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.

Dropper Art

We did this activity at a local toddler group, so I didn't take many pictures so as not to put pictures of other kids on the net. But the boys both loved this so much that I just had to post about it. It also fits in with our letter of the week - D.

 We used ready mixed paint that had been watered down by about 1/3 & large droppers (or pipettes), I have some small ones at home but I'm on the look out for these larger ones. On to A4 coloured card (that had been pre-folded in half) the boys used the droppers to drip, dribble & squirt the paint on to their card. Once finished we re-folded the card then opened it out to see the finished effect.

I really love these & think they look a but like butterflies, it would work well on card pre-cut in to a butterfly shape.

x Jo x

Snow In March - Fun Bath

 I can't believe that spring is just around the corner & we are busy preparing for Easter & we have SNOW! Snow in March is practically unheard of in the UK (especially the south) its almost as crazy as our BBQ & paddling pool in October a couple of years ago.

The boys were disappointed that we didn't get enough snow to go sledging or build a snowman this time. So we decided to have a snowman fun bath instead. 

I made some basic snowmen using craft foam & stuck on some eyes. Joseph (4) decided that the carrot noeses were party hats & soon after made a sun using the arms as sun rays. I didn't get many pictures as the boys were splashing lots & I fired for my camera! 

They both really love fun baths & they ask for them all the time. Its a great way to let them be creative & makes a real change from regular bath toys.

x Jo x

Dinoland

After the B for Builder small world play went down so well, I decided to make a D for Dinosaur box for the boys. In the base of our box I used small cardboard squares, which is actually for the base of our pet rat cage, its called Ecobale & is a type of horse bedding!  I made boulders out of scrunched up paper bags & sed some rocks from our beach small world. I added some plastic plants, eggs & 2 palm trees, that the boys made at a toddler group using tinsle & kitchen roll tubes.

 During play my paper bag bolders became dinosaur nests!

We used our Ladybird Dinosaur book to look up the names of our figures & taked about how big they would have been & what they liked to eat.

They got the dinosaur figures from Santa and they hadn't really been played with since, this was a great opportunity to give the boys a starting point to begin play. They both enjoyed this box and like most of our others it has been asked for several times.

x Jo x

Easter Egg Hunt

As we wont be having our 2013 hunt until Easter day, I thought I would share some pics of last years hunt. As the weather wasn't great we decided to go for an indoor hunt on the upper floors of our house (its split level so we have 4 floors total). I'd picked up a kit on sale which included baskets, some signs & arrows. The arrows worked great as Joesph was only 3.5 then so would have needed help otherwise. We hid 2 small eggs in each hiding place one for each of the boys, as Joseph knew what he was doing, he was finding the eggs, then sharing with Daniel (not quite 2 then).

This year I plan to use some clues like these at Making Boys Men I love how she has used pictures as well as words! I'm also hoping for better weather so we can use the garden.

We also attend an annual Easter party with bonnet & decorated egg competitions.

Last years Easter bonnets, we didn't win!

Whilst looking for these pictures from last Easter I found these cute pictures from a visit to the pets corner at a local farm park. I love looking back at pictures of the boys, you can really see how much they have grown!

I hope you have a great Easter with your family this year, we will be sharing some Easter crafts soon, so pop back. If you are looking for some inspiration in the meantime take a look at my Easter Pintrest board.

x Jo x

I'm linking up to the Easter Crafts Spring Project Linkup

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