Yay! Finally “The Big Day” came. And it went. You spend weeks looking forward and preparing for something and then it passes in a flash! Today was Red Ted’s long awaited homemade cars party!!!
So far we have only ever had “family” parties for the children’s Birthdays and this year was the first time we had “lots of children”. Having a typical UK house and being in the middle of Winter, space was an issue, so we were limited to 8 children in total. Which meant four 4 years olds and four 2 year olds at the cars party + mothers and The Englishman!
Soooo. What did we do?
Cars Party Games
We had 4 “organised” games and then lots of adhoc ones:
Cars Party Game 1:
Our Crazy Balloon Race! See these in action in our Cars Party Preview!
I prepped all the balloons ahead of “race”. We ended up having to “race” them one after each other and looked which went the furthest.
Cars Party Game 2:
Bean bag toss!! Throw the chicken bean bags in the tyre.
Interestingly the children LOVED this game whilst it was easy.. as soon as I moved the tyres a little further away.. they didn’t like playing any more. I guess the excitement of the party was enough and they all just wanted to succeed. LOVE that the 2yrs olds had a go too! I think we will be playing this game some more over the coming days!
Cars Party Game 3:
Yep.. know Egg & Spoon Race? Well this… is a Cars & Spoon race! The perfect Cars Party game!!! Note: we found it easier running with the cars resting upside down… else they really would slide off the spoon!
Cars Party Game 4:
Ahem. Not the best photo at all.. but it was impossible to do the game with the kids and get a good picture. And ahem, it has nothing to do with cars. But Red Ted adores this game. This is “Topf Schlagen” – a traditional German game: the child is blind folded and given a wooden spoon, with which they have to find a pot by tapping the floor. The other children shout “hot or cold” if they are getting close (hot) or moving away (cold). The player is rewarded with a sweet or small toy.
Cars Party Game 5:
This was one of our adhoc games and we basically played “relay games” of sorts with the tyres. We made it up as we went along! The children had to run up and down the corridor and each time scramble through the tyres.
A success all round!
If you can’t get hold of real tyres (our local garage gave me these for free!! How lovely of them!), why not try inflatable tyres? The younger kids ADORED these:
Pip Squeak spent all day in one of them!
Cars Party Activities
We had two activities, to bring a little calm into our afternoon!
Cars Party Activity 1:
Our Traffic Light and Cars cookies highlighted earlier and week (plus recipe).
The kids got to get messy and decorate their own!
I made our icing a little runny! Ooops. Still… the kids had fun!
Cars Party Activity 2:
On recommendation of a friend we bought some “stained” glass cars to colour in. They LOVED it. Above is one of our guests who apparently “never likes to draw”, drawing away and doing a fantastic job!
Cars Party Pag Bag & Cake!
And ever party must end with cake and a Party Bag!!
First I made our party bags out of old lego colouring books we had – luckily the colouring book was all about cars! And I used this How To Make Funky Party Bags to make them. Super easy. Though I did reinforce them with tape.
Kids find party bags irresistable!
We had lots of little bits for the bag, but the main “gift” was an idea from The Imagination Tree – homemade playdough recipe, in a jar, with a car shaped cookie cutter. Perfect. I made no less than 2.5kg at the weekend and the divided it all up:
I added labels as most of the mums I know, have never used homemade playdough before..
And finally.. the cake. We decided to keep it simple, but fun – a “race track” with Red Ted’s favourite and (brand new) toy cars on a racing track, surrounded by smarties:
Happy Birthday Red Ted!!! I love you and I am so proud of you!
You are growing up so quickly into my handsome, thoughtful and very very special young man!
I hope you liked your Cars Party and that you had lots of fun. Sleep tight.
Anna @ The Imagination Tree says
February 8, 2012 at 9:36 pmThat\’s WONDERFUL Maggy!! Who wouldn\’t have loved to come to that party, wow! I\’m sure he\’s sleeping very happily tonight, bless him!
Red Ted Art says
February 8, 2012 at 9:45 pmThank you Anna!! I think it was indeed a \”BIG DAY\” for him (and Pip Squeak for that matter), both are totally zonked out! Hope he is dreaming about cars…. Thanks for all the planning help, YOU are a STAR!
Julia Deering says
February 8, 2012 at 9:48 pmFANTASTICO!
Looks like a great party. Well done. Feet up now. And a large glass of something chilled. x
Red Ted Art says
February 8, 2012 at 9:51 pmAbsolutely AND an early night!!!! And then I need to start thinking about the weekend when all the family is coming 🙂 Party Part 2!!!!
Rebecca says
February 8, 2012 at 10:10 pmHappy birthday red Ted! Looks like a fantastic day!
Red Ted Art says
February 8, 2012 at 10:15 pmThank you Rebecca!! 🙂
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says
February 8, 2012 at 10:22 pmFantastic party – J would love this. Don\’t suppose you want to help plan a 1st birthday party with a bug/lady bird theme for a months time do you? LOL
amber says
February 8, 2012 at 10:23 pmWhat a cute, fun and happy party! Way to go Mama!
Liz Burton says
February 8, 2012 at 10:44 pmWorried by the amount of tyres there. Are there lots of cars in South London up on bricks now?
Sounds like a FAB party though x
Terri says
February 8, 2012 at 11:00 pmGreat party!!! It turned out wonderful!!
KJ@letsgoflyakite says
February 8, 2012 at 11:33 pmThis is such an amazing party – I love all of your ideas. Bringing the real tires indoors was such a fantastic addition. I am sure many memories were made, Happy Birthday!
