My birthday is in May and while I was growing up, around Christmas time every year I would start planning my birthday party. Just ask my mom. What I enjoyed most was picking a theme and getting all of the details together. My first born was born in April, so, I naturally start planning his April birthday party around Christmas time, too!
This year, he was really into the Disney/Pixar Cars movies with Lightning McQueen, so I knew I wanted his party to be themed around that. I added ideas to my Pinterest board from other Cars parties just to get my brain working on it and eventually made the ideas my own from the inspiration of the others. I also looked on Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Party City for Cars themed decorations and ideas.
I also didn’t want to spend a bunch of money, so I ended up doing a lot of DIY things and getting most things for the party at the Dollar Tree. In the end, I think I spent about $100 on everything for the party, not including the food. This includes decorations, party favors, and the T-shirt for the birthday boy.
This may seem like a lot for a budget party, but I also used gift cards I earned through Fetch Rewards and Amazon points I used through my Amazon credit card.
In case you don’t know, Fetch Rewards is a free app where you take pictures of your receipts and earn points. With those points, you can redeem them for gift cards to a ton of stores, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and so many more!
If you are interested in trying out Fetch Rewards, you can use my referral code 5DBNYF to earn yourself some extra points. It doesn’t cost you anything, and if you save up enough points, you can earn free gift cards!
We were planning on having the party at a park near our house, but unfortunately it was a rainy day and we moved the party into our house and garage. Because of this though, I really got to get the decorations exactly how I wanted them the night before without feeling rushed. I’ll share everything we did for the party in great detail with you now to hopefully spark some inspiration for your next party.
Let’s get into it!
- DIY Road Tablecloths
I got black plastic tablecloths from the Dollar Tree and a roll of white masking tape from the Dollar Tree. I added my own dotted lines down the center of the tablecloths to make them look like roads. I used these tablecloths as actual tablecloths, as a backdrop for the dessert table, and on the floor of our garage to cover up oil stains from our cars that are usually parked in there.
I really loved how these turned out. It didn’t take too long and it was an easy DIY to really make the tablecloths part of the decorations to match the theme of the party. Since we had to move the party indoors, we had a lot less tables to cover so I had a lot of extras. I’m glad I figured out other, unconventional ways to use the extra tablecloths.
- DIY Orange Cone/Checkered Flag/Balloon Centerpieces
I got these orange cones from the Dollar Tree and the checkered flags in a large pack on Amazon. I had to drill a hole in the top of the cones and then I just dropped two flags in and they sort of just fell into place. On the day of the party, I used helium to fill balloons that I actually already had at home from my son’s first birthday party last year. I tied the ribbon I already had at home to the stick of the flags to help keep the balloons in place.
This is an idea I found on Pinterest ahead of time and made it my own. They turned out really cute and it was another easy DIY to elevate the decorations on a budget. I had about six of these around as centerpieces on tables and to add to the decorations on other tables.
- DIY Cars Party Favor Bags
I used a pack of brown lunch bags I found at the Dollar Tree and tied them with red and white ribbon I already had at home. For the sticker on the front, I used an Avery sticker printer page that I already had at home. I created the design on my computer on a Word document and printed it out. I stuck the stickers on each bag with a “Thanks for racing by!” message and a picture of Lightning McQueen.
This is what was in the party favor bags:
- Hot Wheels Car (Dollar Tree)
- “Spare Tires” bag of donuts
For these “Spare Tires” bags, I again used an Avery sticker printer page that I already had at home on a snack size plastic bag from the Dollar Store. I created the design on my computer with Guido and Luigi saying “Spare Tires” and printed it out. I stuck these stickers on each bag. I added three chocolate donuts to each bag to look like spare tires.
After making all of the party favor bags, we had a few extras of these “Spare Tires” bags so I added them to our dessert table.
- DIY Stoplight Brownies
I made brownies with Ghirardelli brownie mix and cut them into small rectangles. I then added one red, yellow, and green peanut m&ms to look like a stoplight. I wanted to use regular m&ms, but Costco only had peanut ones. They ended up making them really tasty.
Since my husband spent a lot of time sorting the m&ms colors out, we added small bowls of the red, yellow, and green m&ms on our dessert table in the shape of a stoplight, as well.
- DIY Cars Cupcakes
I made these cupcakes completely from scratch, the cake and frosting. I frosted the cupcakes with piping bags and tips I found at the Dollar Tree. I used cupcake liners I already had at home and got the red sprinkles from Walmart. The Cars and checkered flag toothpicks I found on Amazon. The gold number 2 candle I found at the Dollar Tree.
