To kick-off my very FIRST blog post, today I am sharing my FIRST born’s 5th birthday party! He knows how much I love planning parties; I mean I have been going all out for his birthdays since his very first birthday (his 1st birthday will be on the blog very soon!) My son helps me pin ideas on Pinterest, gives me ideas for games, and helps with some of the DIY party décor. He is my little assistant party planner! For his 5th birthday, he requested a hot wheels theme. It was time to hit the track and start planning!
Whenever I plan a party, I start with colors first. The color scheme for this party was red, yellow, blue, green and a checkered pattern. I then turn to my awesome printable graphic designer, I found on etsy a few years ago; Shannon from Grace & Guy. She turns all my many detailed ideas (and I do have lots and lots) into awesome printable party décor. She somehow always just gets what I am going for all through email!
Once I have my master to do list created, I sort through my current party supply stock and get out everything I have that I can use for the party. Party Porch Tip #1-use what you have first, shop your home, pull out as much as you can use for your party and THEN make your to buy/to DIY list.
One of the DIYS on my list for this party was making a racetrack that the kids used to race hotwheels cars the day of the party. It was a big hit and my boys still use the track to race cars in our basement. It was fairly easy. I bought a piece of MDF board at Home Depot and had them cut it to the size I wanted. I then spray painted it white and hot glued on these hot wheel racetracks that I found at Target. I bought a hot wheels logo decal on etsy and mod podged on the letters “finish” and added checkered duct tape to the bottom for the finish line.
Another DIY project that was on my list were these license plates I used to decorate the party favor area. They were pretty simple. I bought plastic license plate covers from the dollar store and painted them in the colors of the party. I asked my graphic designer to make the license plates with the fun play on words. I printed them off and put them in the painted covers and hung them around my DIY balloon wreath. The balloon wreath I made for my son’s 3rd birthday party (Toy Story theme) but the colors matched perfectly for his hotwheels party too! I love it when that happens! I added a little mini bunting banner (by the way, I am sucker for cute bunting banners!!) and checkered flag ribbon.
I had fun coming up with the food and drink and sweet treats for this party! Do you love creating fun plays on words for food/drinks/sweet treats for your parties? If so, then I think we could be bffs! I love when people appreciate the little details as much as I do! For lunch, aka “Cameron’s Concessions”, the menu included; hotwheel hotdogs, stoplight condiments, vroom vroom veggies and dip, nuts & bolts (chex mix), stoplight fruit skewers, pit crew pasta salad, and need for speed race chips.
For the drinks, I served “anti-freeze” Hawaiian blue punch for the kids and a “high-octane” beverage for the adults.
I decked out the food table with cones, checkered flags, balloons, and made a quick table runner using a black plastic tablecloth and taping on white cardstock strips to create a road. I also like adding a personal touch and added some sweet framed photos of the birthday boy!
One of my favorite parts when it comes to planning my parties is coming up with the design for the sweets table! I draw it out on paper with all the details. I am a very visual person so it helps to visualize my design as I work on the party. For my son’s hot wheel party, I wanted the party to have a vintage feel with a modern twist.
I took a trip to my local antique market and found some vintage black metal drawers and I just knew I wanted to incorporate them on the sweets table somehow. The drawers were giving me a vintage auto shop vibe. I ended up using them to hold old-fashioned soda bottles. And of course I added some or more of the mini bunting banner that I found at Michaels.
I also found some vintage auto décor at Hobby Lobby. I have so much love for that store!!
These adorable tire bowls I used to put red, yellow, and green chocolate coins in aka “winner’s loot.”
Chocolate donuts with mini checkered flags (spare tires), chocolate pudding in mini decorative oil cans (motor oil), race car pops, dipsticks (rock candy), amazing hotwheel cookies my friend made for me, and stoplight brownies also adorned the table.
