A Tow-riffic Birthday!

Yup, I just made a Mater pun in the post title (I may be too much at times).  So for Corbin's 3rd birthday, since my sister and Josh were crazy busy what with trying to keep 3 kids under the age of 3 alive, go to work, play carpool, and anything else, I volunteered to plan Corbin's birthday party.  I gave him two options: Umizoomi or Mater themed!  Although, I secretly hoped he would pick the Mater theme, I did my best not to bias his choice.  But like any great nephew, he picked the Mater theme party and I went to town starting to plan a racin' good time!

So let's start with the invitation (Place and Number have been removed to protect the fam).  I did a google image search online for Mater invitations and used them as a template for the one I designed:

Once we got those in the mail, it was all about the decorations and goodie bags and I went with it:

Mater stuff is often hard to find by itself so Lightning McQueen made a few appearances too!

Mater Snack holder complete with cracker packets for the kids to snack on before dinner!  Also, note the racing napkins and the checkered flags near the bottom.  Disregard the ribbon on the table---it was super windy outside so we had to improvise.

I used a template I found on another Cars themed party blog to create this Birthday banner, mimicking the Route 66 sign:

Grandma James caught onto the theme too and made some "Lightning" cupcakes and got this cool Cars themed cupcake stand!

Luckily our local Kroger was also in the know on whats cool in the world of 3 year olds, so we ordered the cake from there, complete with a few cars for Corbin to play with after the party.  He LOVED the cake!!!

I forgot to get a picture of the goodie bags, but I was able to snag some plastic Cars themed goodie bags on clearance at Target for 45 cents for 8, so we got two packs and stuffed them with: a hot-wheels car, a fun sized M&M pack, 3-4 Cars themed temporary tattoos  a sheet of Cars stickers, 3 dum dum suckers and a mini Cars themed thing of bubbles.  The kids were munching on their suckers already on the way home so I think it was a hit!

Also, it seemed a lot of people caught onto the theme and dressed their gifts to match!  Needless to say it was a great party.

Now for the action/people shots:

Grandma James and Garrett

Auntie Lala and the birthday boy (note: Mater is front and center)--we used a few of his already toys for centerpieces!

  

Corbin with his little girlfriend!

The mother of the birthday boy!

Corbin enjoying some pizza and water!  We had little orange cones as centerpieces too!

Gaga and Uncle Andy

A boy and his cake--he sure is happy!

Poor kid just wants to touch it all!

Victory at last, I can lick the car!

YES!  Best birthday EVER!

 And in case all that was not enough, I created these little postcards for Corbin to do his thank you notes on:

It says: Thank you for celebrating my 3rd birthday and for the tow-rific gift!!!