My son’s birthdays are 5 days apart. This year is especially hectic in our household because we’re also celebrating JT’s first birthday (MAJOR milestone). After all that he’s been through, it was crucial that we poured energy and creative juices into this celebration to make it GRAND to signify his wonderful, amazing life. After hosting the 175 people party that included our support team–friends, family, co-workers–we headed out for our summer vacation the following day.

After a few days in Disneyland and a few more in San Diego, we returned home exhausted and with NT sick.

A weekend was lost in party planning with me tending to the sick child, and trying to prevent him from contaminating the other with his cold (attempt unsuccessful). By Monday nightfall, he seemed much improved (thank goodness!), which allowed us a pow wow session with the key members of the party planning team: my younger sister, her boyfriend, myself, and Mr. PWP.

My three year old was old enough to decide the theme of his party, which was going to be Disney Pixar CARS. So, we brainstormed every aspect of CARS and came up with this:

INVITATIONS:

• Evite: There’s no better way to reach all your guests than by e-mail. I sent an Evite out with a custom designed invitation, adorned with CARS characters I found on Disneyclips.com.

ARTS and CRAFTS Station:

• Build it yourself wooden cars (purchased at Michaels for $1 each);

• Create your own license plate: foam rectangular sheets (Michaels, $6.99), foam stickers (Michaels, $2.99 for a pack of 40, included road signs, checkered flags, flames, cars), letters and numbers for their names (Michaels, $7.99 for a 5oz tub), CARS stickers (Target, $9.99 for a box of 1000 stickers).

• Create your own key chains: key chains ($.99 for each 3×5 plastic photo key chain), 3×5 cardstock squares for children to decorate with markers and stickers, then to be inserted into photo holder

• Pixar CARS coloring sheets printed from online: there are plenty if you search Pixar Cars coloring sheets on Google.

ACTIVITIES

• CARS decorated Jump house: a classic favorite for kids, where they can get they’re energy out while having fun. Ours included some boxing gloves for added entertainment. Mostly, the kids just enjoyed jumping up and down.

• Snow cone machine: we ordered this with the CARS jump house to get a discounted rate.

• Remote control cars: Mr. PWP built a race track as a “Radiator Springs Race Way” for the children to race remote control cars on to win points for prizes. The cheap $10 cars he ended up buying did not allow for great handling. The kids ended up removing these from the track, and drove it around the floor instead. They all had a blast. The key is improvising.

• Face painting and body art: you can never go wrong with face painting and temporary tattoos. The face painting designs included lightning bolts, cars, checkered flags, and some princess crowns for the girls. I pick up the CARS tattoos from a party specialty store in my area called Party City

• Wii: We set up the Nintendo Wii up to a screen allowing the kids to play Mario Cart. There are also CARS video games, but we chose against purchasing those as we did not want to encourage NT to play it at home.

PRIZES/PARTY FAVORS

• Each child received a brown gift bag (Michaels, $5.99 for 13) that were decorated with the license plate.

• Drivers license: Mr. PWP designed a “driver’s license” template on Adobe Photoshop, using his own skills. On the day of, we had volunteers (i.e.; my sister and nephew) approach each child with a camera to take their picture. The pictures were uploaded into the computer and inserted into the space on the template designated for that. He printed it out on 4×6 glossy photo paper, and gave each child one. Some adults requested that their picture be taken, also.

• The cars they built and painted.
• Playdough with instructions attached to it on how to mold it into a car
• CARS jigsaw puzzles (Target, $3.49)
• CARS lego sets (Toys R Us, $13-$21)
• Generic race car lego set (Target, $3.99)

CAKE

• A simple sheet cake ordered from a local bakery. The top was decorated by the baker with a road and grass. I topped the cake with Lightning McQueens and Maters purchased from Party City.

The key to creating a successful party in a short time frame is to keep an open mind, and be willing to be flexible. Also, bear in mind your guest list, who will be attending, and tailor your party towards the majority. In this case, I knew I’d be entertaining kids, as the adults would mingle among themselves. Though we had planned for games and the race track, the children had their own idea of fun (jumping in the jump house and running around with the remote control cars), and that was fine! What matters is that they have a good time. As the jumping died down, we transitioned them to quieter activities at the “craft station.” They ran around some more, then we cut cake, and called it a day.

Tell me your CARS party experiences, what worked or didn’t work, and some of your entertaining ideas.