Mason's Disney Cars Birthday Party!

On Saturday I teased you with pics of items I had in my house for Mason’s birthday, and today I can finally show you the actual event. Yay!

In my “Parent Handbook: Raising Children Who Are Wicked Awesome while You Still Remain Wicked Cool” (oh, they didn’t give you yours at the hospital? Sucky) it states that Disney’s Cars movie is the official theme for every 3 year old boy’s birthday party. And of course that’s what we had to go with. You never defer from the handbook. Never.
I set up a Mason’s 3rd Birthday board on my Pinterest page a few months ago (speaking of which, you should totally follow. I bet we like the same things. OMG we can be Pinterest besties!!), and began pinning ideas here and there as I found them. Feel free to check it out for further ideas, but the bulk of mine came from:

Yvonne Byatt's Family Fun
So Wonderful So Marvelous
Jolly Mom
How Does She

I then picked away at party prep, design and crafting over the month of July, and here’s the result! I’ll post pictures today, and if you have any questions feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll try to do a follow-up post in the next few days answering them.

May I present …. Mason’s Disney Cars Themed 3rd Birthday Party!

Yarn-wrapped number 3, hanging on the backyard gate (thank you, Pinterest)

Walking into the backyard, party-goers were greeted with a lane of balloon-topped traffic cones. And now you see why I was freaking out about helium last week ….

A bouncy house, baby pool and water table were set up for the kiddies to burn off energy and keep cool. Our official party “activity” (are you supposed to have activities at a 3 year old’s birthday? The Parent Handbook wasn’t clear) was decorating little wooden cars at Ramone’s House of Body Art and then racing them on Route 66.

I wasn’t sure how this would go over given that the majority of party-goers were girls, but everyone loved it and the table was busy for most of the party. Wood cars purchased from Oriental Trading Company






Total blast, and Mace looked like a big mac daddy racing his tricked-out car fo all ‘da ladies. Awww, yeeeah.

Food was your typical mishmash of various appetizer-esq stuff since the party was from 1-4 in the afternoon, and we (correctly) assumed most guests would have already eaten lunch.

Standard issue for any Cars themed birthday party on Pinterest is a stack of Luigi’s tires made out of chocolate doughnuts so, well, here ya go!

If you haven’t seen Cars you cannot appreciate how truly awesome this is and frankly, I can’t even believe we’re speaking right now.

I also made some of Delicious Dishing’s Mini Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes, which were devoured by all and plenty.

This is the second time I’ve made this recipe and honestly, these cupcakes are amazing. I’m not sure which I prefer better, the raw (and eggless!) cookie dough middle or the creamy brown sugar buttercream. This time around I didn’t have time to make the cookie topper so instead just plunked a little racing flag on top instead, but it all worked out. Oh, and I’m lying about not having enough time to bake the cookies. I did, but I burnt them. *hangs head in shame* 

Outside a small drink table was set up following along the Cars theme.
 
Iced tea was the motor oil, and lemonade (with a hint of green food colouring) was the antifreeze.

Bottled water and juice boxes filled Fillmore’s Organic Fuel bucket. And yes, I see the irony in an environmentally-conscious hippy character and environmentally-un-conscious plastic bottles, but whatevs.

We had a Pit Stop Station sitting on the other side of the deck where we placed sunscreen, bugspray, baby wipes, swim diapers and towels for communal use (well, the diapers were a one-time-only-oh-no-thanks-we-won’t-be-needing-that-back kind of thing, but you get the drift).    

And directly beside the Pit Stop station was the “party miscellaneous” table, housing the cake, goodies, and various additional items that didn’t fit in anywhere else.

A second yarn-wrapped 3! For the amount of time those two took me to make I’m seriously considering having the theme of Avery’s 1st birthday be “The Number 3”. They weren’t hard to do, just painstakingly slow.

In lieu of loot bags party-goers received their very own Piston Cup, a street sign sucker, and a book of their choice (yes, I’m a teacher. So sue me). Frosted street sign suckers purchased from Oriental Trading Company

And lastly, the cake. Which I made myself, and am so, so proud of.
 
Remember those cake decorating classes I took a few months ago? Well, they come in handy when your 3 year old walks up to you and says “Mom, I want a Cars cake for my birfday. Wif Lightning McQueen and Mater. And I want dem racing”. Alright sir, right away sir! Anything else for you sir? 

The cake was Love & Olive Oil’s Chocolate Stout Cake with her vanilla bean buttercream icing, and cookie crumbs for the road. As with the cupcakes, this was the 2nd time I’ve used this recipe and it is deeeee-licious! I’ve already decided to provide a full tutorial my next post on how to decorate it the way I did, as it was actually quite simple. Really. But right now all you need to know is that everyone enjoyed it, and only half the children went home inebriated from the can of Guinness called for in the recipe.

All in all the party went well, and the birthday boy was thrilled to have his backyard transformed into a Cars movie. A few more pics:


 
Today the house was a mess, we were all exhausted … and everyone was content.

Love that feeling.