the trash later.

Food:

Since the party was also a pool party, I used sand buckets and filled with different treats.  We than had hamburgers (I forgot to bring the hotdogs) and chips.  I also brought small snack bags and filled with the remainder fishy crackers, animal crackers and pretzels and added to the goody bags so nothing got tossed in the trash or brought home at the end of the party.

Favors:

I was able to find the plastic party goodie bags at my local party store but the price tag was close to $4.00 for 8 and I really didn't like the look of them.  I decided to see what I could come up with at a cheaper cost.  I started by making a trip to my local Dollar Store.  There I found plan yellow gift bags 10 for $1.00.  Next I tried to find the eyes on the Internet but ran into the problem of how much it was going to cost just to download the template for the eyes.  I decided to create my own computer generated template. 

Here is a sheet of 10 different eyes you can use for your bags, cups or anything else you need. 

I printed them out on Avery 5163 Shipping Labels and than took the time to cut them out (which takes a while) and peeled and stuck to the bags.  I just created a template for the pants and then used a black sharpie to draw the pockets and things on blue card stock.  It was easy to just glue these to the bags.  I then used my sharpie to draw a mouth of different shapes and sizes.  My son wanted to help and added hair to the bags.  I had all the supplies on hand but the yellow bags, so 10 goody bags ended up costing me 10 cents each.

I also wanted to make little minions that could go into the goody bags.  I used the template for the eyes and then created the pants and made a sheet of labels that I could cut and add to the mini cakes. My trouble was finding cakes that didn't have writing on the package.  I had no luck there so I had to make do with what I could find.  I also put the leftovers inside the goody bags as well.

Cake:

I had a hard time finding cake toppers.  I was lucky enough to find this cupcake cake at my Kroger's and then found all the characters at ToysRUs.  It turned out rather great since I had his birthday party at the water park and didn't have to worry about cutting a cake.  The kids just grab the cupcake they wanted without an adult having to cut and put on a plate for them.

All and all it was a great birthday.  Everyone had fun and enjoyed the party.  I hope my ideas and templates help you create something magical for your little ones.