DIY, Home, Motherhood, Party Planning & Hosting

Boy’s Encanto Birthday Party: EncanTWO

27 October

First, Encanto Decorations!

My priorities were an on-theme tablecloth and serving dishes because what’s a party without food? Followed by a hand-cut banner made from construction paper, ribbon, glitter paper, and a good old glue stick that would feature my very clever pun and the birthday boy’s name so that there was something that felt “custom” and just for him. My favorite minor decoration might be the cactus balloon that we stuck together with glue dots, settled into a festive pot, and drew the spikes on with a sharpie. And then what party can you throw in 2022 that doesn’t have a balloon arch?

I DIYed as many party decorations as I could in the few weeks leading up to this Encanto birthday party. Yes, I purchased paper plates and napkins and party cups but one element I could not DIY and was going to be expensive to print even with all the amazing options on Etsy was Antonio’s magic door. Luckily, Facebook marketplace has some magic of its own and I was able to get one for free. I’ll be reusing it for our church’s trunk or treat at the end of October and then paying it forward.

I was particularly proud of our Encanto-themed party treats and the Encanto pun name cards that we made into cacti using Glen’s hand and footprints.

List of decorations and DIY materials

For the EncanTWO banner:

construction paper in assorted colors (I used green, blue, and purple)
glitter paper (I used shades of blue and gold)
tropical fabric leaves

For the Encanto balloon arch and DIY cactus balloons:

small lime green balloons
blue, green, and white balloons
balloon arch kit
balloon tie helpers
sharpie or black marker
glue dots
balloon pump
Target actually has a full kit including the balloons if you don’t want to piecemeal it

For the Encanto-themed snack cards

green paint
black sharpie or marker
thick cardstock or watercolor paper
I attached these all with a glue dot to the serving dishes since they weren’t shaped like your typical food card table tent

For serving and setting the table for a fiesta

Here’s the list of Encanto-themed food we laid out for party guests to help themselves:

Taco ‘Bout Bruno Bar with seasoned ground beef, cheese, corn and flour tortillas, fresh cilantro, chopped onion, avocado, and salsa. 5 lbs of ground beef was just enough for our 40+ guests.
Antonio’s Animal Crackers for the little ones
Bruno’s Vision Brownies on the cutest dessert tier from Oriental Trading. We melted green jolly ranchers and let Glen break them once they had cooled into shards that mimic Bruno’s broken vision
Isabela’s Grapes that Thrive on the Vine – a mix of green, red, and purple grapes for a fruity finger food. Another fruit option we considered was peeling clementine oranges into butterfly shapes but ultimately we nixed this idea due to the lacking effort to reward ratio.
Chips and salsa. No clever pun here, except I did mean to make a name card that read “the Lord’s chips” as a Nacho Libre nod just for my dad and brothers to laugh about
Cream cheese blocks covered in homemade pineapple-jalapeno jam and cowboy candy (also jalapeno) accompanied with assorted crackers
Cactus pretzel sticks. Tip, use colored melting candies instead of white chocolate because it took a LOT of green food coloring to get a bright green color for the cactus. And you can use a spoon to drag ridges into the melted chocolate to give it more of a cactus texture.

Encanto Birthday Party Invitations

While searching online for decorations and invitations, I discovered that many of the available options featured Mirabel. You might say duh, she’s the main character of the movie but for us, this was a problem: we didn’t want it to be too girly or flowery for our son. We wanted more of an Encanto fiesta vibe with cactus balloons, casita, and some jungle animals. So I designed my own EncanTWO party invitations, Facebook event cover, and thank you cards.

If you’d like to purchase the design to print for your own party, you’ll find them over in my Etsy shop, She Seeks Joy and here on my blog shop.

Encanto Party Games & Activities

I think every party we’ve thrown has had cornhole as a main backyard party game and for good reason! It’s great for kids and adults alike, and we’ve made on theme — and regulation size & weight — bean bags for both of Glen’s birthday parties. Joann Fabrics has some CUTE Encanto fabric you can use to make your own bean bags.

I also set up a coloring & sticker station for the kids by taping down EncanTWO party invitations pages onto my coffee table and putting out large crayons.

And of course, pin the tail on the donkey! You would think with the number of donkeys throughout the movie that there would be a ready-made Encanto pin the tail on the donkey, but I couldn’t find one and didn’t have time to make my own. I orderedEncanTWO party invitations and cut the donkey out of the desert background. In the end, a two-year-old’s birthday party may have been a little young for this game anyway.

It was amazing to have so many of our friends and family travel to celebrate Glen’s second birthday with us. For some, it was their first time at our new house! And a big thank you to my mom for all her help with decorations and food prep the night before, to my neighbor for making brownies, and to Brian’s parents for supplying the all-important coffee!