start your engines!

My son recently celebrated his birthday, and he decided he wanted a race car themed party. I love throwing birthday parties for my kids, and I'm always looking for ideas, so I thought I'd share what we did. I created the invitation in Photoshop using Erica Zane's kit Jack's Track. This kit was perfect and had exactly what I was looking for. Here's what the invitation looked like:



Some photos from the party:



I went to Partyland and picked up balloons and checkered flag banners for decorations. I used bright yellow for the tablecloths and party sacks and bright red for the plates, napkins, and cups. I have a big car mat from Home Depot that I laid out on the floor with our big bucket of cars for the kids to play with as they arrived. Once everyone got there, we started with the activities and games. We played Pin the Wheel on the Car (also created using Jack's Track) and had relay races in the backyard. For the party favor, I used canvas and felt to make a road mat for each kid. As one of the party activities, they got to decorate their mats however they wanted with permanent Sharpies. They were so creative and loved drawing homes, trees, restaurants, etc. on their mats. At the end of the party, we also gave each kid their own new Hot Wheels car to take home with their roads. I made the cupcakes using plastic race cars and checkered flag toothpicks (both also found at Partyland) for the toppers. It was a successful party and I think all the kids had fun!