Buzz Lightyear 4th Birthday  For my son's 4th Birthday, we used a Shakey's Pizza banquet room since we live in a condo. Shakey's doesn't charge extra for their banquet room & the cost of food per person was half of other pizza places specializing in children's parties (and the pizza, chicken & mojos are tastier).  My concern was keeping the kids occupied for 3 hours in a confined area.    Shakey's banquet room had one long table in the center to accommodate 30 ppl in which I covered with lime green plastic table cloths (Buzz's character color). I printed out Toy Story characters (mostly Buzz Light year) coloring pictures & used them as placemats for each place setting.  In the center of the long table, I placed white buckets (from Oriental Trading)filled with crayons, markers, glitter pens, color pencils and various stickers.  I glued color pictures of Buzz on the buckets. Also, about every 2 1/2 feet at the center of the table, we took all my sons used Toy Story II characters & wired them to those silver mylar centerpieces that look like shooting stars (the kind usually used at New Years parties).  I also took used rocket toys & wrapped battery-operated mini lights to set smaller character toys, like Zurg, for centerpieces.    The side tables, which only sit 4 were reserved for the adults to sit at. I used the Toy Story table cloths but was able to cut them in half to cover 2 tables (4 cloths covered 4 tables). For the bar tables (the tall ones with stools), our single adult guests sat at & that is where we had pitchers of beverages of all types. (This kept the children from serving themselves & spilling or wasting drinks)   I also bought silver cardboard stars (which are just as easy to make but were available due to New Years) & hung them from the ceiling as well as the glow in the dark inflatable stars & moons from Oriental Trading.  At the entrance, I hung a silver mylar curtain for a festive space touch.  At one of the walls, I took my son's Buzz & Zurg costumes (bought half price from the Disney Store) & tacked them up as if they were in action with each other.    When each child arrived, I handed them a Toy Story character mask and a plain white lunch bag in which their name was written on (I had several teenager guests to help me with that). Each child was told to decorate their bags which were judged for a contest. I told each child to bring me their bag to get filled with goodies when they were finished. The perfect thing about waiting at least an hour for them to color & decorate was that food was served during the coloring and they wouldn't ruin their appetite with the candy. While they colored and ate, I also went around the table & handed out a different toy to give to them. I started out with the glow necklaces. The parents would help me get them lit and was even fun for our single adult guests to wear (I think the adults had more fun with the necklaces than the kids).  The second round of toys I handed out were kazoos & groan sticks.  The kids were blowing them all at the same time & started to get excited when they realized I would make another round with another prize. The next toy, a paddle ball even had my pre-teen guests excited. I also found some toy scooters & flashlights for 10 cents each weeks earlier & gave each child a choice (clearances are limited so I .  Finally, I had each child line up to get their bags filled with candy.  I was lucky because after Christmas, so much candy was on clearance so I was able to be generous with the chocolate, ring pops, candy-filled toys at a very reasonable cost. By then, the children had all ate so appetites were not spoiled. This all took about an hour and a half.  For the grand finale, I hired a Buzz Light Year entertainer. I actually found him on the internet where I could see pictures of previous parties to make sure he wasn't too home-made looking. He was the best...he was very similar to the Buzz we saw at Disneyland. Of course, I'm lucky to be so close to Hollywood where entertainers are a little more professional than the usual.  Buzz made a wonderful musical entrance & provided a magic show and balloon making for each child (and some of my adult guests too!)  Buzz ended the show with the cake, candles & singing. This was exactly one more hour, giving me half an hour to open gifts while my teens & husband cleaned up and guest enjoyed the cake.  I bought two 1/4 sheet cakes (we had 60 or more guests); one with the Woody characters and the other with a picture of my son in his Buzzlight Year costume (again, we're lucky to be near Disneyland where he took the picture in front of ToyStory props).  He refused to wear the Zurg costume at the party for fear that Buzz would disintegrate him!  Aside from the teen guests I had, not one child snuck away to the arcade during the party. I was very pleased about that. My adult guests complimented the "carnival" atmosphere and enjoyed the party as much as the children. Oh yeah...I bought the Toy Story paper masks (2 doz) from Ebay for $9.99 plus shipping. They were so cute on each child and they were able to pick their favorite character.  (a lot cheaper than buying party hats)  I know it sounds expensive, but the total per person including everything, was only about $8 ea. Considering how large our family & friend circle is, it wasn't bad at all. Plus, I didn't have to do any cooking or left with a messy house afterwards. My 4 year old is still thanking me every day for his party. That alone was all worth it.