Last month, our sweet little Rowan turned three and we celebrated his special day with a 'Little Blue Car' party! It was such a lovely day and the best parts were, without a doubt, seeing how incredibly happy he was and hearing him say in excitement, "It's my party today!" ... several times. I think he had been looking forward to the occasion since Damon's Red and White party back in January!
In an earlier post, I promised to share some photos and details of the party, so finally, here they are ...
Rowan's favourite colour is blue (a fact he likes to share with everyone) and he loves cars, so the party theme was a fairly easy decision. He has a very cute little blue wooden car which became the inspiration for all the decorations.
Finding blue decorations and accessories wasn't too difficult and was a rather enjoyable task! I decided on the gorgeous blue party range from Paper Eskimo and purchased some blue baking cups, paper straws, cups, plates, table runner and party bags. Once again I used the pack of flags I already had (also from Paper Eskimo), selecting only the blue ones this time and arranging them in a way I thought looked effective. I made the letters for Rowan's name on the computer, printed them out on sticker paper and then stuck them onto the bunting. Instead of balloons, I found some gorgeous blue paper lanterns - just love them! It was fun hunting around for all the other blue bits and pieces, many of which came from the cheap shops - I love it when you find gorgeous things at bargain prices!
I wanted to make my own printables for the Little Blue Car theme, so I took a photo of the little wooden car on my phone and sent it to my clever sister, Nicole, from Hue Graphics. Nic created a fantastic picture of the car and sent it back to me in JPG form, which I then used to create the party bag tags, cupcake toppers, party hat stickers, chocolate bar wrappers, signs and other bits and pieces. I always think it's nice to have personalised touches incorporated into the party if possible.
As for the party food ... it wasn't quite as easy to find blue things as I had anticipated, however I enjoyed the challenge and ended up with plenty of goodies for the sweets table. We served popcorn, homemade cupcakes, blue jelly (which I made in little glass baby food jars) and fruit salad. We also had a range of blue lollies, such as blue sour strips, Columbines and of course, Allen's little blue car lollies (which the lovely lady at the lolly shop kindly picked out, one by one, for me!). I also made cake pops - my very first attempt, in fact! I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, although some of them did tend to fall of the stick after biting into them, so I will be working to improve on that next time! The big blue lollipops were a great buy from Kmart and the chocolate bars were Furry Friends covered with the wrappers I made. The Milky Way cars were my variation of the Milky Way teddy cars you have probably seen around - I just used blue M&Ms for the wheels, substituted Starburst Babies for Tiny Teddy biscuits and added a little blue lolly for the steering wheel. The kids really loved those! On the savoury table, we also had blue fairy bread, party pies and a variety of mini quiches.
At this age I find the kids are pretty happy 'just playing' at parties and I didn't want to bombard them with a whole lot of games, but I did organise a few activities to keep them entertained. I hid lots of cute little ladybird chocolates around the garden and swing-set, gave the kids a noodle box each and they had a treasure hunt. It was so cute to see their little faces light up when they found them! I also set up a few activity tables for the kids to go to at their own leisure - one for 'colouring-in' and another for 'making a foam car', which they seemed to enjoy.
Finally, Rowan's birthday cake ... naturally it had to have something to do with a little blue car and I decided to try my hand at a fondant-iced cake this time, instead of frosting (although I personally think frosting tastes a lot yummier!). I made a little blue car out of icing to go on top of the cake and put some bunting made from icing around the sides. I then added some ribbon and voila - a little blue car cake!
I loved seeing all the little kids (most of whom were dressed in blue for the occasion) playing and enjoying themselves. It was also lovely to catch up with friends (the mums) and some of our family members. Most of all, it was wonderful to see Rowan having so much fun! He still talks about his party quite a lot and reminds us how he blew all his candles out by himself.
"I'm three now - I'm a big boy," is what he tells everyone with pride ... love it!
