Sunday, March 22, 2009

car birthday party

start your engines! this was my son's 2nd birthday. we all had a blast.
here's a pic of the invite. i made them out of colored card stock. they were stop lights if you can't tell. each color opened to a road sign with the party details. the red light opened to an interstate sign (clip art that i found online)..i wrote, "kaden's turning 2 years old, and is happy as can be because he's having a ...vroom...CAR PARTY and he wants you there you see!".
the yellow light opened to a stop sign and said, "take a detour on saturday, june 28th and stop @ details details. yield for family & friends!".
the green light opened to a yellow railroad crossing sign and said, "rsvp to..details details. get ready to have a racin' fun time!"...my son actually has a car bedroom...so i took a bunch of stuff from his room to decorate for the party. like this stoplight that we hung in front of the house to show where the party was at :)...
this is the birthday boy in his racing suit (his little bro had one too) on his new little atv...we had hot dogs, chips, and salad etc. i found these fold out cardboard cars and cut a hole in the top of them to put the ketchup, mustard, & relish in. they turned out really cute...i decorated all the tables to look like roads (black table cloth with pieces of white paper taped on). i also got about 100 ft of racing flags that i strung up all over the back yard...here's the b-day boy and his cousin eating their road sign suckers...
my friend julie borrowed all my car stuff a few months later to have a car party for her little boy too. she came up with the great idea to use a streamer up the table (again, to make it look like a road). she also used cars and my son's street light lamp to add that special touch... i placed road sign's all over the back yard (i bought the road signs on ebay) & bought blow up car's that i hung from all the tree's...i had a car race for one of the activities. i got boxes and spray painted them blue and silver. i then downloaded racing car logo's off the inet and stuck 'em all over the boxes along with paper numbers and paper circles. i cut out the bottom of the boxes and small handles near the top so the kids could actually get inside of the cars :)...
i found some plastic 4 ft tall road signs at toys r us that i put up as well... i set up plastic cones that they had to run through...i decided to make cupcakes instead of a cake. i made the frosting really runny so it would look like tar, used orange licorice as road stripes, got marshmallow cars and road sign suckers for the toppers, and found some traffic cone candles :)...
i also got a rubber car track (ot) and made 'gum cars' out of gum, minni candybars, and mini reeses peanut butter cups...sparklers added a fun zing to the party... he opened presents on a car sign blanket that i also found on ebay, it's now on his bed :)...we had fun with little racing cars that were powered by balloons. us mom's blew them up again & again for the little ones :). everyone loved them...this is my friend julie's cake. i loved her idea of using black licorice to make the cake look like tires! she set the cake on top of my son's tire toy bin. so cute julie!!...i hung up car patio lights around the back door... here's another pic of some of the signs in the back yard...i threw road sign pillows out for the kids to play with too. it was a gReAt party. we all had a blast...especially the birthday boy!~and here's the thank you card's we sent out after the party...

12 comments:

Colleen said...

My little bot is turning 3 and would absolutely love a car theme for his birthday. You have such great ideas! Can you tell me where you bought your decorations?...especially the car lights, the plastic roads signs and the road sign pillows and car marshmallows.

Thank you so much!

kara's party ideas said...

Thank you :). I got the strung car lights at target, but that was 2 yrs ago...so I would try eBay! The plastic road signs were bought @ toys r us, i've seen them there recently too :). The pillows were bought online somewhere..i think amazon..but if you google them I'm sure you could find them. And the marshmallow cars were bought on orientaltrading.com :). Let me know if you have any more questions!

Melissa said...

Hello, I love your ideas. You're so creative. Where did you get the cardboard foldout cars? Thank you!

kara's party ideas said...

thank you, melissa. i purchased them on orientaltrading.com...but it looks like they don't have them anymore. maybe try googling them? i'm sorry!

Unknown said...

Where did you purchase the blow up cars? Love them!

kara's party ideas said...

thanks :). orientaltrading.com

Christy Stanley said...

Kara,
Your car party ideas are fantastic. We are having a car themed party for my son this year and I'm so excited to "steal" several of your ideas. I'm planning to make a cupcake tower and can't tell from the pictures-what is the bottom of your tower made out of? Looks like a strip of road...is that hand made or purchased? Thanks so much!

kara's party ideas said...

christy,
thanks very much.
the strip of road is a foam car kit that i bought off www.orientaltrading.com.
hope that helps!
thanks again,
kara

Nickel Family said...

I love your blog! I am doing a car themed birthday for my little boy's 2nd birthday, and i was wondering where did you buy the race car outfit with hat? I have looked online at several different halloween stores with not alot of luck!
Thanks!

kara's party ideas said...

thank you ;].
i found them on orientaltrading.com

Unknown said...

I loved your ideas. That's exactly what I'm planning to do for my boy for his 1st birthday party! I was looking at the orientaltrading site for the race car suit. I can't find it? Will you send me the exact link please? Appreciate it much!

Anonymous said...

I love this idea! You are so creative. Where did you find the foldout cardboard cars?

 
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