Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter.
Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids.
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by
Colleen Beck OTR/L
This summer we celebrated Big Sister’s 5th birthday and Little Guy’s 3rd birthday. Their birthdays are so close together, that we always do a joint party. I’m excited to share the details of this years party!
Big Sister is into playing CANDYLAND. We play it so much, that she knows all of the characters in each land and was asking about how we can incorporate them into her party. She was very excited for a life-size game in the back yard!
Little Guy is waaaay into CARS. He was so excited when I started creating parts of his party…especially the HUGE cardboard Mater and Lightning McQueen (check them out below)!
So, how to combine CANDYLAND with CARS????
Here’s what I did…
The Candyland cake.
The Cars cake.
The entrance to the game. I drew this image after cutting the entrance. It was staked into the ground, so nice and sturdy. I had the kids line up as I explained that we would be visiting lands from Candyland and doing games and Cars activities at each land. I led the kids in a chant of “We love candy! We love candy!” as they crawled through the entrance and off to the first land
This was decoration along the path. The giant candies were Chinese take out containers wrapped in different colors of tissue paper. I used a rubber band on each side to make the tissue paper look like a candy wrapper. They are connected by a long piece of yarn running through each container.
(we eat a lot of Chinese take out…)
The first land LOLLIPOP WOODS! These are balloons I had from a previous party, taped to wrapping paper tubes and paper towel cardboard tubes. The path was dollar store disposable table cloths cut into 12″x12″ squares and then taped to a plastic sheet. These were staked to the ground with garden stakes.
In Lollipop woods, I had the kids bat at a balloon with a tennis racket. After they hit the balloon, they got to pick a lollipop that was stuck into the ground and put it into their treat bag (dollar store Cars-themed brown lunch bags).
Marching off to the next land…CHOCOLATE MOUNTAIN!
These were a bunch of boxes I had either saved or gotten from Aldis. I simply stacked them up and drew a mountain image on a big sheet of cardboard. The Hershey bars were cardboard rectangles about 2 inches thick. I wrapped the edges in aluminum foil and sewed the felt letters onto brown pieces of felt. I already had all of the felt in my scrap box and had to stretch it a little to make it work.
When the kids got to this land, I quickly scattered a bag of hershey kisses over the boxes and the ground. It was so hot (97 degrees!) that they melted reallllly fast. The kids put a bunch into their treat bags.
“We love Candy! We love Candy!” Off to ICE CREAM SLOPES…
The path up to this land changed from the Candyland squares into a road of cut garbage bags with masking tape lines. It only took two garbage bags to make enough road and they were positioned with garden stakes.
I got some free car themed boxes (oil, washer fluid, etc) from Advance Auto parts. These were zip tied together.
In this land, the kids got to pick an ice cream bean bag from the basket. ( I sewed these up from felt I bought for a dollar at a yard sale and filled with corn). Then they took their bean bag through an obstical course…hopping over peppermint sticks (wrapping paper tubes painted red and striped with masking tape), jumping through dollar store tire intertubes, then crawl up the playhouse, & shoot their bean bag through the basket ball hoop. They put the bean bag into their treat bag.
Off to the next land~ Take PEPPERMINT PASS to get to the GINGERBREAD HOUSE!
This was a box that our new patio chairs came in earlier this summer. I hung onto it, and it ended up getting a little beat up around the top. It still worked, though. Big Sister had a blast helping me to decorate this (and most of the party, really)
Inside were beaded necklaces and a foam hat decorated with candy stickers. Kids could add those things to their bags or wear them.
Marching down the path to LICORICE LAGOON!
This was at the opening of my garage. One project my kids and I had done earlier in the week was to dye coffee filters and make them into flowers.
These were attached to “vines” (strips of cardboard).
We marched into our basement which was transformed into a lagoon with a Licorice tree at the end.
I am so proud of this tree! (Please excuse the mess in the background) It was so easy…dollar store craft paper and streamers. I had the coconuts from a previous party.
More vines and flowers. I hung stuffed animals that we had around the house all over the vines, hanging from the unfinished ceiling beams, and heating vents. The river was a strip of one of the dollar store table cloths leftover from cutting the path squares. When we got to the tree, the kids could pick a few licorice and put them into their bag.
Back outside for the end of the game and to see the CARS!!! These were not tough to make and I love how they turned out. I had gotten a new treadmill earlier in the year and saved the box. These boxes are huge…8feet x 4 feet and 2 feet tall! I used dollar store zip ties to make the front curve of McQueen, and attach oatmeal containers to the top of Mater’s hood. I had most of the paint already, just needed to pick up a little cherry red paint.
The kids could get inside for photo ops and pretending to drive (steering wheel and gear shift with odometer were drawn on the inside). I had Cars tattoos from the dollar store here for the kids to put into their bags.
The Food…
I had so much fun planning and putting the food together. These are the cute things we had…
Spare tires
Construction cones to fill with fruit
Stop Lights
My cookies, decorated with lollipops, candies, Hershey kisses, Lightning McQueen, and Mater
The table, with ice cream cone balloons hanging from my light fixture.
It was a great party, and so much fun to plan and put together. I LOVE coming up with ways to pull the party theme together as inexpensively as possible. Most of the supplies needed for this party, I already had…or I got from the Dollar Tree. My kids helped with so many projects getting ready for their party. It was one craft after another for a while there!
~Posted by Colleen
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Wow! That is one amazing party!!! What lucky kids. I'm so impressed with your creativity. I love the spare tire donuts and construction cones especially. Great job!
Hi,
I was reading your blog and I was wondering if you would be willing to share the cookie recipe? I went to your "recipes" tab but didn't see it there.
2 thoughts on “Cars Candy Land Birthday Party”
Wow! That is one amazing party!!! What lucky kids. I'm so impressed with your creativity. I love the spare tire donuts and construction cones especially. Great job!
Hi,
I was reading your blog and I was wondering if you would be willing to share the cookie recipe? I went to your "recipes" tab but didn't see it there.
Thanks,
Kristy
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