Pinning with Purpose: Car Birthday Party

My little Bud turned 2 last week. I can hardly believe it! Two years ago I had the absolute WORST day of my life getting him here (one of those delivery horror stories that you don't want to share with soon-to-be mothers) and he is absolutely, completely, 100% worth it.

Bud is all boy. He loves dinosaurs, monsters, Micky Mouse, and cars. We had to move his birthday party up a couple of days so that the family could come. I have a rule that I decorate the house while the kids are asleep; when they wake up the decorations are a surprise! This meant that I had hours - literally hours - to get everything decorated, a cake made, and presents wrapped. I went with a quick, cheap cars theme. I was pretty happy with the results.

I decorated the front door using a black tablecloth. The white lines I added using paper made it look like a strip of road. I whipped out a little drive-in sign on PicMonkey (scroll to the bottom of this post to print your own).

Using black paper plates, a poster board, colored papers, a glue stick, and a glue gun, I made 3 of these little cars to put around the house. I used the glue gun to stick on the wheels. (I made three so that there would be enough for each of my children in hopes that they wouldn't fight - worked like a charm!)

Bud loved driving his little car around the kitchen.

These little road signs were hanging up all over the house. I love free clip art!

The fridge was our refueling station (I thought that was clever - the bathroom was the pit stop).

Here is a look at the kitchen.

I found this cute checkered flag pennant online. You can print one for free here. I hot glued the triangles to a piece of white yarn and hung them up on each window.

I used another black tablecloth to create another road on the table.

I used a cone and my son's cars as a centerpiece on the table. The kids loved driving the cars all around the table.

Here's the living room. My husband asked, "What do balloons have to do with cars?" The answer: absolutely nothing. But what little boy doesn't love to play with balloons?!

Decorations up, presents wrapped, cake decorated - time for a party!

My parents gave him a car and some sunglasses. What a cool little dude.

Let's have some cake!

I am most definitely NOT a professional cake decorator. This is as fancy as I get. Bud picked out the flavor of cake he wanted. I made it in a 9 x 13" pan following the directions on the box. Next, I created a little car pattern, cut out the cake, and frosted it using my favorite vanilla butter frosting. That's it!