Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 1)

Eli's third birthday party with friends was held at our house today.  It was great fun.  However, I have a few confessions to make. 
Confession #1--I get a little obsessed.  I plan.  I try to make everything play into a theme.  I decorate.  I write out lists...and then other sub-lists of things to accomplish.  It's my thing.  I LOVE to plan parties.
Confession #2--I hate party games.  Seriously.  I know it's wrong, but I truly do loathe them.  It doesn't matter if it's a party for kids, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  I do not like them and will do my very best to avoid them.  However, my inner teacher can't necessarily just roll with free play either.  That's what led to stations...

Here are just a few of the decorations (my faves).  It took each picture about ten minutes to load.  Mercy knows, I'm not a lady of great patience.  Therefore, there will only be a skimming.

The front door (on the way in) had a "Start your engines" sign.  This one, on the back of that one, is what was seen when leaving.

Here's Eli's birthday banner. It's kinda hard to read, but who doesn't need a challenge, right?  Ok, so I should've made the red more prominent than the blue.  Oh, well!

Here begin the stations:

This was the coloring station.  They had little Cars coloring sheets and crayons in a Cars bucket.  We love this IKEA table.  It was all of $7.00.  Eli plays and eats on it.  He uses it for pretty much everything.  Back to the point...

This station was for driving Cars cars.  Eli and I worked really hard on this one night.  We took a cheapy shower curtain, a Sharpie, and joined creative forces and went to town!  Drawing a town...  Anyway, it was fun to make and fun for them to play with.  Had it not been for Eli's help, there wouldn't have been a whale or shark in the river.  I love his imagination!  Side note:  The red blob on the far right was the puzzle table (Cars, of course) and it was the leading favorite spot of sippy cup drop zone.  Whatever works!

This was a station for Chuck & Friends.  They drove all over the place.  The train table's set up next to it for some railway fun.  We have lots of things that go in our house!

BUT my very favorite station of them all was the drive-in  movie.  We had Cars 2 as the feature presentation.  We set up a concession stand with movie candy, popcorn, and Cars juice boxes.  The popcorn is from the local movie theatre.  I called a few days in advance to ask about buying whatever leftovers they had from Friday night for the party on Saturday.  They told me when to come in and gave it to me for free.  We filled 32 popcorn boxes and still had a full trash bag full.  I was totally amazed, not only by the amount, but by the free-ness of it all.  That was really, really nice!

Their cars were office paper boxes that were spray painted.  Then they had eye windshields, license plates, and tires put on them.  This idea was a Pinterest steal (as was the shower curtain road).  I do love Pinterest. I think the kids enjoyed this station quite a bit!  I'd recommend it for rainy day fun!

Tomorrow, I'll focus on cake and presents.

Lingering thought of the day:  Captain Crunch is ripping the flesh from my mouth.  I should probably never eat it again.  I'm giving it up.  That is, until I forget in a year or two, eat it again, and repeat this whole monstrously painful thing.

Lingering thought of the day #2:  I haven't blogged since April.  I've missed it quite a bit.  However, I've lost my touch in that time, so go easy on me.  Ok?