A Race Car Birthday Party

In October we took CT to his first NASCAR race (not including the one he went to in my belly or the one he went to before he was a year old) and actually got to watch his excitement as he took in the sites and sounds of a race track.  It was amazing to see him get excited about the hauler trucks, the racers, the cars, the track, every little thing.

So, it seemed like a no-brainer to have a race car themed birthday party and as soon as I mentioned it, he pretty much freaked.  Mom win!

It was a relatively easy theme, but I didn't want to just order some cookie-cutter decorations so I set out to make it as easy on myself as possible while keeping it unique and fun.

The food was easy.  I tried to make everything have a cars related theme so I served:

• Spare Tires - mini chocolate covered donuts (you could use Oreos)
• Air Bags - clementines (marshmallows would be cute)
• Nuts & Bolts - trail mix
• Dip Sticks - pretzels with dip
• Race Car Cake
• Fuel Up - juice boxes and mini waters

Like I said, I was keeping it easy on myself since I have a 4 month old right now.  I don't think I cut any corners by doing so though.  The party was from 2-4 so it wasn't necessary to serve a meal or large snack in my opinion.

I think 2 hours is just about the perfect amount of time and although we had invited a ton of kids only about 7 or 8 showed up which is also just about perfect at this age.  Laurel decided to sleep through the whole party which is mostly unheard of so that made life a little easier although our guests didn't get to see her.

In the kids goody bags I sent home:

• Hot Wheels car
• Build Your Own Race Car sticker sheet
• Race Car rubber duckies

I think the goody bags were the most stressful part for me.  I didn't want to fill them with junk, but I also didn't want to spend $5/bag.  I think I did pretty good in the end thanks to Amazon Prime.  

I ordered my birthday banner off Amazon and got the rest of the decorations from Hobby Lobby.  I found the food labels online where a blog offered free printables.  I purchased green, yellow, and red plates to look like a stop light on the black table cloth.  The red bowls/plates came from Dollar Tree and I used a black table cloth with reflective duct tape to make our front steps into a road so guests knew to come in the front door.  And an amazing local woman made the cake to which I added some flags (CT added about 30 more) and some race cars.

We had a blast and I think it's safe to say CT was very happy with his race car birthday.  He's still talking about it almost a week later.  

Sidenote: if you're going to a 3 year old birthday in the near future, Hungry Hungry Hippos was by far the favorite gift of the day.  As soon as it was open, the boys all got down on the floor and played until their parents took them home. And I think I've played at least 30 rounds since then.