Daniels 3rd Birthday - Racing Car Party

Daniel requested months ago that he would like a racing car party, he loves Rory The Racing Car & Disney Cars. He also loves just playing with cars in general.

I found lots of great ideas on Pintrest for Daniels birthday party & wish that I could have used them all, however as well as wanting to spend a fortune, time was also limited. So in the end we made:

• a large road / track from masking tape
• road signs from wrapping paper tubes
• traffic light jelly
• car shaped biscuits
• colouring station

(click on links for more details)

We were very lucky that we were able to set up in the hall the night before. So after getting the boys to bed & making sandwiches with help from my husband & mum, I set to work on creating the masking tape road. I made sure that all the tables & chairs were in place then went as big as I could. The zebra crossing  went down well, with kids using it to cross. I think the dashed line in the middle really adds to the effect, however when it came to packing up time my husband really wished I hadn't gone to the effort!

We were able to use the toys belonging to the toddler group at the hall, so used all of their ride-ons & cars, with a couple of ours as well. We also borrowed their car play mats & garage, to set up a quieter corner.

Colouring station (later turned in to the eating table)

The boys stayed at our house with Nanny while I was setting up & were so excited & surprised when they came in! I think they would have been happy with the party had it just been them!

When Daniels friends arrived they all joined in. For the most part they all played on the road, with a few breaking off to colour or play with the garage. We had to tear them away to play pass the parcel.

We had a morning party 11-1 so the boys wouldn't be too tired, but it also meant that by 12 everyone was ready for the food. After eating the kids all went back to the cars & I got our bubble maker out for the last 5 minutes (only because i had packed it, not because they were bored).

Daniel & his best friend enjoying the food

I cheated & bought the cake from Asda

I think home time came around too soon for everyone, especially Joseph & Daniel. Tho the party bags did help to soften the blow.

I enjoyed Daniels party, only having 12 kids helped keep it quite calm & having a theme made planing easier. I also really liked that it was early in the day meaning we had the whole afternoon to enjoy & leftover party food for tea!

Now to start planning Joseph's 5th birthday, he has requested a Halloween party...

x Jo x

P.s. I'm happy to answer any questions, please leave a comment & I will get back to you ASAP

Road Signs - For Daniels Party

For Daniels racing car birthday party I spent ages scouring pintrest for ideas, I loved these road signs so saved up my wrapping paper tubes from Christmas. I attached them to some boxes by cutting approx 1" up the tube all the way around then used duct tape to secure. It this point I painted them using the boys ready mix paint. My husband then took one look at my slightly wonky sign posts and said that they would fall over (I secretly agreed) & that I should have cut a whole in the box to push the tube through before taping! Along with some cursing, this is what I did along with some hot glue for good measure. 

For the crossing sign I tried using white paint on the stripes however it didn't cover very well even after 2 coats, so I ended up using double sided tape to attach white paper. I really wish that I had made my stripes thinner so I could have fitted a couple more on. 

To make the signs I used goggle images to look for the signs I wanted then used word to stretch them as big as I could fit on a4 paper. I then printed them out twice so that they would end up double sided. I then used prit-stick to glue them on to some cereal box card & once cut out some double sided tape to attach to the post. For the traffic light I used a large orange juice carton, again painted black & stuck on circles of coloured paper. To attach it I used my original method of cutting the tube & duct tape, this time with some added hot glue for good measure!

For Daniels Easter bonnet we had used craft foam to look like grass & tissue flowers. As I was looking to re-home the bonnet from the shelf in the kitchen, I took this opportunity to re-use it as grass at the bottom of a couple of the signs. On the party day I added a yellow balloon to the top of the crossing sign, to look like a light on top. I used double sided & normal tape, it only lasted about 20 mins before it kept falling off, so I wouldn't bother again!

I'm really glad I made the effort to make the signs as they really added to the overall effect. We left the signs at the hall for the toddler group to enjoy & they are still going strong a couple of weeks later!

x Jo x

Car Shaped Biscuits

So to go with the traffic light jelly, I made these yummy car shaped biscuits. As I cheated & bought a Lightning McQueen cake from asda, I felt something home made was required! I bought the cookie cutter from e-bay a while ago, it came from china so was really cheap but did take a while to arrive. I was originally hoping to use the cutter for sandwiches at the party, like the ones I made for the boys letter C lunch, however it would have been to waste full as I could only get 1 car from each slice of bread.

Having never made biscuits from scratch before, I made a couple of test batches to make sure they would turn out ok. Firstly I used this sugar cookie recipe, even though I let it chill in the fridge the mix didn't firm up. I either made a mistake when measuring or my American measuring cups that I found on e-bay ain't very accurate. The mix was so soft it as impossible to transfer a cut shape, so in the end I just used my fingers to make round biscuits. These actually tasted amazing, the boys couldn't get enough of them, so I will defiantly make them again.

Then I tried this no egg sugar cookie recipe. As its a UK blog I was more confidant about getting the measurements right. I was a bit worried at first as the mix was very firm & crumbly however after some kneading it formed a ball It was so firm after the recommended 30mins chilling time, I had to let it get back to room temp before I could roll it out. With plenty of flour (from my new flour shaker, its the little things!) the car shapes were easy to cut & transfer to a baking sheet. These biscuits also tasted amazing & the boys loved them even more due to the shape. They were very pleased to find them in their pre-school lunch box.

