fourth birthday party (on wheels!)

Benjamin turned four yesterday! We celebrated with some of his little friends and were so very happy it didn't rain.

The decorations: I bought this set from paper&cake, which was worth its weight in gold. It has the invitation & paper decorations (banner, hats, crown, food trays, and more!) that we used. All we had to do was print and cut (and sometimes tape). I put our hot wheels cars into

fishbowl vases and set them on the eating table (which was covered with a black tablecloth) and next to the cake. The only other things I had to buy were paper goods, plastic tablecloths, red

and yellow balloons, party favors and food. For party favors, I found Cars fruit snacks, pencils,

and stickers at Target, and also put each child's wooden car they colored into a car themed paper bag. The dollar section Target has is a treasure trove of party favors - I sometimes wander through there looking for things I might use someday, just in case!

The cake: I stole Abby's idea from her son's first birthday party, but did a single layer plus a batch of cupcakes. The cake mixes were even on sale when I bought them, so it cost all of $5 to bake two round cakes, 24 cupcakes, and frost & decorate them.

Activities: I found small wooden car & marker sets at Michael's for the kids to decorate, and printed out the coloring pages from our paper&cake set. I covered our train table with a plastic

tablecloth and had my own craft table! It was perfect as the kids were arriving. My mother-in-law made a race car out of cardboard so we could take pictures of all the kids in it (it was so CUTE!). We also told all the kids to bring their favorite wheels - bike, tricycle, etc - so we could have a race in our culdesac. It was fantastic - they probably rode around out there for 20 minutes, perfect for me to make lunch for them!

The party was so much fun! Benjamin loves being four, and really enjoyed his special day.