ozzy loves nothing better than to splash in water and dig in the sand. so, when i asked him what he wanted to do for his upcoming 4th birthday, he immediately says, he wants to go to the beach. we've taken him to the beaches up north (dewey), and some down south (outer banks, nc), and some further out (bahamas, dominican republic, caribbean), and i am thinking he is referring to one of the ones we have traveled to with him. hoping that is not what he meant, i tell him the beaches are not really that close to us, how about a party at the pool again this year? immediately he shakes his head and says, no, i want a beach with lots of sand to play in. oh, sand. okaaaaaaay.
some of the regional waterparks have sand play areas, but they were a little further out than i'd like. the nearest one to us was pretty old and had not updated with a sand feature (just a lame old wooden boat filled with sand. pathetic.) but in a weird stroke of luck, a good friend of ours helped us out by setting us up with her neighborhood 'beach' by the lake. (i did sort of freak a little thinking about all the 'stuff' that might have been percolating in the waters warmed by crazy hot summer days...heat index reaching well into the triple digits. but it was fine. no brain sucking amoeba reports. lol.)
ozzy had told me months before that he wanted a Cars themed party with Mack the Hauler for his cake. couple that with the 'beach' location, i tried to find ways to marry the idea of cars and beach together. so i kept the decorations mostly beachy feeling with images of Cars and nods to the Cars movie where ever i could.
i told ozzy i could grant his request for the Mack cake thinking that the hauler was mostly a big rectangle so there would be little need for time consuming carving to pull that off. i used a jelly roll pan to bake the layers so i didnt even have to torte the cake layers, just cut them into rectangles and stack them. so that part was pretty easy and fast. what i underestimated was just how long it would take me to make Mack. i knew i wanted to create him out of foam and fondant. (foam to lighten it so it wouldnt weigh a ton). trying to get everything to scale and create the right size foundation for Mack and the hauler proved to be a bit challenging as well. it set me back a day or so longer to get the dimensions and bases created just right.
i also knew packing everything to take to the location and set up would require a fair amount of time, time that i would not have, to fuss with the cake, so i took some short cuts on the cake to help with the time constraints. initially i had planned to order the logo images that go on the truck from someone who printed images with edible ink onto a sheets of icing paper, but the vendor never got back to me. so i just printed the images onto glossy brochure paper (the shiny surface keeps the ink from seeping thru to the other side when it gets moist) and stuck them on with a little bit of water. i had also planned to create a sugar paste Piston Cup, but ran out of time. in the end, i did manage to create a sugar paste logo with ozzy's name and age on it, a birthday banner, four sugar paste traffic cones with candles embedded into them, and Mack. (thank the Manufacturer, as Mack would say, that my dear friend Karen came over a couple of times to help me get everything done!)
even so, some things still didnt get done...but that was my fault. i forgot. i forgot to put up signs for all the stations. i also forgot to put up the rest of the labels on the snack table. no one would know except for me though. just sucks because they were all made and i didnt put them up. ah well.
when i thought of the party plans, i was trying to plan activities they could do at the beach, or if it got rained out, still do some of them at my house. i tried to find ways to incorporate the Cars theme where i could. the signs i mentioned were for each of the party 'zones'. the snack table: Flo's V8 Cafe, the Mater painting station: Ramone's House of Body Art, the water play toys and hand washing station: Red's Hose Down (Red was the fire truck), the Tire floaties: Luigi's Casa Della Tires home of the Leaning Tower of Tires, the table of beach play goods: Sarge's Surplus, table of visors and knick knacks for decorating: Lizzie's Curios, beach umbrella's/blankets: Sally's Cozy Cone Motel, beverage coolers: Fillmore's Organic fuel Taste-In.
i had some fun with icons in the Cars movie, which i used to label items
at the party. it was fun to match the logo with party items. Allinol
for the fruit/veg juice, Nitroade for Gatorade, Sidewall Shine for hand
soap, etc. There wasnt anything i could use for hand sanitizer so i
made my own, working off the Purell logo and changed it to PureWheel
instead. Ozzy and I got a kick out of it, even if most of our guests
had no idea what most of it referred to. LOL. i dont have it pictured,
but i also picked up some empty boxes from an auto parts store to add
to the theme. they were mostly motor oil boxes.
the invitations, i wanted to keep simple but have enough room for lots of information about the location, what to bring, alternate plans, etc. so i went with printing all the info on one side of the paper, and then folding into thirds, brochure style, and then on the front, the invitation (far left pic). for goody bags, i created and printed out little flaps to tape over the tops of clear cello goody bags (pic below, top right). we filled them with goodies from the snack table for each guest before they left. and sent them off with sun visors and beach toys/floaties from the party.
