Oh boy, does time fly when you have a kid. I honestly didn't believe people when they told us not to blink when we were pregnant with our son. I figured time would drag to be honest. Nope. They were right. Because I've blinked and now we have a 2 year old and I cannot handle how fast the last 2 years have gone.
That being said, I was super excited to throw this party for him. I know he won't remember it, and I may have gone a little overboard (it's in my DNA though so who's really surprised) but I think it turned out pretty great.
It really wasn't hard to pick the theme because if there's one thing that is very abundantly clear - our son LOVES cars. Not just the Pixar movies, but all cars/trucks, anything with a motor really. But especially cars. The movies are his favorite, at least #1 and #3 and I actually really enjoy them so watching them several times a week really doesn't bother me at all (yet). I was able to find a lot of great Car's themed party decorations from Pinterest and other people's blogs, but just car stuff in general worked with this party. So think lots of orange caution cones, yellow work signs, and checkered print anything.
Pinterest truly gave me the best ideas for this party but I did find an amazing website that had TONS of Car's themed party supplies - from the movies as well as just generalized car decor. I got all of the large Car's character balloons and the checkered balloons, the candles for the cake, the checkered table runners and the letter banner on the white pallet backdrop from Momo Party and the quality was amazing. Looking back now, I wish I'd ordered even more from them but what I got was great.
Most of the rest of the decorations I got from Amazon - like all the traffic cones and checkered flags came in a set - some with smaller cones/flags and another with a little larger cones/flags. I also got the checkered table cloths in a 3 pack from Amazon, the cupcake stand, and the long road runner that I had leading up to the front door. Even the large Car's 3 backdrop was from Amazon and it was a really quality item. Didn't get any pictures in front of it though because my son is 2 and really hates taking pictures if it means he has to stop playing with his cars.
Etsy was where I found the balloon arch kit with the large #2 balloon and several of the other letter banners and pennant banners, plus the silver Vroom balloon banner and the yellow Caution sign pack that was perfectly themed for a 2 year old birthday. Such a great purchase
Zurchers also came in clutch for the simple things like the plates and serving bowls and utensils and a few Car's 3 cups and party hats. Walmart garden center was where I got all the succulents as well.
Several of the other items are custom made or rented from companies local to where I live and I really failed miserably at taking good pictures of everything. But I'll try and show as much as I can and link anything possible. For the food labels, I'd seen the idea from a Pinterest post but the blog didn't have a link or anything to download these to print so my AH-MAZING cousin/bestie/photographer custom made these for me at the last minute and a local book store printed them out for me, as well as the custom labels for the bowling game I had for the kids and the Route 66 signs in several of the succulents scattered throughout the house. I didn't get any pictures of the bowling "cans" but there were a few extra prints that I taped to a couple of the caution cones and put in the succulents out on the patio table.
Here's the images she made me that you can save and use to print out if you decide to do a Car's themed party
My other cousin is the one that came in clutch with the white pallet backdrop, the white sheet backdrop that had the balloon arch that she put together for me, and she custom made the donut holders - granted for mini donuts smaller dowels would be better but for regular donuts these would be perfect. She also had the letter board and the light box and mason jars for the silverware. She rents these things and more out for events so I've linked her Facebook page so if you're local to the Mini-Cassia area and need spool tables, whiskey barrels, backdrops and more, she's your gal.
The last few things I got were the "steering wheel" sandwiches that a local restaurant made - E Street Deli on the Historic Rupert Square - and then my mother and my wonderful cousin JanaRae made the mac n cheese in their handy dandy Instapots for me. I also had another cousin (boy cousins are truly the best huh?) who came and helped me set up most of the morning before the party - without Kate's help I would have been finished setting up at 5pm... the party was from 3pm-5pm. So that tells you how helpful she truly was to me, along with my parents who came and helped and let me boss them around for 3+ hours.
All in all - it was a wonderful party with a great turnout of fun guests that spoiled our little guy rotten and the love was most definitely felt that day. And while I'm not the most experienced or creative party planner I hope perhaps you found some inspiration for your next little "car" themed get-together.
xoxo
Lexi