Start your engines...

So a five month long blog hiatus was not planned, but life got busy, really busy and the blog got put on the back burner. I have been thinking about posts I wanted to do and have taken loads of pictures but have just not had the time, or head space to post. Now that my hospital placement is over for the semester and my uni classes are under control, I have a bit more time at night to devote to the bears four. 

Recently my littlest bear had his fourth birthday and he is hot wheel OBSESSED. So of course the party theme had to be hot wheels. Click below to see photos from the party with ideas, tips, free downloads and recipes that will insure you throw a super duper hot wheels party. 

Following the party tips on this post I started with the invite. I wanted it to be fun, unique and something the kids could play with. So, I came up with the idea to make a racing flag invite. I used black and white checkered fabric from Lincraft, doweling from Bunnings and printable iron-on fabric transfers. The invites were a hit with the kids and they immediately started playing with them while they raced their cars. Click here to download the invite template for free. 

Keeping the hot wheels theme going, I ordered these hot wheels edible wafer paper images to add to things like cupcakes and cookies. They were perfect on these rich chocolate cupcakes (recipe here) with fire frosting that my little bear took to preschool to celebrate his birthday. 

Ok, now getting down to the party itself. I think it's important to have at least one craft at kids parties to break up the sugar consumption. Going with the car theme, I thought it would be fun for each kid to design and decorate their own hot wheels car. 

Each kid was given a hot wheels car, loads of cool coloured permanent sharpie makers and told to go for it!

Some kids and even some of the parents, couldn't believe they were allowed to draw on the cars. It was such a fun craft and the kids were elated that they got to take their personalised cars home. 

The best cars for this craft are light coloured ones or white would be best. You can get some really amazing coloured sharpies now from Kmart and Office Works. You can download the "design your own car" sign here for free. 

After craft time, the kids had morning tea, which consisted of car themed foods, like hot wheels sugar cookies (basic sugar cookie recipe here), traffic light fruit skewers, spare tires (mini chocolate coated donuts) and traffic light brownies (recipe below).  

Traffic Light Brownies
1 1/4 c. flour
2/4 c. cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Icing or melted chocolate to use as glue for placing the M&Ms

M&Ms (red, green, yellow)

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Stir in dry ingredients until completely combined. Spread batter evenly into a buttered and floured pan.

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. Brownies are ready when the edges are set and the centre is still slightly soft. Allow to cool completely before cutting and placing M&Ms on.

And of course, a car race track cake. 

The party finished up with a car tire piñata and cutting of the cake. Every kid got to take home a hot wheels party bag which included a hot wheels car, car lollies and car stickers. 

Judging by the smiling faces throughout the party and totally exhausted kids once the party was over, I'd say the party was a success ;)

Party on!