Ryder turned 2 and the terrible twos have officially begun. He started off the day of his party with an early nap. I woke him up a little early so that he had some time to wake before his party guests arrived...apparently that was the wrong thing to do because he was beyond cranky. After going back down for nap 2 mid-party...he was ready to go after waking. Ryder loved all of the cars and the many cars he got for gifts.
I spent a lot of time plotting how to merge the idea of a 2 Fast 2 Furious themed birthday party that still felt like a little kid's party. I started with a color palette that incorporated greens and blues and then once I started designing more party things, I found myself adding in red, a golden yellow and an orange to be used minimally. This particular theme was tough because the checkerboard patterns and road signs mixed with cars are a perfect accent to the theme, however in the Fast n' Furious movies, it's all about fast cars and street racing. You don't really see checkered flags so much, and instead you have hand waving to signal the racers to go. You also don't really see the signs...because obviously their street racing was illegal and that meant they weren't worried about abiding to the lawfully placed signs. So that left me with the cars... and that was one thing I certainly wanted to incorporate. The Nissan Skyline GTR R34 was the focus and using photos of the car, I was able to draw it to be used on invitations and other party prints down the road.
Although it may not have been true to the 2nd move, instead I used a design concept of a movie poster from the 9th movie and photoshopped my little man to look like he too was part of the movie.
To add in some of the more kiddy car elements, I sourced some adorable "fuel" popcorn containers, a orange traffic cone kids cup, as well as some blow up tire innertubes. I did also snag some silver confetti beach balls which I had intended as some added fun in our all white bounce house from Life of the Party but unfortunately it got canceled as the weather was looking rough. The checkered flags I had planned to put in the backyard along the hanging market lights, but again, the weather changed those plans. Instead, they were strung across the inside of my parent's house.
Utilizing the tire innertubes, a balloon garland and a stand my Dad built a long time ago when my mom was sewing some bags to sell, I designed some themed street signs to print to decorate. They were used as decor near the front door and another spot inside of the house. Since Ryder loves popcorn or "pop pop" as he calls it, it was a no brainer to add popcorn to the little fuel boxes as snacks.
I knew I wanted to do a little kids table and although my original idea was to have this table outside, adjustments were made and decor was added to make this little table a focal point. When thinking about activities that the kids could do that wasn't bouncing in the bounce house (which I'm glad I did have some other things planned) I thought an easy solution was to use my drawing of the R34 and turning it into placemat coloring sheets for the kids. I also picked up some wooden cars from the dollar store (also available on Amazon), and my mom found a sheet of stickers so that they could decorate their little cars (paint and 7 kids under 5 didn't sound like the best idea).
Naturally, they needed personalized driver's licenses so with a little bit of Facebook photo digging for photos of each of the kids, some photoshop and design work, the little licenses were born.
Other fun design accents included some printed flags, hot glued onto wooden dowels for placing in vases, and designing custom wraps to look like gas cans and wrapping them around old food cans. To add to the fun, I also designed anti-freeze/coolant wraps for some Honest Fruit Punch Juice Boxes, mini printed pendant flags, an arrangement of photos of Ryder over the last year, and added in some fast n furious themed toy cars.
The cookies from Sugar Dome Cookies were as tasty as they were beautiful. She ALWAYS pulls these cookie designs off! Publix was an easy choice for the food and cupcakes make it super easy for everyone to have a piece of cake (but without anyone having to do the work to cut the cake)
Some final touches were what we were going to wear. For Ryder, I had seen some Little Knuckles Mechanic one piece outfits on Amazon, which were so adorable, but I could not see spending for a fast growing 2 year old that probably wouldn't care for wearing it much anyways, so I decided on a button down collared shirt with patches my mom made. One patch has his name on it and the other says Esso, a gasoline company. Side story: my Dad's grandfather, Ryder's Great Great Grandfather, owned a gas station and my Dad had an old photo of him wearing a work shirt which has an Esso patch on it. And just like that the shirts were born. After seeing Ryder's, the grandpas decided they wanted a shirt too! Under Ryder's button down, my Mom made him a shirt with a hand holding up 2 fingers because I thought it was a cool nod to his age but something he could wear again as well.
For my shirt, I do not have a really good photo of it, however I had lettered "Fast and Furious" for the center, and circling it says "Ryder's Garage" and "American Custom Motors" since 2020 (Ryder's birth year) cut with vinyl and pressed on. For Mike, he had been eyeballing some shirts from a few people he follow's on Youtube, however could not pull the trigger on any so I surprised him with a t-shirt from Sheepey Racing. Ryder's black shirt was also just a hand holding up 2 fingers and this was also cut in vinyl and pressed.
We are so so thankful that my parents opened up their home for his party as it provides an easier location for all of our guests to get to but I also want to thank our friends and family for celebrating (near and far) with us and showering Ryder with all the cars (which he loves so very much). THIS is the reason we moved back to Florida, to be closer to all of you special people in our lives. We are beyond thankful. <3
LINKS
Balloons: Amazon for Black, White, Gray. Marble, and Checked Balloons
Oh How Charming | Slate, Green Chrome, and Eucalyptus Balloons (purchased
as a garland)
Cookies: local business Sugar Dome Cookies
Ryder and Grandpa's Mechanic Shirts: Custom patches from local business Sunshine Embroidery Works
Food: Publix
Ryder's T-Shirt: design cut with vinyl and ironed on tee
My Shirt: Custom design by myself, cut with vinyl and ironed on tee
Mike's T-Shirt: Sheepey Brand
Some links on this blog post are commissionable.