A Cars Birthday Party

Happy 4th Birthday, Spencer

Spencer turned four-years-old on June 16, 2012, but the day before we threw him a big party!  He wanted a "Lightning McQueen party with a Thomas party with a Spider-Man cake." (not sure about the Spider-Man.  We've never even watched an episode.)  I think we narrowed it down to Lightning McQueen which made him happy.

Be aware: There are lots of pictures!  

We had the birthday party at one of the nearby army base installations that doesn't have many people living there.  It was so perfect.  The forecast said it was supposed to rain at the exact time of the party but it was beautiful skies the whole time!

This was where the sign originally was, but the only weather problems we had were high winds for a short time.  It kept ripping the sign off so we moved it to....

...here!  Not the original place I wanted, but it worked.  :)

When the kids arrived, they received a "Pit Pass" with their name so they could "back in the pit" "passed security" to collect stickers at each "game" they played.  They also got cool sunglasses to be a car racer!

I went shopping in our own garage at the same time we were literally packing up to go setup the party.  It's amazing how many things I found to use as centerpieces.

Spencer and Jaylen used these centerpieces to make their own car wash! :)  Hey! Great imagination.

Sarge's Surplus Sweet Shoppe with "Luigi's Casa Della Tires", "Doc Hudson's Hot Rods", "Tow Mater's Tow Cables" and "Dinoco's Dipsticks".

My friend Cyndi Hitchcock made his cake and at the last minute whipped up some cupcakes for me.  She's so amazing!

Thanks to Xoe Villa for creating Luigi's Casa Della Tires!

 Drinks & Snacks

Our Beverage and Snack Table!

Fillmore's Organic Fuel
Don't worry! It's got Hawaiian Punch and Sprite!  The kids loved it!

Cake Table

My friend Cyndi made this cake! Didn't Cyndi do a great job?

Guests

Guests!  Getting ready! Thanks Anthony Medina and Portia Medina for so much help!  Especially for rigging up the pinata with jumper cables! :)

A true friend.  Shoveling ice with her bare hands into a tiny hole.

Spencer arriving with Auntie Julia Knapp!  He couldn't get over all the amazing stuff.

Instead of playing with the other kids on the playground, he and his friend Jaylen made a car wash!

He's just so cute isn't he? :)

Brian really wanted the kids' families to be there.  Most of them were from Spencer's school since we had become good friends with them and all their kids.  We had one family from our church there as well.  It was such a great turn out! Thanks everyone who came! This is Ilana's dad, Matt, and then Nathaniel who is the dad of 3 boys in our church and his wife Felicity is my really good friend! 

My cousin, Julia, is so dang amazing! I couldn't have done this without her!  How did I get so lucky to have her here from California this long! Love you girl!  It's almost 5 weeks she's been here and I'm going to miss her so much when she's gone!

Xanthe and Xoe were seriously an amazing help too!  You guys are so creative and totally rock! I'm so glad we were able to have the party before you left for the states two days later.

Jaxson (from school), Spencer and Jaxson's sister, Sydney

I can't get Spencer to smile and look at the camera at the same time for nothing!

There are a few pictures in a row I just couldn't delete. I get the prerogative to post as many as I want, right? :) Sorry if it's too much.  Just scroll down. :)

Nathaniel again and on the right is Spencer's friend, Lily's dad.

The playground! I probably didn't have to plan games. The kids loved this playground and the swings next to it.

While the younger kids were playing on the playground, there were a few older kids who were playing soccer.  Brian looks like he wants to get in on the Xanthe's shenanigans.

Xoe & Soccer! 

Hanging out with the big kids.

Food

Food!!  Brian rocks at the grill.

Julia, this looks amazing!

Eating with friends. They all actually congregated together and made their own Kids Table.  Didn't even care to sit by their parents.

Illiana, Spencer, William, Lily, Jaxson, Sydney and the back of Jaylen's head.

How come I love this picture?  I love William and Spencer talking.  It makes him so "big" to me!

Games

When we started doing games, we had a few stations.  The first one was Ramone's House of Body Art.  Face Painting, Tattoos and Hair Color.

You rock, Felicity!

