Monday, July 20, 2009

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!

On Sunday we celebrated Stacey's 4th birthday with a Cars party at the Little Gym.

Sadly, my days of picking the theme for his parties are behind me. :( He insisted that a Lightning McQueen party was the ONLY way to go so after dragging my feet a little I embraced the theme and ran with it.

We don't really have anywhere in the house to stash stuff, so for the past couple of months there has been a box by my night stand slowly accumulating party supplies, decorations, favors etc. Stacey knew everything in it was for his party and would walk into our room and inspect it regularly and and comment, "yep, those are the favors for my party" or "Wyatt, that's for my Cars party - OK, we're not going to play with it now," or "we're going to use that at my bertday party, right Mom?!" Then he started seeing Cars stuff when we were out and about and would say, "Mom, that would be perfect for my party!" The apple doesn't fall too far from the party planning tree. :)

I think all that anticipation just made the party that much more fun! We had one happy camper on our hands.

The Little Gym puts on a GREAT party and kept all the kids from 2-5 years old thoroughly entertained!! My action shot pictures don't really do it justice, but they parachuted (Stacey got to sit in the middle while everyone sang Happy Birthday),
ran, balanced (thanks for the hand Honey!),
inflated, jumped
shot, scored,
supermaned
chased bubbles and so much more.
And even better than all the fun activities were all the fun friends we got to celebrate with!! Check out these precious partiers (you can double click to enlarge the collages)!
And would you believe even Lightning himself (or at least the closest thing Mommy could come up with), made a pit stop at the party!!
What a crew!! As you can imagine we took about 20 of these all that are some variation of this :)
After so much nonstop activity it was time to refuel with Fillmore's Organic Fuel (water), Antifreeze Frosties and birthday cake!

Not sure why, but I feel the need to clarify that the cake wasn't exactly what I thought I ordered. I went with a generic Kroger b-day cake this year - a first for me. But, I figured anything I tried to create with such specific characters would end up resembling Lighting McQueen's slower, red neck sibling than the character himself. However, the generic Kroger cupcake cake that I picked out was a totally different scene and SO much cuter than this one...? Of course III just loved that his besties McQueen and Mater were on it so there was no love lost.
Wonder what that little four year old wished for?
It was a great day and we LOVE it when all (well a lot) of our friends and families are all in one place! We just wish it wasn't over so soon.
After the par-tay we went home and opened presents with Mr. McQueen. WOW, Thanks for all the great gifts!
Stacey I have had a blast planning your party with you and can't wait until we get to do it again next year!!
How old do you think he'll be before he refuses this signature birthday picture?
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Birthday!! We LOVE you!! KA-CHOW

7 comments:

The Junods said...

Stop it! I knew you'd knock it out of the park and you so did! That is amazing! I have loved all your recent posts. What a fun week of celebrations and great pictures! I'm sorry we missed out on that party! What fun! You're unbelievable! I can't wait to see the rehearsal dinners you throw 20 plus yrs from now!

angie said...

Caryn it was such a FUN party and I just an honestly amazed at how old III is beginning to look, especially in those last few pictures! I think Lightning himself would be proud...

Shannon said...

Yep - another amazing job, another amazing party! We loved celebrating with you guys and look forward to so many more birthdays in the future!

Stacey said...

What fun, Caryn! You are such a great mommy. I can't believe how old your biggest boy is looking. What a handsome four year old you have!

Sandy said...

Let me recommend birthdayinabox.com for future parties. It's amazingly inexpensive & they have all kinds of themes. We did a Backyardigan party for Addie & she loved it.

I've become the blog stalker since Aunt Sissie is gone. She always kept me up-to-date on the "doings" of the Purdy Clan. :)

Love the pictures!

shannonmichaelis said...

amazing, but how could it be any other way? justin wanted to look at the number 4 made with cars over and over. thanks a lot - now my son wants a cars themed party! you have such a gift for throwing a great party! try out this new bloig for kids' party ideas http://designdazzle.blogspot.com/

Katy said...

Aw!!! I wanted to be there!!!!! I can't stand us not being at each other's kids parties!!!! :( But---I love that I can live vicariously through the blog! ;)
Precious as always, and I will be calling on YOU for my BOY birthday needs. hehe