This year for my son’s 3rd birthday we had a car themed birthday party! We had so much fun creating car themed decorations and coming up with all kinds of fun car activities!
Third birthdays are fun because it seems to be the age when a child can really understand what’s going on. Theo chose his car theme early on and it seemed to be all he could talk about! (I’m sure quite a bit of the excitement also came from being a part of Lucy’s birthday a few months earlier.)
I love encouraging the kids to take part in the planning and preparations. Both Theo and Lucy had fun helping to make the decorations and setting up all the fun activities outside. Even my husband played a big part in all the preparations- it was definitely a family affair! (This post contains affiliate links.)
Our Car Themed Birthday Party
Car Themed Food and Decorations
A few weeks before the party, the kids and I made these adorable sponge painted cars.
On the party day we hung them up inside along with some black and yellow streamers.
We also made our own favor bags. Inside were some crayons, car stencils, and Hot Wheels!
Our name road activity seconded as a sign for the birthday party!
We had just some simple snacks for the guests, including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Theo’s favorite) cut into car shapes using this car shaped cookie cutter.
Car Themed Activities
Inside Lucy helped me set out some large car coloring sheets and washable markers.
We had most our our car activities set up outside. 
Prior to the day of the party, Lucy and I made some car stones. (We followed the exact same method I used for our letter stones.)
On the day of the party we scattered them in our rock garden so the kids would find them as they were digging and playing.
Around our rock garden we placed our wooden roads and ramps for the kids to drive all the toy cars.
One of the wooden roads even led right into a car wash! To create our car was we set up our water table with some water and bubble bath and added a few small sponges!
We used a small plastic pool to create a sandbox. Eventually during the party all kinds of trucks and cars were busy driving and digging in it!
Lucy was very involved in setting up the patio area. She placed some bowls of chalk, bubbles, cars and trucks out for the kids to play with!
I think the biggest hit of the party was the car ramp my husband build using PVC pipes, rain gutters, and paint. The kids (and adults) had TONS of fun racing their cars down the ramp!
I hope as both kids grow older, not only do they remember how much fun they had on their birthdays, but also have fond memories of actually working together to help make each other’s special days super memorable!