Race Car Party -4yr- Racing T-Shirts

My son just celebrated his 4th birthday in February 2006. He is really into race cars due to his dad being into them and owning 3 of them, so that is what we decided on for the theme. I started preparing about 6 weeks in advance because I like to make a lot of the props and décor myself.

Our invitations I printed off of the internet, cut out and glued on to red card stock. Outside had black and white checkered border a race car and read "Race on over to my party!" Inside on the top half it read "Put the petal to the metal and shift into high gear, Tristan has zoomed through another year!" On the bottom half: Driver #4 Tristan A., Race Track: Our House, Race Time: 1 to 4 PM, Race Official: Myself and phone number.

We placed a balloon arch all the way across the bottom of the driveway in black, white, and red balloons. The arch contained 150 balloons, 50 of each color. We also had a large banner from the party store that read Welcome Race Fans in red, white, and black that we placed in the center of the front yard, with a red, white, and black balloon on each side. Along the sidewalk to the front porch we placed a 4 foot tall racing flag at each divided section and evenly spaced between each flag was a plant stake with a red, white, and black balloon.

Inside our house I doubled red and black streamers from all four corners of our family room to the ceiling fan and centered with a red, white, and black balloon. I also hung black and white checkered streamer from each fan blade. When turned on low it twirls. Kitchen was decorated in the same manner. Just inside the door was the registration booth.

As the racers arrived they had to check-in. Each racer received a drivers license, a racing t-shirt(I made these ahead of time. Half were red and half were white. Each had the childs name on the front of their shirt and on the back was there racing number and their position. Driver, pit crew, crew chief etc.) My shirt was white and the front said our last name Racing, and the back said Race Official.

I placed 2 card tables in the room doubled with red and black plastic covers, and a balloon tied to the back of each chair. Every one got to decorate a foam pennant and a foam door hanger. Of course they were in our theme colors and we had foam letters, numbers, race cars, flames and racing flags. Michaels craft store had a large selection of stuff for us to use. As the racers finished there foam projects they got to take turns playing Pole Position.

The racing game on the Mrs. Pac Man arcade joystick that you plug into your tv. This was also snack time. We ordered party trays from the walmart deli. Sandwiches, fruit, and cheese. We also had chips and dip, and sodas to drink. We also did hot wheels tatoos during snack time.

Next was game time. Instead of doing the usual pin the tail on the donkey I decided to be a little more creative. We had just purchased a new kitchen table so I happened to have some big flat pieces of cardboard. On one of the pieces I hot glued a black and white checkered table cover.

On another piece I had my son lay down and I traced him, colored him wearing a racing suit with helmet and cut it out. Then I hot glued the drawing of my son to the black and white checkered piece. When I traced him he had one hand on his hip and the other out to his side as if he were holding a trophy. I went to our local school supply store and found some small bulletin board trophies. I wrote each childs name on a trophy and applied double sided tape to the back and this was our "Put the Trophy in Tristan's hand" game. Then on another piece of cardboard I colored a race car with paint pens, cut out the tires and a window and this was our bean bag toss.

Outside in the backyard was were the real fun was out. Luckily the weather cooperated with us and we managed to keep it a surprise from our 3 kids. We rented from Amberg Entertainment The Kiddie Grand Prix. It was a huge race car inflatable that had two lanes for racing and bouncing.This is were our t-shirts came in real handy. Two colors for two teams. The kids loved it and had an absolute blast. We also had a number 4 pinata which is always a big hit. After the pinata we had cake and icecream. Our cake was black and white checkered with a red border, and a cupcake cake with monster trucks on it.

Next was opening the presents and then the awards ceremony. Every one got to go home with a trophy, and goody bags(which was a black and white checkered plastic cup) with a hot wheels, stickers, and bubbles inside. Everyone left wearing their t-shirts and got their foam door knob hanger, foam pennant, a racing flag and a balloon. This was by far the best birthday party we have ever had!!!