Chrissy @ The Outlaw Mom Blog says
February 8, 2012 at 11:37 pmEverything is so cool, don\’t know where to begin. Your little munchkin is one lucky man 🙂 Love the tires.
Bernadette - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says
February 9, 2012 at 2:09 amwonderful! so many fun games & now all those moms & kids will get to try out homemade playdough because of you! Yay!!!
All that planning paid off – a lovely, lovely party & sweet memories created for everyone!
Crystal @ Growing A Jeweled Rose says
February 9, 2012 at 6:50 amWOW! What a fantastic party! Well done Mama, well done! 🙂
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
February 9, 2012 at 9:36 amYou have made one of the best looking parties I have seen. Best of all, you did it, not some very fancy party planner /kids entertainer. So many cool ideas your son will love and remember forever…..Brilliant!
Kate Takes 5 says
February 9, 2012 at 9:51 amMy littlest would have been in party heaven…and *gasp* is that Chick Hicks on the cake? The Chick Hicks that can not be found for love nor money in any shop in the country?!!
Red Ted Art says
February 9, 2012 at 10:02 amLOL no way am I THAT COOL. I bought a “green car” from ebay (that is as far as my Disney Cars knowledge goes) and I believe it is Shiny Wax?? No idea. It is Number 82 though.. rather thank Chick Hicks who is Nr 86. I really wish I was THAT cool. And now I want a Chick Hicks! What are you doing to me!!!
Red Ted Art says
February 9, 2012 at 10:08 amI go to bed.. for a looooong sleep and I wake up to soooo many LOVELY comments! Thank you all!! Very much appreciate the pat on the back! YAY to homemde parties! YAY!
Sonia says
February 9, 2012 at 11:10 amIT WAS A GORGEOUS PARTY AND AGAIN HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
SONIA
Joyce @Dinosaurs And Octopuses says
February 9, 2012 at 11:40 amYour party looked like a huge success! So many fun games, activities and treats. I HAVE to play that game number 4 with R. How fun! So glad you shared. Great job on your first big themed party with friends!
Tracy Dixon says
February 9, 2012 at 1:30 pmWhat a totally brilliant party theme. Love it!! What a lucky little man
mermaid says
February 9, 2012 at 3:01 pmOh I really enjoyed looking at all these pics! What a fun party!!
Norma says
February 9, 2012 at 3:15 pmA Fantastic Party! You did a brilliant job!!!!!!
Red Ted Art says
February 9, 2012 at 4:25 pmTHANK YOU!!! BEAM!!!!! My happy son made all the effort worth it, but it is also SO NICE to read all your lovely comments too 🙂
Red Ted Art says
February 9, 2012 at 6:20 pm@Norma – as someone who was there – I really appreciate that 🙂 thank yo for taking the time to stop by and comment on the blog too!!!
Actually Mummy... says
February 9, 2012 at 8:24 pmYou are a genius! Super cake and lots of great ideas – I bet the pops went down a treat!
Emma @ScienceSparks says
February 11, 2012 at 6:46 pmoooh, looks like a fantastic party Maggy! You are brilliant!
Thanks so much for linking to Fun Sparks xx
Red Ted Art says
February 11, 2012 at 7:00 pmaaaah thank you Emma, you always leave the loveliest comments! 🙂
Multiple Mummy says
February 12, 2012 at 11:10 amThis is just brilliant Maggy! I have pinned lots of this as ideas for Noah\’s party in June although he wants Pirates but some fab ideas.
Thanks for linking to Family Frolics.
MM
xx
🙂
Red Ted Art says
February 12, 2012 at 11:48 amAaaah thank you! I am sure you can adapt some of the above and making Piratey – in fact the car and spoon race came from a friends pirate party where they did \”Gold Coin and Spoon Race\”.. 🙂
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says
February 14, 2012 at 7:27 pmThis is so cool. I love the games as well I can\’t wait till we have a birthday party with games.
Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots
Red Ted Art says
February 14, 2012 at 7:47 pmAaah thank you Cerys! It really is great when they start “getting into” party games!
Christina says
April 11, 2012 at 7:45 pmHey, wat fuer ne tolle Party!!! Super Ideen, Spiele und am besten ist natürlich die Torte! Sehr gut gemacht.
Wann steigt die nächsteParty im Haus;)?
Liebste Grüße
Christina
Jennifer Fischer says
July 21, 2013 at 3:08 amHow cool! We did outings instead of parties last year, but might have to tackle a party this year. We’ll see. You are inspiring me!
Red Ted Art says
July 22, 2013 at 11:27 amAwwww so pleased to hear that you are inspired and enjoyed our party ideas!
Rachel says
August 5, 2015 at 8:07 pmHi. I really like the stained art idea. I know this party was a couple years ago, but where did you find the car stained art??
Red Ted Art says
August 6, 2015 at 11:21 amI think it was Baker Ross or Yellow Moon!
Christianna says
September 3, 2017 at 7:06 pmWhere did you guy the stained glass cars? I can’t find anything like that on the internet.
Thanks!!
Red Ted Art says
September 4, 2017 at 8:21 pmOh I bought them from a place called “Baker Ross”, but it is a few years ago now, so not sure if they still have them? So sorry!
shehnaz kadri says
December 1, 2017 at 8:52 amReally liked it,My kid loves cars and is crazy for it.So car theme party would most favourable for him.Also the cake with gems and cars is just awesome idea.Will surely getting this on his birthday.