the favors

We gave our guests CARS m&m's and pajamas.  I packaged the m&m's in some red tins and put a picture of the birthday boy inside.  The pajamas were placed inside the red paper bags that I tied with some CARS ribbon.  I put both into a red tin picnic basket and wrote "sweet" dreams with white stickers.  So that's the party- a little bit Disney and a whole lot of homemade for my sweet little man on his third birthday.  I hope you enjoyed it!

the activity

The main activity for this party was showing the movie "CARS".  As the children headed downstairs to our home theatre I gave each of them an orange glow necklace and some play money to use at our homemade concession stand.  I had mini candy bars and popcorn and small red boxes with Lightening McQueen on them that the children used to put their treats in.  The children loved making their own selections and then quickly found their seats to watch the movie.

the food & table

To keep things simple we decided to order pizza for dinner.  I also served some construction cones (baby carrots) and stop lights (watermelon, cantaloupe, and green grapes on skewers) for the kids.  I found construction cone sippy cups that we filled with water, personalized with stickers, and placed  on each plate.  One of my favorite details from the party was the snacks that we served in "Mack" the hauler truck.  For the grown ups I made two green salads and a pasta salad to accompany the pizza.  We also served a few different appetizers and a signature cocktail: the sidecar which is pictured above.  I also made my own tablecloth with some racing flag fabric.  I love parties where I am able to do all of the prepping of food ahead of time so I can enjoy my company at the party.  That was this kind of a party. 

CARS

My son turned 3 yesterday!  We decided it would be fun to do a pizza & a movie night.  He chose the movie"CARS".  The good thing about choosing a Disney movie is that it is EVERYWHERE. The bad thing about choosing a Disney movie is that it is EVERYWHERE.  What I mean to say is that by choosing such a popular theme it can be helpful because you can find everything from juice boxes to pretzels in the shape of many of the characters but, in my opinion, it is easy to get carried away and have to much Disney.  I decided that the best option for me was to use a little of the Disney stuff and a lot of the homemade to find just the right balance.  I also used the colors red, black, and orange.  Here are some of the non Disney decorations I used.  I found red felt cars that I put around our dining room with pictures of my son at the age of 1, 2 and 3.  I put a lightening rod and the age that he was in the picture on the side of each car. I hung black chalkboard stars around the big screen and wrote the names of each of our guests on them.  I also got black star shaped balloons that I tied to the back of each chair.  All week I be sharing more about the food and favors and some other fun details.  I hope you will come back to check them out!