- DIY Birthday Banner
I used my son’s birthday banner I made from his first birthday party, which was Mickey Mouse themed. I thought about switching out the Mickeys for something Cars related, but ran out of time. I think I started a new tradition of using this banner no matter what the theme of the party is to remember his first birthday.
On Amazon I found this plain burlap banner and used black paint I already had at home with letter stencils I found at Dollar Tree. For the Mickey stencil, I actually created my own.
- Checkered Flag Banner and Streamers
I found this checkered flag banner on Amazon and used it all over the house. I also used it as part of the backdrop for the dessert table. I really love how it turned out and really made the decorations feel complete.
Last year for my son’s first birthday, I had bought these streamers in red, black, and white at the Dollar Tree just because they were the colors for his party, but I never used them. So, I ended up using them in the garage for decoration this year. I put the red and white together and twisted it. Then, I taped it to each side of the garage.
- Lightning McQueen Piñata Surprise!
The day before the party, I sent my husband out on an errand and then he came back with 2 Lightning McQueen piñatas he said he found at Party City! It made my son and I really happy and it was a really lovely surprise. It added to the decorations and also made a fun activity for the kids to do! We had about an hour outside where the rain quit and we were able to hang it in the tree and let the kids whack it!
My son loved it so much that when I started talking about his little brother’s first birthday, which is coming up, he said “I can’t wait to hit the piñata!” I guess we have to start having piñatas at our parties now.
- Balloons
To wrap it up for the decorations, we had balloons I had leftover from my son’s first birthday party, which I originally got from the Dollar Tree in black, white, and red. We filled some of these up with helium and put them around in mini balloon bouquets using the orange cones and checkered flags I already mentioned. I also used red and white ribbon I already had at home. We used these as the center pieces on the tables.
I also got the number 2 balloon that looks like a road in a pack on Amazon. This is something that can easily be DIY’d at home similarly to the tablecloths I made, but I decided just to buy it on Amazon since it wasn’t very expensive.
- Birthday Boy’s attire
We got our birthday boy a shirt off of Etsy that said “TWO FAST” with a car on it that looked like Lightning McQueen. It wasn’t too expensive and he wore it on his birthday for his party and then just as a shirt until he grew out of it. I then saved it away with some other things from his party for the memories. He also wore jeans he already had and shoes he already had.
- Invitations/Thank Yous
For the invitation, we used a design I found on Etsy. There are so many designs you can find on there to match any party! Once I finished the design, I decided to have them printed and mailed out, which is an extra expense, but I love to send and receive things in the mail. This is something that I may have to cut out for future parties, but it is something I want to keep for now. If you don’t want to print and mail the invitations, you can send the invitation through texts, which is what a lot of people are doing nowadays.
For the thank you cards, I found something on Pinterest to do for kids who can’t write yet. I had him pick out a paint color and I painted his hand and then he put a handprint on every card. Once they dried I wrote the thank you message and sent them off in the mail.
- Activities
We wanted to have his party at a park near our house mostly for the space and our house not being big enough to host the party. However, because of the weather, we had to move it into our house and garage. The kids were able to play with my sons’ toys and we also set up the ball pit my son got as a gift last year, which was a hit at the party. Because of the “road” I put on the floor of the garage, the kids used it with my sons’ outside car toys that are stored in the garage.
We were given a bubble machine last year as a gift that we had going during the party and we also played music from our portable speaker we already had. If you have Apple Music, I highly recommend the station “Family Pop” which we have on in our home all of the time! We also had chalk the kids could use in the garage and giant Jenga for the adults and kids.
Like I mentioned earlier, my husband surprised us with piñatas, so during a moment when it was not raining, we were able to go outside to do the piñata. We gave each of the kids a red Solo cup to fill up with candy once it was broken.
- Food
Last year, my husband cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for the whole party, which he said he will never do again! He was standing over a hot grill the whole time and people had to come to him for him to socialize. For our son’s second birthday we got Costco pizza instead, much easier! We also had typical party snacks; chips and dips, vegetables, fruit, sodas, etc.
I think that just about does it for our minimal Cars themed second birthday party on a budget. There was a lot of stuff I DIY’d and so there was a lot of hands-on work, but like I mentioned before I love planning parties and working on all the details!
I hope you found something in here that you can implement into your own Cars themed party. Don’t be afraid to try something just to see if it works and if not, you can always tweak it to make it work for you.
With love,
Victoria O’Brien