Choices for children’s party themes are endless. Having two boys we try not to double up on the theme of their parties, and so far we’ve managed to have a different one each year. One idea that hadn’t come up was a race car theme. So my youngest grabbed that idea this year and we sped into party mode.

We went with the black and white chequered idea and added red, orange and green throughout. Again the decorations were pretty easy. For the entrance I made traffic lights by cutting out the traffic light colours, gluing them onto black cardboard and taping them onto bamboo sticks which were then stuck into the ground. I found black material and added strips of white tape for the ‘road’ and added a ‘Start Your Engine’ poster which I found at the party shop.

The food table was covered with black dressing from the party shop and chequered flags were stuck to the wall. I made a ‘Speed Limit 4’ sign which I put into an A4 frame and the food was placed around this. I found some free printables online for the food tags as well as the bottle labels.

Food was all based on the race car theme and made in advance. We had ‘Stop, Ready, Go’ fruit (strawberries, mandarin, green apple), traffic light cupcakes, traffic light jelly, car tyres made from Wagon Wheels, and teddy bear cars made from Milky Way bars, M&M’s for the wheels and teddy biscuits as the drivers. We also had hot dogs which were done on the BBQ and went down a treat. Mini water bottles were available with a ‘Fuel up’ printable added to it. ‘Fuel’ was also available – which was red cordial mixed with water!

The cake was, of course, a race car. I’m actually quite happy with how it turned out and the birthday boy didn’t get to see it until it was time to sing ‘Happy Birthday’. To say he was ecstatic is an understatement! It was a sponge cake with jam in the middle, covered with red buttercream courtesy of Cake 2 The Rescue.

For activities there was a ‘Make A Car’ table. The kids could glue different sizes of cut-out paper together to make their desired car and add on some craft items to really personalise it. My boys have many Hot Wheel toys and tracks so we also put some out and the kids loved playing different games with them.

This year my youngest really got the idea of his birthday and his party – and he loved the fact I asked his input on the ideas. Who knows what he’ll come up with for next year!