Cars theme for birthday. Suggestions

[momtoann]

I am looking for ideas for cars theme for my nephew's 2nd birthday but I don't want to go with the Disney cars theme. I want to do something different geared towards cars. I am looking for ideas for cake and decor and where I can get them.

Thanks,
MomtoANN

[o_mom]

We have used the Wilton Car-shaped cake pan for several birthdays now. You can get it at Michael's with a coupon and it is around $5-6. You have to used two boxed mixes, with a bit leftover, but it comes out nicely. Regular Oreos make perfect wheels for it (pull them apart first). It can be any car you want - it has been a police car, a race car and a fire chief here.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I've always liked the race track cake on Family Fun:
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50190

You could always just do that cake on a 13X9 rectangle and make it even easier.

Here's a link to lots of ideas for a car themed (not Cars' themed) party:
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/hot_wheels_party.html

Beth

[Jen841]

After their train pan they came out with a cars one. The packaging was a bit Christmas focused, but the molds are year round. May be able to score one on eBay. Very easy to make.

I can see lots of blank and white checkered items at the party, like the checkered flag in a race.

You can serve food out of cars and trucks. I put chips in a dump truck once for something kids related and my kids still talk about it.

Cute theme

[luvmypeanut]

We picked up some used tires from the side of the road and used them as decor. My kids were too young for games but you could really devise some cute games using the tires. Or make a tire swing.

You could also order a balloon arch. They are $20/ft here but I've seen kits and you could make it yourself.

[alien_host]

You could cover the table with butcher/brown paper (maybe you could find black paper) and then use electrical tape to make the road lines/dividers. Put a bunch of matchbox cars on the table and kids can drive them around. You could also do this on a lower coffee table for the kids to play.


Favors/Bag ideas:

Give matchbox cars as favors

Use a small handled gift bag (try Ac Moore, often they are 3 for $1) and get them in black and use white tape for lines. ETA - use some stickers of cars on the "road". I bet Mrs. Grossmans Stickers would have non-Disney cars.

Or use a yellow gift bag and glue a red/yellow/green dot on each for a traffic light.

[rlu]

We did do the Disney CARS theme, but here are a few suggestions.

For the cake we had the NordicWare stadium mold and decorated the "field" as a race track (using Cars gummi vitamins on the track, a bit small, but worked). DH used knock-off fruity pebble cereal for the fans in the stadium.

DH found a black and white checked tablecloth for under the cake as pp suggested.

We had lunch and snacks of "race-track food" so hot dogs with chili and cheese on the side, small bags of peanuts and popcorn, and the makings for nachos. Can't remember what other food we had except veggie platter and goldfish for the little little ones.

For the pinata we got a cheap one from Party City that was originally a 50's party record. We covered up their decal with a plate and it looked like a tire.

We set up a race track in the living room for the smaller kids (or those wanting a break) with some of the CARS cars which are bigger than the hot wheels/matchbox cars since we had several under-3 siblings attending.

Our goodie bags were various CARS stuff from Target's dollar spot so can't help you there. The viking cars from Diddiams are more appropriate for little ones, but I don't recall how much they cost. http://tinyurl.com/6ovg6s

Also, as kids left we gave each one a coloring page and that was a bigger hit than I thought it would be. http://www.disneyscars.com/coloring.html

I got a NASCAR magic pen book for DS last year - maybe the kids would like to color during the party? http://tinyurl.com/cuxxot

We did red light/green light as one of the party games.

[momtoann]

Thanks for all the replies. I will checkout the Wilton's cake pan. I like the idea of decorating the tables using electric tape. I will checkout Diddams for goodie bag stuffers.

[Tondi G]

There is a Hotwheels theme and general race car themes too

black and white checkered flag table covers etc

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.do?No=0&D=race+car+party&Ntt=race+car+party&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&y=0&N=0&requestURI=searchMain&x=0

This site is great and they have some more general race car stuff ... happy birthday mylar balloons, cake pans, race car candles for decorating a sheet cake, etc...

http://www.birthdaydirect.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=race%20car&Submit=Find&sort=3a&view_all=1