Hot Wheels Party -4yr- Suspender Box Cars

Hot Wheels Party   For my son's 4th Birthday we had a Hot Wheels Themed party - for the invitations, I printed all the information on the cardstock, folded it in half and used a box cutter to cut a wavy slit in the bottom section of one half, then I found a #4 car photo on the internet, sized it to about 2"x4", printed a bunch and cut them out.  I hot glued a brad fastener on the back of each car and then put the brad through the slit cut in the card (helps to put some masking tape on the back of the paper before making the slit to give it extra strenght).  The kids loved getting the invites and "driving" the cars along the length of the card.  

Prior to the party I saved a large box for each child (a friend sold Avon and those boxes were the perfect size).  I cut the bottom out of each box leaving a 1" lip all the way around, then spray painted the boxes and used heavy ribbon as "suspenders" so the kids could get in the car and wear them.  Local racing companies donated stickers, I used sticker papers to cut numbers, foil cupcake papers for headlights and toilet paper tubes w/streamers for exhaust pipes and purchased license plates they could write on.   I put all the car decorations in bags for each child and let them choose a color car and decorate it upon arrival. 

After all the cars were done we took each child's picture with a polaroid in the "Winner's Circle" decorated w/black & white checked balloons & streamers.  Then we had races on the lawn using pylons we borrowed from a local garage to mark the tracks. 

After the races the kids make frames out of black paper using old matchbox cars run through white or yellow paint then driven on the frames to make tracks.  When dry we taped in their polaroid pictures.  We decorated the cake with an oval track and put foil covered chocolate cars around the track. 

Goodie bags were given to each child and included a certificate of good driving made on the computer, a purchased hot wheels plastic cup and a license and some candy.  Some of the kids still have the cars they made and we still get together to race sometimes!