Sophia, Ilana & Lily

Hair Painting & Tattoos

Surprisingly he was okay with this haircolor but it didn't come off his scalp for a whole week. I've seen a few kids out in the community and had to apologize to their parents after seeing their kids' scalps still colored.

Jaylen Reed, isn't this kid beautiful? Look at those beautiful eyes!

Bean Bag Toss

Bean Bag Toss

Xanthe help manning one of the stations.

Throw!!!

Audrey, Cameron & Jaylen

Spark Plug Drop

'The kids were unsure of this game at first but they warmed up to it. I am only posting spencer playing this game to save you from so many pictures.

Adding more colors to his hair while playing the game.

Luigi's Casa Della Tires

"Luigi's Tire Stack", See how many tires you can stack the fastest.

Obee decided eating was better than stacking.

Khadisha helping to man the station.  Watch the following picture sequence.

Higher and higher...

then WHACK!!!

Illiana... this little girl is so sweet. She's one of the older kids but her parents, Anthony and Portia are two of our dear friends and she and Spencer LOVE hanging out together. Of course she needed to come to the birthday party.  Spencer got so excited when she showed up! We love you Illi!

Then the dads got involved.  Nathaniel won by 13 high!

Car Racing

One of the kids' favorite things at the party was the car ramp.  Brian had grand plans to paint this black and make racing stripes and then put a dowel at the top to release the cars all at the same time.  But the paint peeled off and we just gave up. The kids had a fun time! They could have cared less if it was black.

Xoe manning this station. They are both so good with kids!

Closing Ceremonies

There were a couple of games we didn't play, mostly because the kids were having so much fun with other things and the playground. We were going to do Red's Hosedown where they got to fill up a bucket from a distance with a hose, or Best Backwards Driver (a take on "Red Light/Green Light".)  Once they were finished the games, they came over and I gave them each ribbon medal around their neck and their choice of cars (see next picture) .

The girls' Step Team instructor had a son who was a Senior in High School. We went to their house and the son had at least 8 carriers for Matchbox cars, each of which had about 150 cars in it.  He just handed us one to take home so we have a plethora of old and new Matchbox cars. For the kids' goodie bags, I let them pick a few cars from it. Even though they were used cars, they thought it was so cool!!!

This is Ilana. She is from Spencer's morning class. She's so amazing and it's a fun story how her parents and I met.  But Spencer and Ilana are amazing friends.  When Spencer got moved to the afternoon class and they hadn't seen each other in awhile, they met up to go to the zoo as a double class field and freaked out when they saw each other.  Dancing around in circles and hugging each other. They are BFF's!

Obee proud of his award!

Tow Mater's Salvage Game

This was our pinata-- my idea of goodie bags is to give every kid a goody bag to put their pinata candy in. I had this idea from the girls pirate party when I had to get creative after they invited 35 children to that party that I had no idea were coming until the night before.  They get plenty of candy from the pinata so it's a perfect idea!  Add together all the other things they got (sunglasses, Matchbox car, Pit Pass, etc.), that was a pretty smokin goody bag, right?!

Waiting patiently for the pinata

William, Xoe, Ilana, Cameron (standing), Spencer, Jaxson, Sydney & Obee

This is similar to the above picture but I realized Audrey escaped a lot of the pictures.  I had to document she was there. She and Spencer are inseparable sometimes.

They each got two whacks.

This is for you, Matt & Heidi!

The best way to hook up a pinata! Jumper cables!

This is for you, Andre & Khadisha!

Seriously, this kid is beautiful, isn't he?

Spencer didn't understand the concept of a pinata and got a little upset over the whole process.  When we finally explained it, he was okay but Xanthe had grabbed some candy for him. What an amazingly  nice sister!

Cake Time

Presents

Sheer excitement on his face!

As if his faces couldn't get better...

He's also really into Legos.  Lego Lightning McQueen characters make him super happy! :)

So cute of Xoe's face painting. Great job, Felicity!

  Wrapping Up

Pretty girl!

Sitting around as things are wrapping up.  Cute Xoe & Xanthe, huh? :)

Update!  I've had lots of requests for the signs I used... For the colored signs, go to this blog... and download the templates.  http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2010/04/disney-cars-birthday-party.html

For the black and white with red signs, email me at christy.pethel@gmail.com.  Until I figure out how to paste the files up here, I will just email them to you! :) There you go!