Car Show Birthday Party

I'm so excited to share this party with you guys.  Ronan has a little obsession with wheels, so when I was dreaming up a theme for his 2nd birthday party I knew cars had to be involved somehow. Because a two-year-old isn't really familiar with the whole concept of birthdays yet, I took some of the pressure off by trying to just plan a day that would make him HAPPY. I was talking it out with my husband on the way home from shopping one day, and out of my mouth spilled, "Oh, he would love a car show." And instead of just moving on to the next idea, because admittedly that one sounded a little ambitious, the thought embedded itself in my mind. By the time we had gotten home, I had called more than one member of my family and dreamed up a whole plan.

I suppose, to make myself look a little saner, I should include the fact that my husband and I both own sporty cars, and my dad owns a few old vehicles. So when I landed on the "Car Show" theme I knew that we would be able to stock the show with our own vehicles, so anyone else who brought one was just icing on the cake.

The brilliance of having a theme like "Car Show" is that the decorations could be as simple (or complicated) as I wanted. I went the simple route, with the thought behind the color choices and the general mood being "vintage small town."  Since I live in a little adorable vintage small town, the location really set the stage. All I did was amp up the cute factor by making some bunting out of colored paper and twine.

Our other big DIY for the day was our favors. In the spirit of car shows, we gave every participating car a ribbon that Ronan himself helped create. The center of the rosette was created with the "tire painting" technique (aka driving the cars through the paint then across the page). Then there was a layer of paper, which we hot glued ruffly ribbon to, then the ribbon that hangs down, then finally another circle of paper on the back. It was a bit of work (took about an hour and a half to make a dozen or so), but I love the way they turned out. And I've seen a few of the ribbons tucked away in the houses of relatives, which is so sweet.

The food was simple and classic. We are very away of the fact that Ro having an October birthday means that almost every party would involve some sort of bonfire (which I am perfectly fine with, we love roasting hot dogs!) A few bottle sodas and mini cupcakes rounded out the food table and put the spotlight on the best part of the edibles: the birthday cake. 

While this birthday cake was amazing looking, I'll tell you a secret: it was so simple. I borrowed inspiration from this cake I found on Pinterest. The cake is a store-bought angel food that I took attacked with a spatula to smooth it out. Then I crushed some chocolate and filled the center, placed the dump truck on top, and arranged the leftover chocolate to look as if it were spilling out the dump truck and down the side. I added two construction cone candles that I found at Target and it was the cutest dang cake I ever have seen.

I am a firm believer that parties should include at least one planned activity, so to add some fun to our event I bought these wooden cars from Amazon. I set up a table with paint and brushes with a sign that gave people the option of painting a car for Ro or taking it home. Most chose to give their masterpiece to the birthday boy, so we now have a wonderful collection of custom cars that were created by the people that love Ronan most. The only regret I have is that I didn't ask people to sign them. On that note, if you painted a car and you remember what it looked like, please tell me which is yours, haha!

In the spirit of honesty, this day started out with my phone taking a bath with my child, leaving all of the last minute details and picture taking to be done with my husband's phone (he was such a good sport about it, though.) That, plus a few other mishaps that were beyond my control, could have taken a wonderful day and made it stressful for me and unenjoyable for the birthday boy. But with the support of my family, who took a few hours out of their day to help prep for the party, I was able to really relax and enjoy the event. The theme had a very hands-off vibe that was truly great. It allowed me to really enjoy my time with the monster, and all of the people we love.