Kachow! now he's 4

Another year, another birthday... my little guy is now 4 and no longer a toddler. OK, while this makes me so sad, we sure do have fun making the most out of his birthdays.

Rule #1: It's not a party without a fun invite featuring best buds Mater and Lightning

This year is ALL about Lightning McQueen and the whole host of characters from Disney's CARS movie. A slight stretch from last year when it was all about Thomas, click here for scenes from that party. I wonder what next year will bring?

Like most creative parents, I'm just not that "into" licensed character theme parties, but what's a mom supposed to do when kiddo eats, sleeps and breathes such things? Well, given the task at hand, I was able to assemble some form of an original design and place a (slightly) different spin on things compared to buying everything straight from the shelves at Target, not that there's anything wrong with that:)

Rule #2: It's ALL about the Goodie Bag!

I start dreaming about the goodie bag the minute my son tells me what kind of a birthday party he wants to have. Not sure when or where this all started, but there's just something so fun about coming up with cute and unique items as a way of saying THANK YOU to your friends for helping you celebrate. Everything from the bag itself, contents and of course the tag! The challenge this year was to come up with treats both girls and boys would enjoy. Thankfully Target is always spilling over with Princess goods.

Can you stand how cute these bags are? Hand sewn from 3 different CARS fabrics, all with red satin ribbon handles. Thanks to kidzfuntimex4@yahoo.com for exceeding my expectations on these little treasures. OK, I get to take credit for these Materdorable tags! Just love those teeth.

This was the first year he got to actually pick out everything to put in the goodie bags, plus hand pick which items each friend would get. That's what I call one heck of a custom bag and thoughtful kid. So much fun to hear him say..."I think Sam would like this bag with this red stamper and this blue pencil.." ok I think you get the picture.

Rule #3: Nothing says PARTY like handmade table decorations

Great little Sand Art kit we bought at Target, but can also find here.

Rule #4: When you need lots of "stuff" in a hurry to make a tiny party room look great, always visit here

When your birthday falls in late January and your parties have outgrown your house, not many choices left but to have your indoor party at a local bouncy place and let them handle 30 wild 4 year olds, right? No mess to clean up!! that's my kind of party. The picture above shows the calm before the STORM.

Rule #5: It's not a party without your neighborhood buds

It's a good thing these bouncy places make sure all the kids get their ya-ya's out before the birthday feast. Although we did have one kiddo who found his way back to the inflatables after much pizza and cake and well, let's just say.... we probably won't be invited back next year.

Rule #5: Birthday boys must have a super cute shirt to match the theme!

"Wow it's finally the day of my Lightning McQueen party, I'm speechless for once"

The Storm and the reason why parties have officially outgrown our house

Rule #6: Deny your mother the opportunity to have a unique and special cake made for your birthday by making sure Dairy Queen has every licensed character theme known to children.

All kidding aside, the ice cream cake was pretty delicious, even though it was January! My son saw this cake in the case at the mall over the Summer and never stopped talking about it.

Another birthday and more memories to cherish

time for goodbyes and quite the ladies' man, eh?