Monster Truck Birthday Party

Flashback Friday?  Tyler was looking over my shoulder this evening as I scrolled through old blog posts trying to decide what I wanted to repost today.  He got really excited when he saw the Pirate birthday party (“I didn’t know I had a pirate party!”) and even more excited when he saw the Monster Truck birthday party and immediately declared that his next birthday (December) he wants a Monster Truck slumber party complete with a real giant tire that “looks at though it fell off a monster truck” and an obstacle course with a pool.  While I’m secretly hoping he forgets about the whole slumber party idea (I know I let Kaitlyn have her first big slumber party when she turned nine but I’m not sure I want to face a house full of rowdy little boys all night, do I?!), we did have fun looking through the photos from the party and discussing ideas.

When our little guy turned 4, I just knew he needed a Monster Truck theme birthday, and one I could throw together quickly as we were moving out of state and I needed to squeeze the party in a month before his birthday in among Halloween and packing and everything else.  The Monster Truck idea was actually a really fun theme to pull together. It also doesn’t hurt that it rarely takes much to have the little ones saying “oh cool!” and “awesome!”

 I decided on black, white, and lime green for the colors. Found some clipart online and colored it to match the theme and used it for everything: the invitations, decorations and even as a way to dress up the bendy straws. The rest of the decorations were easy to pull together. I had black and white checkered flags and plastic table clothes left over from Sam’s party (his 30th!) and used them everywhere, even cutting them down into triangles to make quick pennant banners. I also made giant truck tires out of posterboard and a custom license plate for Ty.

The invitation: (yes I made a typo – it’s supposed to say Nov but I didn’t realize it until we were delivering them and someone pointed it out. oops)

The front door:  That’s always the first impression guests have and I like to use it to set the tone for the party or at least give a nod to the theme.  Plus, a little decor and a few balloons make it easy for guests to find the party house.

The food:

I went really simple with the cupcakes – chocolate cupcakes, lime green frosting, and crushed Oreo cookie “dirt” on top. I didn’t even do my typical fancy cake for the Grandparents party – they got cupcakes too.-“truck tire” donuts

-checkered “wheel” pretzels

-and the monster truck straws with green punch

Favors:  I used the cute mini canvas totes that I found on clearance at Michael’s (3 for 25 cents!) that I dressed up with a little rick rack and license plate name tags

and filled them with a Hot Wheels type monster truck (dollar store), some truck theme mini pencils, and the candy and Silly Bands I purposely set aside from Kaitlyn’s party

The Fun:
-I always start the party with some coloring pages. I’ve found that the kids need something to do while waiting for everyone to show up, or they end up bouncing off the walls and destroying the place in no time.-then to set the mood for the party I had them watch a couple of monster truck clips I found on YouTube. I think some of those boys (Tyler included) could have happily watched those for the entire party.

-next up, they made their own monster truck arenas. I had all kinds of supplies available from markers, stickers, and stamps, to rocks, wooden ramps, and old Hot Wheels cars (that I had crushed with a hammer to make them look authentic).

They were each given one of those cardboard containers that soda and soup cans are delivered to stores on and they went to town with their creations. When they had it exactly how they wanted it I stuck it all down with the glue gun.

This one is Kaitlyn’s

-and then it was time for the obstacle course. Each child took a turn taking the monster truck through it. (the arrows I used to keep them on course were found here. I printed them and covered them with contact paper, then taped them to the floor. They held up surprisingly well)

while the others cheered them on 🙂

-and finished the party with treats and gifts.

I found this was more than enough activity to fill the 90 minutes. In fact, I didn’t even have to pull out my Standby Game of Red Light, Green Light or run more YouTube clips for them. But if you’re looking for another cute activity I just ran across a fun printable for Pin the Wheel on the Monster Truck here.

There’s the Birthday Boy! He had a fantastic time.

And wasn’t he so cute and little?!  Awww, I want to go back in time and give that boy a hug!

Linking to:  Link Party Palooza, BFF Open House Link Party,