one of our beach umbrellas never got to go up and it was the cute tiki style one with the Cozy Cone sign on it (top middle picture, above). apparently you're NOT supposed to hammer them down into the sand with a rubber mallet??? a little sad about it. such a cute umbrella! (DH repaired it later at home. yay!) Mimi had taken the time to style each umbrella with paper lanterns and cut outs of sea creatures and Cars (semi visible in pic below, bottom left).
the worst part of planning an outdoor beach party, for me, is agonizing over what the weather will do, especially when threats of thunderstorms are looming large. in the end, it was a PERFECT day for a summer party. OVERCAST. so no intense sunlight, no stifling heat...and really no need for the cute tiki umbrella anyway. ;)
the kids clearly had a lot of fun. i played the Cars and Cars 2 soundtracks on my iPhone (gets me in the right mindset!) and enjoyed seeing everyone having a great time and snapping pictures here and there. the kids liked using the nets to see what they could dig out of the lake, we ordered pizzas for dinner, and as the kids finished eating, they painted Mater, decorated visors, and after singing happy birthday and cake, they went back to splashing in the water. i had brought bubbles, water balloons, spray bottles and more, but the kids were quite happy to play in the water and sand.
my favorite part of the day was seeing this self satisfied look on ozzy's face after he blew out his birthday candles.
i love to hear my kid's response after every birthday. i asked Ozzy how he liked his birthday. he says, "That was the best birthday party ever! I can't believe i'm FOUR!"
some of the regional waterparks have sand play areas, but they were a little further out than i'd like. the nearest one to us was pretty old and had not updated with a sand feature (just a lame old wooden boat filled with sand. pathetic.) but in a weird stroke of luck, a good friend of ours helped us out by setting us up with her neighborhood 'beach' by the lake. (i did sort of freak a little thinking about all the 'stuff' that might have been percolating in the waters warmed by crazy hot summer days...heat index reaching well into the triple digits. but it was fine. no brain sucking amoeba reports. lol.)
ozzy had told me months before that he wanted a Cars themed party with Mack the Hauler for his cake. couple that with the 'beach' location, i tried to find ways to marry the idea of cars and beach together. so i kept the decorations mostly beachy feeling with images of Cars and nods to the Cars movie where ever i could.
i told ozzy i could grant his request for the Mack cake thinking that the hauler was mostly a big rectangle so there would be little need for time consuming carving to pull that off. i used a jelly roll pan to bake the layers so i didnt even have to torte the cake layers, just cut them into rectangles and stack them. so that part was pretty easy and fast. what i underestimated was just how long it would take me to make Mack. i knew i wanted to create him out of foam and fondant. (foam to lighten it so it wouldnt weigh a ton). trying to get everything to scale and create the right size foundation for Mack and the hauler proved to be a bit challenging as well. it set me back a day or so longer to get the dimensions and bases created just right.
i also knew packing everything to take to the location and set up would require a fair amount of time, time that i would not have, to fuss with the cake, so i took some short cuts on the cake to help with the time constraints. initially i had planned to order the logo images that go on the truck from someone who printed images with edible ink onto a sheets of icing paper, but the vendor never got back to me. so i just printed the images onto glossy brochure paper (the shiny surface keeps the ink from seeping thru to the other side when it gets moist) and stuck them on with a little bit of water. i had also planned to create a sugar paste Piston Cup, but ran out of time. in the end, i did manage to create a sugar paste logo with ozzy's name and age on it, a birthday banner, four sugar paste traffic cones with candles embedded into them, and Mack. (thank the Manufacturer, as Mack would say, that my dear friend Karen came over a couple of times to help me get everything done!)
even so, some things still didnt get done...but that was my fault. i forgot. i forgot to put up signs for all the stations. i also forgot to put up the rest of the labels on the snack table. no one would know except for me though. just sucks because they were all made and i didnt put them up. ah well.
one of our beach umbrellas never got to go up and it was the cute tiki style one with the Cozy Cone sign on it (top middle picture, above). apparently you're NOT supposed to hammer them down into the sand with a rubber mallet??? a little sad about it. such a cute umbrella! (DH repaired it later at home. yay!) Mimi had taken the time to style each umbrella with paper lanterns and cut outs of sea creatures and Cars (semi visible in pic below, bottom left).
the kids clearly had a lot of fun. i played the Cars and Cars 2 soundtracks on my iPhone (gets me in the right mindset!) and enjoyed seeing everyone having a great time and snapping pictures here and there. the kids liked using the nets to see what they could dig out of the lake, we ordered pizzas for dinner, and as the kids finished eating, they painted Mater, decorated visors, and after singing happy birthday and cake, they went back to splashing in the water. i had brought bubbles, water balloons, spray bottles and more, but the kids were quite happy to play in the water and sand.
my favorite part of the day was seeing this self satisfied look on ozzy's face after he blew out his birthday candles.
Wow Sang,
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic. I am in love with Mimi's Rainbow Magic party. But this is awesome. Love the Mack cake!
Nicole
Thanks, Nicole!
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