For the cake, I ordered a three-layer plain, white frosted cake from my local bakery and then added some DIY elements to embellish! I really love all the amazing custom cakes out there but they can be pretty expensive. To save costs, I try and “diy” my cakes. For my son’s hot wheels cake, I made a little bunting banner with his name and added some of the super cute hot wheels cookies my friend made. I also ordered a checkered flag fondant border that I adhered to go around the cake. I also added hot wheels cars around the cake plate. Yay! Love how it all came together!
I love adding height to my sweets table. I had the idea of saving my younger son’s formula cans and then wrapping them to look like oil cans. Again, I gave this idea to my graphic designer and she designed exactly what I what I envisioned. I printed off the can covers and taped them to the can. I used the checkered flag duct tape to cover the lids. Love how they turned out! I stacked the cans on boxes I wrapped with red wrapping paper (Party Porch tip #2-save your diaper boxes, they make great ways to add height to your party table) and added a little mini trophy and checkered flag.
For some other added dimension to the party table, I added in large cones and wheel covers to the front of the table. I asked my friend whose husband is a firefighter if I could borrow some cones and he let me use them for the day! Awesome! I also bought a large C at Hobby Lobby and spray painted it black. I painted on yellow strips to make a racetrack. Two large red balloons with smaller racecar balloons flanked each side of the table. The backdrop was a hotwheels car design that coordinated with the invite. I had the sign enlarged and printed at Office Max. I adhered the sign to a backdrop of checkered flag fabric that I also found at Hobby Lobby. I really love how the sweets table came together! It makes me smile looking at the pictures!
The front porch was decorated with old tires, a vintage speed limit sign I found at another vintage shop, balloons, more large cones, and the welcome sign. I love decorating the front entrance to welcome our guests to the party! The entryway was decorated with a large racecar engineering print, hot wheels cars, and as guests arrived, they were given a pit crew pass to Cameron’s Speedway.
In addition to the racetrack activity, I had a pin the car on the racetrack game, a customized coloring sheet for the kids and a racecar piñata!
I was busy helping the kids with the piñata so I didn’t really get any pictures of piñata action but here is one of my sister, my dad (peeking through the tree ha ha and me) getting the piñata set up. The piñata was a big hit! Kids sure do love piñatas don’t they?! So fun!
The kids took home a favor bag with a hot wheels car, stickers, a race balloon, checkered race flag, a mini trophy, race mask, candy from the piñata, and treats from the sweets table.
It was a super fun party and it was so awesome to have our family and friends celebrate the birthday boy at Cameron’s Speedway!
At the end of the day after everyone had left my son said “Mommy, it was an awesome party, thanks for working so hard on it.” Melt my heart! He is such a sweet and thoughtful kid. I can’t believe he will be turning six soon! Here we are together when he was just a few weeks old. Oh the love! The boy who made me a mommy and the reason I put so much love into my parties!
Vendor Credits:
- Party Styling and Photography – The Party Porch
- Graphic Design and party printables – Grace and Guy
- Vintage Auto Décor – Hobby Lobby
- Fabric – Hobby Lobby
- Race Masks, trophies – Party City
- Race Flags, race flag bunting banner, race balloons- Amazon
- Hot wheels race tracks (used on race track game) – Target
- Cookies-Heatherly Sweet Cookies
Goldie says
Amazing!
Nicole says
Thanks sweet friend!
Angie Payne says
Hello Nicole, Beautiful Hot Wheels Party. Can you tell me where you purchased the tire bowls? Helping my sister with my nephews Mustang Graduation party. 😊 They would be perfect. – Ang
Angie Payne says
Can you tell me where you purchased the tire bowls? Helping my sister with my nephews Mustang Graduation party. These would be adorable. Thanks! – Ang
Nicole says
Hi Ang, I purchased the tire bowls at Hobby Lobby-this was two years ago though so not sure if they still have them? Hope you find them!
Fatima R. says
This party is amazing! Did you design the invitation and can I purchase the file?
My 3 year old wants a hot wheels themed party and the invites out there are too scary!!
Nicole says
Hi Fatima,
I worked with Shannon from Grace and Guy for the invitation and printables. She is on ETSY. I agree, I wanted something unique for my son’s hot wheels party with a vintage twist. Shannon got my vision perfectly!