Car's Birthday party

For Ethen's 3rd birthday, we celebrated Disney Car's Style. He wanted another Thomas the Train, but I didn't want to do that theme again. So I talked him into a Cars theme.  (Which is one of his three favorite movies.) I poured over blogs and pintrest  and found so many wonderful ideas. I loved the Lightning McQueen theme, but when I came across a blog  featuring a vintage  Radiator Spring party, I fell in love with it. I wanted to copy as many of these ideas as I could on a shoe string budget.  

His party invitations  were sent out to his preschool group and their families. Inviting them to "Drive on over to Radiator Springs and join Lightning McQueen for a lunch at Flo's V-8 Cafe, catch Mater's Tall Tales at the drive-in theater, and play some games at the pit stop."

We had 4 preschool friends and their families come and join us on Saturday the 15th. 12 guest.

Here is one of my display areas. I <heart> the accordion style pinwheels! Right now it's my favorite party assessor to make.  I think these look great for just about any party. So I made several of them with the black and white checker flag scrapbook paper and added the  red circle  and McQeen's Lighting bolt. Very cool.  

                                   
I really liked the route 66 signs. After all, Radiator Springs is on Route 66. I thought it was quite clever having a few signs that had Ethen's name across the top  and his age for the number.

 I just happen to have this  Metal Letter C that I thought would go great with the decor. Added some red paper and small pinwheel to match..  C is for Cars!

One of my favorite items that I found on line was this   map of Radiator springs.  This probably took me the longest to make of all the projects. I had to blow up the pictures and tape it together so that I could trace it all in color on larger easel paper.  I love the size of this frame. It really helped to fill the space and  reinforced the Radiator springs theme.

Last year, we had train tracks going around the house for the Thomas the Train theme. And the kids loved it. They had so much fum  running on the track.   I wanted to do the same kind of thing this year too. With the cars theme, it worked perfectly to lay out roads where they could run around and pretend being cars.
I like the idea of having different station at the party. Moving from one activity to the next. In our Radiator springs we had Flor's V-8 Cafe, Ramones Body Art, Mators Salvage, and the Drive-in Theater.

Cardboard is such a great medium to use for party decor. And the large cardboard diaper box I had was perfect for my Tow Mater Salvage sign. It turned out great. Very quick and easy.

(Here's a random sign that I just had to make. It doesn't really go with the "Cars" theme, but since it's a license plate I figured it would work okay. Because I don't have the money to buy a real name plate, I made my own. I researched a lot of state license plates to put this together. The first "E" is California, where I was born and grew up. The "T" is Alabama where Scott was born. And it's  an older version that says Heart of Dixie, a great reference for St. George. The "H" is for Pennsylvanina where we currently live, the Second "E" is for Utah, where Ethen was born. And the "N", well. . . .  I couldn't think of any other significant states that meant something so I went with a state that people easily recognize, and still close to Utah. Colorado)

My procedures for the party went something like this: Kids arrived and  drove to Ramones Body Art Shop where they picked out what car they wanted to be and colored.  We hung all the pictures on the wall for everyone to see. We then drove around the house a few times and came to the Drive-on and starting watching Mators Tall Tales while I finished cooking our lunch. Once that was done we paused the movie and Came to Flo's V-8 Cafe for some lunch.

On the Menu: Chick Hicks chicken sticks, Guido's Pizza Bites, Sherrifs Fruit light Kabobs, Doc's Dip Sticks (pretzels in chocolate) Maters Taters, Luigy's Tower of Tires (doughnuts) and Fillmore's Organic fuel (caprisun) The kids were able to come back to the Drive-in  and finish watching our movie while we ate. The kids really enjoyed the movie. Many of them were excited to see it.

After the movie we drive to different station where there were activities waiting for them. Back at Ramones Body Art Shop,  we had face painting.  Ethen sporting his Lightning McQueen 95 drawn by Elizabeth.  We did 95, yellow, lighting bolt, Fillmore's peace signs and hearts. Next we drop to the pit stop for pin the 95 on Lightning McQueen, After that we went to Mators to go fishing for car parts. The prize: Lighting McQueen fruit snacks and Cars tattoos. Another pit stop game of spare tire toss. The prize: red balloon. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of most of our activities  because I was too busy doing the games. I should have asked one of the other moms to take some pictures, but I didn't think about it until after the fact.

Once all the games were finished we went on to opening presents. I think his friends opened his presents for him because they were so excited to show him what they had  got him. He received some toy cars, airplanes, and lots of bubbles. But those will be put away till summer time when we can go and use them outside.

Last but not least we had cake and ice cream. The cake turned out wonderful. I was very happy with it and the bonus of two new little toys for Ethen to play with. I had a number 3 candle once upon a time, but I think Ethen either dropped it or took a bite of it one day and I had to throw it away. So no candle for him to blow out this year.

Not quite sure what to think of this picture. Tired, overwhelmed, sugar crash? All I know is that we had a great time and I was ready to sit down and rest from all the fun. But I still had cleaning to do so no rest for me. I really enjoyed putting this party together. Lot's of work, but worth all the time and effort. The kids and parents had a fun time and enjoyed all the activities.

This is one March birthday party done and one more to go.  3 weeks to plan and get ready for Elizabeth's 9th birthday party. Ready, set, here we go again!!