Mickey Mouse Decorations

At the beginning of last year's school year, we received a note home about three opportunities to help with the (rather large) kindergarten class.  Of course, there was the room mom position, and they were looking for a room mom helper and a volunteer.  I responded by saying that I was sure there was tremendous interest with helping in a room mom capacity, and therefore, I would be glad to help out either as a helper or classroom volunteer.  Long story short, I was happy to serve as room mom for the 2012-2013 class.

As it turns out, the room mom position is not as busy in elementary school as compared to preschool.  Since parties have virtually been eliminated (boo!), my responsibilities included picking up pizza for the class for the Christmas party and decorating the lunch room for the kindergarten graduation/celebration.  That was it for the entire school year, and that was simple enough.

The only possible problem would be my complete inability to be crafty.  Although I come from a family of crafters (e.g., very talented seamstresses, knitters, crocheters, etc.), my skill set does not include anything crafty.  I have never owned a glue gun; I don't sew; in fact, my family is fascinated when I sew a button on a shirt; I cannot paint; and, as I quickly learned, I am completely flummoxed by Hobby Lobby.  My friends, in the 10 days I spent on the decorations, I went to Hobby Lobby more than I have ever frequented any craft store in my entire life.  Each visit, I found an associate as soon as possible and asked where I would find whatever was on my list that day.  Because, as I quickly learned, crafting is very much a trial and error endeavor, requiring many adjustments and necessitating many return visits.  The Hobby Lobby? A DIY quagmire.

In fact, after an initial visit or two, the idea of throwing some money at the decorating challenge was tempting. However, I needed 20-25 centerpieces and many other decorations, and the franchise surcharge on Mickey Mouse gear made the notion of outsourcing cost-prohibitive.  Once our dining room had morphed into a crafting ground zero, Skip even suggested hiring the whole project out, but ultimately we all agreed that doing so would create a new low for room mothers*.  Therefore, I rolled up the sleeves and took a shot at the near-impossible: impressing six-year-old children. (Please don't tell me the obvious... that it only becomes more challenging with each year of age.)

In addition to crossing the threshold of Hobby Lobby, I  entered unchartered territory by joining Pinterest.  I know, I know... I am the last person to join, and I only did so under duress.  Not that the site isn't lovely, mind you, because it is, if you're into that sort of thing.  Anyrate, Pinterest was a lifesaver because it eventually led me to a couple of sites with downloadable Mickey Mouse decorations.  While my crafting abilities are limited, even I can manage printables.  After printing 100 or so Mickey decorations, I came up with a low-cost centerpiece idea.

I started with this:

Then after cutting them out, attaching them to painted yellow sticks, I added ribbon:

And then took the red Solo cup to new heights by making a low cost (but laborious) centerpiece:

Were I to do this project again, I wouldn't insist on painting the sticks yellow (one of Mickey's accent colors), and I definitely wouldn't apply a second coat (ahem, OCD).

The site also had some easy-peasy printable banners, as well as some Mickey/Minnie silhouettes that were great for the walls and doors, but I needed something extra - something special.  One of the ways I give away my Southern-ness (other than my obvious accent) is my penchant for personalization.  Admittedly, I like monogramming, and I was hopeful the kindergarten class would respond favorably to seeing their names incorporated in the theme.  A second site offered printable Mickey silhouettes, and after printing 40 of them, I spent many hours cutting them out.  In fact, I attended a city meeting with the silhouettes and cut out about a third of them.  I was crafting -- in public!

Anyway, after personalizing them, I affixed bows on the girls' silhouettes because only a Minnie silhouette would do.  The duo LOVED this and were definitely impressed.  The Mickey/Minnie graduate wall turned out like this:

This is the genius of personalization and its tremendous return.

I also tackled a Mickey Mouse balloon wreath.  The duo and their class loved this also, and therefore, I left it with their teacher (unfortunately forgetting to photo the wreath prior to the event).

Hands down, the best decorations of the day were provided by the students themselves.  Lining one wall were self-portraits and the students' own words about why s/he have enjoyed kindergarten.  While the duo and their friends enjoyed the Mickey decorations, one can never out-craft six-year-old children.  I was totally upstaged, and not by a small degree. 

All in all, my decorating experience was good, and the lovely fellow moms who helped decorate were awesome.

*In full disclosure, I totally outsourced the balloon arch to a local florist.  (I'm not good with balloons.)