I have found over the years that when I design events, what I love most when deciding on a theme is that it’s personal or hold special meaning to the guest of honor. When deciding on the theme for my son Oliver’s third birthday, we took into account his deep fascination for books by Richard Scarry, particularly ones featuring the beloved Goldbug character. I decided to base the inspiration for his party off of the book
”Cars and Trucks and Things That Go”(Golden Books, 1998, a playful tale with unique cars.

I like to give myself about a month to plan, sometimes more, and it certainly helps when you can decide on the theme right away. We held Oliver’s party in our yard, on a beautiful spring day in Leavenworth, Washington.

I found simple balloon invitations from Minted.com where I was able to personalize them with a darling picture of Oliver. Once the invites were sent out, I decided on a bright color palette, similar to the book: blue, red, and green.

Oliver now get’s the same tradition I started last year with his older brother Avery, where I take a moment before all of the guests arrive, to surprise him with the design of his party! Oliver’s reactions are my absolute favorite!

He couldn’t have been more excited to see everything and his expressions were priceless!

Watching his face and seeing his reactions definitely makes all of the hard work worth it!

To welcome the guests, I asked my dear friend Josie of Chalk Chic Mama to design an incredible milestone chalkboard for the gift station. Josie’s boards are an absolute must at my parties to elevate the decor, and then in turn, they become special keepsakes that I hold dear to my heart! One of my biggest tips when designing a party is to use decor that you will use over again - either as decor in your home, or for future parties!

Adjacent to the gift station I placed an apple car photo prop for guests to use. This apple car was truly a labor of love. I drew the outline of the car on some MDF board I found down at our shop, and then used a jigsaw to cut it out. I then passed it off to my incredibly talented mother-in-law Jennifer who hand painted it, and really made it come to life! Having family help with the design of my parties really warms my heart and makes the decor that much more special!

After the guests dropped off their presents for Oliver, I had the kids all line up in a row. Each child received a themed temporary tattoo created by the company Love and Lion. For the tattoo, we decided on the iconic apple car inscribed with “Oliver is three” on it, and of course we had to feature Gold Bug in the tattoo! Oliver loves bulldozers, so we used a picture of gold bug driving a bulldozer from one of the books! These personalized tattoos were a big hit with the children!

I used a clean and simplistic approach when setting the kids table. Crisp white table linens, a natural colored table runner, and wood chairs were the perfect base for the floral centerpiece.

These fresh spring blooms were a showstopper! My sweet friend Elle, from Elle Fleurit did such an incredible job on the flower arrangements and I just adored how she incorporated little red apples into her design! Her colorful floral designs really made the party pop, and added such a soft, beautiful touch - fitting for this spring celebration!

The place settings were as colorful and cheery as one of Richard Scarry’s books! Beautifully scripted wood name place cards lay atop bright blue napkins, which I nestled next to playful red striped plates from one of our favorite party good stores - Daydream Society. I used basic wood cutlery and painted them green to tie in with our color palette. At each place setting, I placed a copy of the book, “Cars and Trucks from A to Z” (Random House Books for Young Readers, 1990) as a party favor. I ended up having extra return address labels from Minted so I cut them out and used them as drink flags on straws. I love when I am able to repurpose extra decor items throughout the party!

Remember when I talked about using decor that you can use over again?! Well this sweet “A Year of Ollie Bear” wood milestone board (written by Chalk Chic Mama) was something we made and used at Oliver’s first birthday! I decided to use it again this year to showcase how much he has grown over the year! I feel like he is growing up far too fast, and I’ve found guests and family really like to see how much they’ve changed from year to year!

The best part of any party is the dessert table, and I adorned this darling table with the cutest Richard Scarry inspired treats!

My good friend Olivia from Flour + Sugar made the darling red apple french macarons, the red striped birthday cake, and the mini cake with festive sprinkles that fit the motif perfectly! I found the little Richard Scarry character figurines on eBay and they were a delightful element that everyone loved!

Everyone also loved the adorable sugar cookies made by Jess, from The Sweet Spot. These spectacular cookies showcased some of Oliver’s favorite characters from the book! They were truly a work of art!

Jess also made “Paint Your Own” cookies with an outline of Oliver’s beloved favorite Gold Bug character driving a bulldozer.

Each child received a blank, outlined cookie of Gold Bug, along with a paintbrush and a food coloring color palette. They got to paint in their own cookie. This was a super fun activity that all of the children enjoyed!

One of the many focal points on the dessert table was the Happy Birthday fabric sign designed by Chalk Chic Mama! I told her I wanted some of the characters in cars pulling banners that read, “Happy 3rd Birthday Oliver”, and she really knocked it out of the park!

This cute sign was definitely a guest favorite!

The sweet treats and birthday sign paired with Elle’s impeccable floral design really made for one eye catching dessert table! One that is probably my favorite design to date!

A fun activity we featured at the party was a car race!

Inspired by the unique cars in the book, we chose some of Oliver’s favorites and made little cars out of cardboard and hand painted each one for the children to have a race in! We made a pickle car, a hot dog car, a banana car, a carrot car, a peanut car, and a cheese wedge car! Chalk Chic Mama designed the adorable chalkboard that informed the children to choose which car they wanted to race in! This was the perfect activity for the children to run off some extra energy after enjoying the sweet treats!

It was so cute to watch the kids race in their cars and they all had a blast!

After the children were done racing, we had all of the adult men at the party climb into the cars for a race themselves! This was not only hilarious to watch, but such a fun memory from the day!