Jackson's birthday

During late Spring and early Summer I really got off track with blogging. I'm kicking myself for that. I love blogging and I love going back and reading the stories. Even Drew and Jackson enjoy me reading the stories to them. It's for that purpose and because I love to record these memories that I'm going to dip a little into the past in an attempt to catch up with my blogging. 

A little insight into Jackson before I go into the details of the Jackson's 4th birthday party. Jackson is an amazing kid. I know, I know, I'm his mom so of course I'm going to say something like that but really he is amazing.

He's sweet. And, it's the most innocent kind of sweet possible. He doesn't act that way to get something or because someone told him to. He's sweet because he's sweet.

He's appreciative. If you gave him a rumpled up piece of paper and told him you made it for him he would light up with excitement. He appreciates every single little thing. When he's asks for something and you tell him no, he doesn't throw a fit or whine. He just says okay and moves on as happy as he was before he asked.

It's because of these things that we wanted to make sure Jackson had the most awesome party we could give him. He deserves it!

As soon as we saw Cars 2 in the theater Jackson was positive that was the theme he wanted for his party. I was excited because I love the Cars/racing theme. It is, in a small way, getting to dip back into my childhood a little bit.  The party turned out great and Jackson loved every second of it. Well, except when it was over!

1. The invitations. I made race tickets for invitations. I've seen a million of them online to purchase but I wasn't too fond of the font choices or designs. I decided to make them on my own to fit my own tastes. I'm glad I did too. They were so easy to make and cost us very little!

2. One of Jackson's favorite foods is popcorn so we decided to have it as a snack option at the party. I found cute little popcorn boxes that I added a yellow cardstock strip and a print out of Lightning McQueen.

3. The cake. Every year we sit down on the computer and look at pictures of birthday cakes to help the boys give me ideas of what they want. Jackson flipped over a picture we found with cupcakes arranged on a race track. I was so happy because it was about as easy as it can get. I just covered a small race track (there are no shortage of those in our house) with three different flavors of cupcakes and added toppers with characters from Cars 2. I also added a banner with Jackson's name on it across the middle of the track.

4. Since Cars 2 focuses on Allinol fuel, a "green"/clean fuel, we thought it would be fun to have Allinol fuel to drink at the party. I covered water bottles with the Allinol logo and then we had Kool-Aid singles to flavor the water.

5. For both decoration and a treat to take home in the goodie bags, we had red and white suckers with the Cars logo on the center.

6. Jackson and his best friend. This was kind of the last time for them to hang out together because I decided to let Jackson spend his last year at home with me. They had a wonderful time and it was so much fun to watch them play together.

7. Pit passes! No race would be complete without a pit pass! I made each pit pass with the name of each child (we had several blanks for the non-RSVPers). They were put in badge holders that hung from Lightning McQueen lanyards. The kids loved these!

8. Jackson and the Spider Man house. For months we had been hearing about the Spider Man house that he wanted for his birthday. Every time we went grocery shopping he wanted to go by and look at the house. He was so happy when he unwrapped it!

9. After the presents were open the kids all played with the new toys. We rented out a building that had a basketball court, a big inflatable tiger, and lots of toys like scooters and balls but, they just wanted to play with Jackson's new toys. It was so sweet to see them all play together so well. By the time the party was over I think each kid cried when it was time to go!

Jackson's birthday didn't fall on the same day of his party so I made him a separate cake for his actual birthday. He had been talking a lot about a race car cake he had seen in a book so I took a shot at it. It's an actual race car built from cupcakes, donuts, and candies.

Jackson loved it!

He was so excited to take it to school to share with his class. I was a little worried about the drive and hoped it still resembled a race car by the time we drove over all the hills and curves! I was thankful to open the back door of our car to see it survived!

I think Jackson had a wonderful birthday and I'm so happy for that. This kids deserves every bit of wonderful that comes his way!