Cars Second Birthday Party

On July 12, 2014, we celebrated Jackson's second birthday with a Cars birthday party in my parents' backyard. He is obsessed with cars, trucks and planes, so it seemed fitting. I found invitations at Party City for $3.99 per pack and chose the Saturday after my son's birthday as the date.

I was able to prep for the party a few days before and bought checkered duct tape and covered all of the water bottles in labels like checkered flags. Last year, I covered water bottles in Mickey duct tape for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse first birthday party and guests really liked it, so I decided to do it again, but the checkered tape was the only Cars-related tape I could find. Again, guests thought that they were fun, but I was unable to redeem the bottles afterward because all of the labels had been removed. Aw well!

Racing Fluids

The day before the party, I started on the cake. Weeks prior, I did some research on Pinterest to see what kind of cake I wanted to make for Jax. I decided on a big #2 with a road on top and toy cars driving on it. I bought a box of black fondant to roll out for the road and white gel icing for the lines on the road. For the cars, I bought Cars Micro Drifters at Toys R Us. I used box cake mix to make one yellow cake layer and one chocolate layer, then I shaped each of them into a 2 and did the same with the fondant. I had extra fondant so I was able to make wheels for the sides of the cake as well. I frosted the cake, stacked them and then added the decorations. I think it came out pretty good, which was reassuring because it could have been a disaster.

Cars #2 Cake

On the day of the party, we started decorating pretty early so we could get everything up. Fortunately, we had a nice day, so we set up the inflatable pool and the sprinkler pad for all of the kids. For the decor, my mother found hanging decorations, which included colorful pennants, a Lightning McQueen and Mater photo drape with props, a cardboard Al Oft (the blimp from Cars) and Lightning McQueen hanging decorations. The deck was decked out! As an added bonus, I drew eyes on a long white strip of paper and placed it in my mother's car's windshield so it looked like a real Cars character was parked in front of the house. Some people thought that it was a sun shield. I just laughed.

Cars Decorations

Since Jackson's seven little friends were coming to the party, I made sure that they had fun goodie bags to take home. The boys got Cars cups, Cars candy, Cars stickers, glow necklaces and a variety of other fun stuff. The girls got Frozen cups, Cars candy, Disney stickers, mini tiaras and a variety of other fun girlie items. After writing each name on the cups, I put each group of goodies in a cellophane bag, added some shredded colored paper and secured them with bendy ties. Each kid seemed happy to get them on their way out.

Fun Goodie Bags

After hours of fun, food, family and friends, we called it a night and cleaned up the backyard. We were able to preserve some of the decorations, but the cake was basically gone and so was most of the food. The party raced in and raced on out, but it was a winner. It was a very Happy Birthday for our little speedster.

A Reminder of My Regret, or 'Planes: Fire & Rescue'

Planes: Fire & Rescue Theatrical Release Poster

The weekend that Planes: Fire & Rescue came out, we decided to take Jackson to see one of the first showings of the day at a local theater. Fortunately, when we pulled into the parking lot, it was empty. Jackson's ticket was free because he is only two and the children's ticket age starts at 3 years old. Maybe that should have tipped me off that 2-year-olds are too young for the movie theater.

TK kept Jax outside in the lobby area until the previews began. It may have been better if he waited until the actual movie started, but Jax sat and watched the previews and liked them all. One was for Annie. Another one was for Big Hero Six and another for The Book of Life. There were a few others, but I cannot remember which ones because I just wanted them to end so that the movie could start. That was out of character for me because I love the previews; sometimes they are even better than the movie. I just knew my toddler's clock was ticking and the longer he was happy, the longer we were happy.

I love animated features and my favorites are made by Walt Disney Studios. So, the fact that my son loves them too, makes me very proud. Fortunately, I was able to pass this hobby on to him already because he will sit and watch Cars, Planes, Toy Story, Frozen and even Finding Nemo. I love it and one of the main reasons is because I've loved drawing since before I started school. It is one of my biggest regrets that I did not go farther in animation than the 3D rending class during my junior year. I had a professor that didn't have the patience to teach me the things I was having trouble with. So, after I barely recreated a mug using a step-by-step process, I could not get it exactly how it should look or get any extra help, so I withdrew from the class. That was basically a turning point in my life. I had to settle with the fact that I would not become an animator or work for Disney and Pixar. It crushed me, but I went along with my art degree, which I don't actually use in my current day-to-day life, and this is where the regret lives.

As we watched Planes, I was completely captivated by the backdrop of each scene. That's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the person that drew the elaborate background settings for animated features. One of my favorite scenes from an animated feature is when Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael fly over London and you can see the whole city lit up at night. It is just a beautiful piece of artwork. At one point during the movie, Dusty flies by a waterfall and I felt the tears well up in my eyes. I was overcome with emotion because I felt like I really failed myself and my passion. I love my family and my life, but I just wish that art (my real passion) was a much larger part of my life.

After an hour and five minutes, Jax decided that he had enough and didn't want to sit any longer. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the last 20 minutes of the movie, but we know that we will see this movie a hundred times, just like we've seen the first Planes almost a hundred times. Planes: Fire & Rescue was a good movie, from what we saw. The artwork and characters were well-developed and the jokes were funny. We would love to see the rest of the movie, and we are sure it will be part of our collection shortly after.