Jack loves cars more than anything else in this world so picking a theme for his birthday was super easy. I've been pinning ideas on Pinterest for months (ok maybe a year 😉) and I officially started buying them a month in advance so I knew everything would be here on time.
Of course I missed some things and I was running around like a crazed woman the day before but such is life.
My parents were in town this year which made it all that much more special and they were a great extra set of hands to help get everything ready. And the decorations came out perfectly! I was probably more excited than anyone else but after so much planning it was fun to see it all come together.
Right when you walked in the door there was a sign that read "Present Parking" and our coffee table was covered in black road play tape. This is the coolest product. It's just tape that sticks to your table or floor and is designed like a road. I was skeptical at first about it peeling the finish off our table but it sticks more like masking tape and not like duct tape so it was super furniture friendly. I HIGHLY recommend to everyone! It's also super affordable.
Then we hung a race banner and put some balloons in our arch way to the kitchen.
On the kitchen bar we put a water cooler that read "fuel station" and hung some cardboard stop lights. There was also some red, yellow, and green fruit and we hung the extra banner along the bottom just to drive home the theme 😉.
On the table we had a race flag table cloth and red, yellow, and green flat ware from the dollar store. I also hung a "Start your engines" sign that was super cute. My mom also came up with some really fun names for all the snacks we had out. The Chex mix was "Nuts and Bolts" and the Tortilla chips were "Traffic Cones". And for a sweet treat we had rice krispies with red, yellow, and green M&Ms pushed into them to make traffic lights. God we're so adorable 😅
Then outside in our back yard was where the fun really was. We had three stations for kids to play at; though let's be honest it became one giant free for all. And I'm perfectly ok with it!
There was a "Car Wash". Which was Jack's brand spanking new water table, great present from my parents, under a nice large umbrella to keep some of that desert sun off of the kiddos.
Next was a "Speedway". I took some spare wood we had around the house and spare gray stain and had my dad stain it the night before. Then the next day when it was dry we leaned it up against our gazebo and put a bucket of cars at the top. This was the one thing I thought the kids weren't really going to use because it was so simple but it turned out to be the most used! They loved throwing, sliding, pushing, and shooting the cards down the slide. Then it grew into anything they could get their hands on. It was a huge hit! Because the kids were of such varying ages (6-2) I didn't set up prizes or scheduled play time I just let them at it and it worked perfectly.
The last area was a bean bag toss. I bought some inflatable pool floaties that were designed like tires. I bought 4 because they were supposed to go home with each kid as a party favor but at the end of the party I completely forgot. I'm sorry!!! But we had some left over bean bags from last year so I set those outside next to it. Needless to say Jack and his little friend Ellie were too small to play and the bigger kids didn't think it was much fun so the tires got used for other made up games which was way more fun to watch anyway 😊.
Other than that we setup balloons at each "station" and let the kids do what they wanted with them. The wind blew some bunches around popped them and other bunches were used as splash targets and punching bags. All perfect uses for balloons!
After some serious play time we all sat down for dinner and most importantly CAKE! We had burgers, hot dogs, Mac & Cheese and a salad, exactly what I would expect to have at a race track 😉. We ordered the cake from our local grocery store about a week before and picked it up that morning. It was perfect! It was a Disney Cars theme which is the one and only movie Jack will actually sit through, no surprise there.
We quickly made him blow out the candle and cut him a piece before he could smash the whole cake. He was skeptical about getting messy just like last year but after that first taste of frosting he was all in!
And after it was all gone he required some extensive cleaning.
But right after was present time and he couldn't have been happier with everything that he got. Of course the majority of them were car themed but even the ones that weren't he still enjoys playing with.
He's getting to be such a big boy and I'm already so excited for his next birthday and to see him as a big brother but I'm a little sad he's not my cute cuddly new born anymore.
We love you so much Jack! Happy birthday!
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