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Both of my girls really aren't into princesses and all that other girly stuff. Especially the Older, she will always choose a toy car rather than a doll. Since lately she is obsessed with flying, and was pretty much impressed by the both Disney Planes movies, it was really easy to choose a theme for her 5th birthday:

She was thrilled to be included in the preparations: 

The girls were happy and really engaged, they insisted for these muffin baskets to become crowns (ok, we do have to have some girlish stuff after all, but in their special way):

We used popsicle sticks to make these little toy planes:

Because of bad weather we had to change the venue and the celebration was held at our place, so these signs may not be effective as planned:

The gifts for our little guests were coloring pages with the Planes motives and some crayons:

The food also had aeroplane motives: 

The cake was made by my sister. Pretty impressing, ha? She made blue fondant representing sky and white clouds on it and we've put two Dusty figurines on the top of  the cake:

And the party lasted until late in the evening......

Birthday party theme: The Smurfs

It has been a while since The Younger celebrated her second birthday in a smurftastic style and I finally found some time to edit and post the pictures. Considering all the news that happened in our lives lately , this was a last-minute celebration, simply because I did not have enough time as I had before, with preparing the Cars birthday.

The idea of T-shirts as a decoration on the wall was "recycled" from the Cars birthday party:

I didn't make the cake myself - I am still not an expert in cakes, so I left it to those who know it better than me. I just added some (store bought) decorations, according to the birthday theme:

A stuffed Smurf found its place on the wall:

Blue balloons were a fun and simple decoration in our backyard:

We also bought some plain smurfy blue plates, blue cutlery, cups and napkins. Simple, effective and much cheaper than the ones with the Smurfs, which can also be found in stores. Given the circumstances, the decorations were mostly bought and not a hand-made as I prefer, but that's how it is when you suddenly transfer from stay-at-home-mum to working mum.

I also found some free online printable smurfy coloring books for the little guests to have fun.

As party favors, we have prepared some homemade play-dough in jars painted like a Smurf house. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them, which is a shame because they really looked great. The kids liked them very much, so I believe we will do it again, and then I can add the photos.

Need more ideas for a Smurftastic birthday? Look here at the link .

   

How our backyard became Radiator Springs

I've promised you the photos from our Cars themed birthday party, so here they are. 

There were lots of misunderstandings with the invitations, since our little guests, mostly girls, not familiar with the Cars cartoon, massively called the day before, wondering where in Earth could a place called Radiator Springs be, they couldn't find it on GPRS :)) )))).

And here's how our backyard became similar to Radiator Springs. In one of the previous posts I wrote where I found the inspiration, and here's how I did it. I assure you everything was really easy and did not require a lot of effort or time.

I am very happy how the sign below turned out - it looks shabby, but  anyone who has seen the cartoon knows that's exactly the point. I made it by laying an old sheet on some non smooth concrete blocks and that's how the letters got this shabby look. I used edible paint (by mixing some yoghurt and food coloring), since my little girls were helping me and it was very important to me to be careful with the type of paint I use.

Welcome to Radiator Springs (originally written in Croatian)

 Besides decorative cushions, we also used these T-shirts as another, cute party decoration.

Cars T-shirts as wall decorations

The big hit was the Ramone's tattoo salon, even some adult guests wanted to get a water tattoo.

Ramone inviting the guests to his tattoo salon

Cars tattos

But the very best of all was this magnificent Lightning McQueen cake, made by our neighbour (the best neighbour in the world!). Although she claimed that it was "Lightning's evil twin brother who failed to get a role in the film," the guests were all amazed, especially the birthday girl, a great fan of his (even greater than Mia and Tia).

The Lightning McQueen cake

Painting with bubbles, originally meant to be done in this way didn't exactly turn out very well - one little boy, to his Mum's great "delight" painted his hair with it. Here I found a bunch of great ideas related to balloons and bubbles, I strongly recommend you to see it, it is really great.

Also, for the pool with the diameter of 150cm (approximately 59.1 in), I recommend you to use more than 100 balls, as I did. It just wasn't enough, because only a third of the pool was filled with the balls, the rest was empty. Luckily, the kids didn't mind and all the toddlers really enjoyed throwing the balls in and out, over and over again. As I guessed, all the moms were delighted with the fact it was filled with balls, rather than water.

I offered guests to choose their own favor among magnets, notes, pencils, erasers, and similar little things containing our favorite character. 

At the end of the day, my little birthday girl concluded that she had a "very exciting day, " and that was the most important thing to me.

Birthday party theme: the Lightning McQueen and the others from Radiator Springs

I am preparing my daughter's third birthday (yes, daughter's!) She is a great fan of the Cars cartoon, so it was not very difficult to choose the party theme.

My good friend Google :) gave me lots of ideas how to turn our backyard into a small version of Radiator Springs.  

I like the following ideas since they do not require a lot of effort, time or money. If you are preparing a similar party I believe you will find these links very useful:

Invitations 
Activities for kids  
Stickers 

Coloring pages
Coloring pages no. 2 

I have been thinking of doing this culinary creation as well, but unfortunately the local shops don't have marshmallows.

"The best neighbor in the world" will bring us the Lightning McQueen cake done by this recipe . If I manage to find enough time, I'll make cardboard cars, made ​​in this way . I'm counting on the help from one preschool teacher;), hopefully she won't mind doing some overtime work.  :) There is a simpler version available as well.

Since I expect that some of our little guests do not share our enthusiasm and joy with cars, I am also preparing some car-free activities:  

Huge bubbles 
Boats out of Styrofoam 

Pool with balls 

I also had an idea to fill the pool with water, but as I am not sure whether all the mothers will accept it well, I decided to go with a safer version and fill it with colorful small balls. I am aware the balls will end up lying everywhere around the garden, but the main point is that children have fun, isn't it?

How did it go? I'll let you know after the celebration. ;) With a bunch of photos, of course. (EDIT: see here)

P.S. Since we do not celebrate the birthday on the exact date, and in order for the special date not to pass unnoticed, I will be preparing a special birthday breakfast .

P.P.S see here for more photos and descriptions how it all turned out

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