Finn is in LOVE with Lightening McQueen (and Sally and Mater and Doc and Sheriff and Luigi and Guido….). So I just knew we had to do a Cars theme for his birthday! The internet is an amazing thing that helped me come up with some awesome ideas!
First I found these “ticket” invitations online:
And made these address labels!
And I made Finn a shirt for the day!
One thing about the internet though, was that it provided a lot of ideas but without any pictures or how-to’s, so I had to get creative.
Race Cars: I started with these (thank you Mr. Josh!):
Cut out the bottom, cut some holes in the sides for handles and then painted them white:
And then since my painting skills really don’t extend beyond that, I designed the numbers and wheels on my computer, printed them out, cut them and glued them to the boxes and then used red cardstock for tail lights and yellow cardstock for headlights!
Race Track: We needed a race track for the cars to race around, so we got some of the giant paint stirrer sticks from Lowe’s and Home Depot (turns out they don’t really like to hand out 12 of them to one customer, hence the multiple visits to multiple stores), bought some crepe streamers and some balloons, stuck the sticks in the ground, wrapped the streamer around and topped off with balloons!
It was a family affair!
Drivers Licenses: The kids needed a license to drive those cars!
A close-up of the front and back of Finn’s license:
Ramone’s House of Body Art Tattoo Parlor
Flo’s V-8 Cafe for the food
Sarge’s Surplus Hut for the supplies!
Luigi’s Casa Della Tires Bean Bag Toss
Doc Hudson, Dr of Internal Combustion Bathroom Door Sign
Lakes Motor Speedway Sign (the sign was attached to some small paint stirrer sticks (that HD/Lowe’s isn’t too stingy with) and was supposed to be pushed down into the ground….well, the ground was VERY hard and we couldn’t push it in, so ghetto style, we taped it around a tree, ha!)
I also found this awesome idea for decorations and decided to give it a try with Black and White cardstock to look like a checkered flag. I hung 3 in the kitchen above the table and 3 outside from the trees above the deck! I’ve got to say, sewing paper was a first for me, but this was beyond easy!
Pennants: So, turns out it is almost impossible to find black and white checkered pennant flags….So after much searching I FINALLY found some black and white checkered fabric and decided to make my own! I bought enough that I could also use it as a table runner on the back table (shown above) and on the cupcake table. I made two table runners and 150 individual pennants….cut them all out and then glued them to some ribbon for hanging, even made four to put Finn’s name on to hang. I hung them all over the back deck, over the front porch entrance and even a few in the kitchen.
Cupcakes! I made my own cupcake toppers. I designed them on my computer, printed them out, cut them out, bought some lollipop sticks and used the glue gun to glue them together!
I can’t tell you how excited I was to decorate the house and for Finn to see everything and for all our friends to come over and play! Seriously, I was giddy with excitement! I didn’t take a single picture during the party, but grandma took a few!
Good night sweet birthday boy! We love you more than words can say!
