Hola! My son has a May Day birthday, but rather than maypoles and flowers, I thought it would be really fun to have a Cinco de Mayo party for him, especially when he turned five. I called it a Cinco en Mayo party, because that means “5 in May!”
Yes, I admit this theme was all my idea. I don’t know that many five-year-olds would know to ask for a Cinco de mayo fiesta for their birthdays. And it was a little bit of a tough sell at first to talk him out of things like robots and transformers, but once I started talking about how this would be his Piñata party, he got pretty excited. This kid loves Piñatas–and the candy that comes inside of them! So true to my word, Piñatas were a main feature everywhere.
There is a little piñata on and some of the other recurrent themes I sent out these digital invitations I made with elements from Happy Thought.
Mini Piñatas decorated our tables and went home with guests as party favors.
Aren’t they cute?!? I found these at Target.
We played pin the tail on the Piñata! This game and decorations were provided by Celebrate Express. (See product links at end).
I love how colorful and friendly it is, and also how they are literally playing “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” but it is a burro and a piñata!
The cake by Pixy Cakes was so piñata-riffic!! I told Tina some of my crazy ideas, which included adding real Mexicancandy to the cake and the gorgeous papel picado detailing and here’s what she came up with.
I also requested this guy to be on top of the cake, which I’m pretty sure had the decorators cursing my name, but didn’t he turn out so cute!? The cake was definitely a main highlight of the party–both in decoration and taste!
But Piñatas didn’t get to have all of the fun. Cacti made repeat appearances. As in this Cucumber cactus made with a pineapple base (I believe the rest of the pineapple went toward pina coladas. Yum!), a cucumber body and pickle arms. A pair of these were on the serving table.
We also made these pretzel cacti with green candy melts and green sour straws. (My kids were helping with these, so they aren’t perfection, but per-fun!)
She was excited about her candy cactus!
I had to jump on the succulent bandwagon for a bit and put these cute desert dwelling plants in empty cans of hot sauce found in the Mexican food section of the grocery store, as part of our centerpieces. They made another appearance in our Mexican Mother’s Day Meal a short while later. (Click through for more images of the various succulent centerpeces)
Another recurring theme was mustaches (again, jumping on the trend, but it fit in so why not?). Our birthday boy and his guests got these fuzzy mustache favors to wear and role play–it was perfect when he put on the Zorro costume his grandma made for him (sadly no good pictures of the outfit, but you get an idea in the piñata picture below)
The rest of us got to be silly with mustache straws. They work pretty well, too!
In other dress-up news, our Mexican Sodas got all dressed up in Sarapes for the occasion. (Printables by Happy Thought).
And you could certainly try dressing up in these candy sombreros…
…though most of us have heads that were too big to make much of a fashion statement with these. They were yummy however, and easy to make. Simply poke colorful gumdrops through the center of peach rings (or other jelly ring candies), until they are snug.
As for the rest of our food and decor, sadly mother nature wasn’t in as festive of a mood and kicked up some crazy winds. I was barely able to get these few pictures before we were being attacked by my beautiful taco shell garland (inspired by this awesome party by Grey Grey Designs) and had to take cover indoor. Still, this will give you some idea of the yummy fiesta food.
We started with these lovely ruffled plates I found while visiting Zurcher’s party store in Utah and some colorful napkins.
Dinner was a complete taco/nacho bar to appeal to hungry guests young and old. Laura from Pink Cake Plate, slow cooked the taco meat. She is such a great foodie! Check out her great recipes. My good friend Rosie, made these beautiful taco salad bowls with her fun pan and tortillas.
Even the toppings seemed to scream, “Viva Mexico!” I promise it was all more delicious than my wind-rushed pictures show.
When the wind died down a bit, Zorro and his brave compadres went back outside to battle those pinatas!
You can see who won the battle.
They kept warm munching on hot churros.
And you can see how he felt about that!
One last shot to show you what the treat table was almost supposed to look like before wind-mageddon got into full swing. The giant numero cinco was not supposed to be flying like a kite, but rather hanging above the awesome cake. I also had these beautiful paper fan decorations that were the first casualties of the windy weather. I will link to them below because they would be beautiful at your party, if the weather isn’t ridiculous. (Can you tell I was a bit bummed by this?)
Overall, the party was still muy divertido and the birthday boy and all who came had a great time! If your little guy or gal doesn’t happen to turn cinco en mayo, you might still want to do a celebration for their friends, or better yet, invite several families over and have a celebration all ages can enjoy!
Sources:
Thank you to Birthday Express for providing the following items:
table coverings,
mylar balloon,
donkey piñata
and more! I am having trouble with my links so click through and search for whatever.
Cake: Pixy Cakes – Avondale, AZ
Plates: Zurcher’s Party Store – Utah and online
Graphics for invitations, lime banner, sarape printables (etc.): Happy Thought
Slow Cooked meat – Pink Cake Plate
Parrot Piñata, mini piñatas, pin the piñata game – Target
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I was provided with some products at no charge in exchange for writing about them. I was not compensated to write this post. All opinions and insanity herein, are–as always, my own.
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