So this was the recipe I baked a couple of days before the party. I decorated them the next day half dipping them in melted chocolate & using chocolate buttons & smarties to make the wheels. I saved the greaseproof paper from baking them to put them on whilst the chocolate was setting (a few minutes in the fridge). I needed quite a bit of chocolate so that it was deep enough to dip the biscuits in. I had enough left over to make 8 chocolate cheerio cakes!

x Jo x

Traffic Light Jelly

After seeing traffic light jelly on pintrest, I knew it would be perfect for Daniel's party. I found these clear plastic ups at Stax, as lots of places I tried only had white in a small size, so i snapped these up when I saw them! My Mum wasn't convinced that I would have any success in layering my jelly & I was a little worried after several trifle fails in the past. So here are my top tips for layering jelly:

• Make Jelly slightly stronger than normal (approx 7/8ths of a pint)
• Let it set for at least 3 hours before adding another flavour
• Let the Jelly get to room temp before pouring it on to a set layer
  
  
  
  

  

  Joseph enjoying his jelly

I made this jelly the day before the party & was really pleased with the effect. If I was to make these again I would add a little green food colouring  to the lime jelly as the green was a bit pale. Also while looking for the original idea on pintrestto give credit (which i cant find!) I saw that someone used custard for the middle layer!

It went down well at the party, but the boys were pleased that there was a couple left over for them to enjoy at home. I will be posting more details from Daniels 3rd Birthday party soon.

x Jo x

P.s. Don't forget to enter our giveaway.

Car Theme Party Ideas

Daniels 3rd birthday is only a month away now & he has asked for a racing car themed party (after falling in love with a cake at the supermarket). We have hired a local hall as once you have a couple of families our house is full & we would like to let him invite about 10 friends. We hired the same hall for Josephs 3rd Birthday I think we had almost 20 children & babies. Joseph didn't ask for a theme so we hired a bouncy castle which went down well, but with that many kids it was a little crazy!

I have been busy pinning ideas to my Party Ideas board on pintrest, so I thought I would write about my favourites in case anyone else has a car obsessed little boy!

I totally love these cardboard box cars, however we are lucky enough to know the lady who runs the toddler group at the hall so have free use of their toys. So we will have enough ride in/on cars & trikes for all the kids. They also have a couple of car play mats & garages which we will also set up.

Again I love this road & was planning on making similar as a race track, however as my husband and mum pointed out it might not last long with the kids riding cars around on it & could become dangerous. So I'm going to go with using just masking tape to make the road/track, I think it will depend on time on the day as to how fancy it gets! 

I 'm going to make some of these cool road signs & have been saving cardboard tubes just for this. I love the traffic lights, not sure if mine will be working though.

I'd also like to have a go at making a beanbag toss like the one above, as I'm sure we would be able to use them lots after the party.

I love this table design, I've just got to track down some cones, if anyone knows of a UK shop that sells these please let me know. (I bought some from ELC in the end)

Moving on to food, I've already got a car shaped cookie cutter & found these fab ideas (which again depend on time the day before). I'm also going to make some mini toothpick checkered flags

I already have a box of cars for the favours (or party bags as they are called here in the UK) but love the idea of the traffic light play dough.

I really need to get my bum in gear & start organising this party. I know that Daniel is going to love his party, he is looking forward to it so much he is inviting everyone he meets & random people on the TV!

If you have had a car party or have any ideas I would love to hear them.

x Jo x

P.s. To take a look at which ideas I used for Daniels party click HERE.

Painting With Cars & Car Wash

 When thinking about a craft activity for our Letter C week, I did think about clowns or caterpillars, then I remembered that the boys loved painting with cars at a toddler group last summer.

The boys picture from last summer

So we chose a selection of cars, making sure to choose cars with different types of tyres. I put out 2 plates with paint on so they could drive the cars through the paint, then on to the paper. I also gave them each a sheet of scrap paper to use as a 'car park' to reduce the mess, this worked well & the 'car parks' turned in to good pictures as well!

Both boys have been really enjoying the painting that we have been doing recently, but getting the chance to get messy with toy cars made this much more interesting.

 After we had finished our painting Daniel (2.5) helped me clean up by washing the cars. I placed an ice cream tub of warm soapy water on top of a towel, this was for the cars to dry on & to soak up any spills. Daniel really liked this as he loves anything to do with water (like our Lego wash)

  x Jo x

C is for....

Car, Cat, Coin, Chocolate, Cheese, Carrots, Caterpillar Clown & lots more! We started off out letter C activity's with some painting using cars, which was a big hit with the boys.

We also had a letter C lunch of car shaped sandwiches, cucumber, carrot sticks, cheese cubes, crisps (chips) & cranberries. When using cookie cutters to make sandwiches I make sure that any left overs are eaten either by the boys or myself, so as not to waste any. Both boys ate all their lunch & had some extra sandwich.

That same day we also had a letter C snack of cheerios, cranberries & chocolate coins. While they were eating I used the opportunity to point out that everything began with C & since they have been able to name several foods that begin with C when asked.

 We used some more of Erica's work sheets this week a Caterpillar do-a-dot sheet & Circus Cutting practise. With the cutting sheets the boys trace over the lines first to help with writing skills then use their scissors to try and cut along the dotted lines. Daniel was so excited when he made a triangle.

We also tried something new with our worksheets this week - play dough. Daniel was making balls using our Play-Doh Candy Cyclone, when I realised that they were the perfect size for the do-a-dot sheets. So he pressed one ball on to each dot. He really enjoyed this and it was a great way to add some extra interest to the work sheets. Next time we do this I will put the sheet inside a plastic wallet (or laminate) so It can be used again.

We had to have our car play mat, garage & dress up out. We also read so letter C books this week which included the boys favourite The Very Hungry Catterpillar