Q :: My daughter will be three in June. She is the poster child for non-girly girl. She loves cars, trucks, trains, construction vehicles, and, most of all, the movie Cars. Here is my question: How would you go about throwing a birthday party for a girl that is transportation themed? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! — Elizabeth S. from Atlanta, GA.
A :: Your daughter sounds like a lot of fun!! If it were us throwing the party, we would take inspiration from one of Bettijo’s favorite prints: Dwell Studio’s transportation series. We love all the colors in there — orange, green, aqua, brown and gray — these are by no means just “boy” colors. In fact we modified the shower curtain from this collection to use as a valance in Bettijo’s office. She then accented her office with lots of green, aqua and orange accessories — some of her favorite colors. Plus this color scheme lends itself very well to pops of hot pink if you want to up the girly factor a bit.
We did a BUMP! transportation-themed baby shower a while back that might have some ideas for you, especially for party food.
We also thought including some kind of a craft activity for your daughter’s party would be fun. Perhaps painting race cars — you can get kits online or at your local craft store. We recommend swapping out the provided paints with colors that match your party’s color scheme. You should be able to pick-up bottles of acrylic paints at a craft store for about a dollar each.
We hope this helps, Elizabeth. We look forward to hearing how your party turns out!
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I think a retro “pink cadillac” theme would be SO cute for a 3 year old girl’s birthday. You could use a pink cadillac silloutte for things like the invite and cupcake toppers, play pink the driver in the car and red light/green light, and turn on the Beach Boys or other fun oldies (including, of course, “Pink Cadillac”) and have a little dance party, or use the music for “hot potato” with a car as the potato or musical chairs. You could even do drive in style food and serve milk shakes, grilled cheese sandwiches (use a car shaped cookie cutter) etc. If your daughter will tolerate it, you could decorate car shaped sugar cookies as an activity at the party. Have fun!
Such a cute concept. If the pink is too girlie, a torquoise color could fit this oldies transportation theme as well.
thanks for the good ideas, ladies!
Here’s another idea that just popped into my head (I LOVE coming up with ideas for kids parties!). You could also do sort of a John Deer inspired, tractor/farmyard theme. The green tractor silloutte would be adorable on a pink cake, or as the topper for cupcakes iced with pink frosting. Adding a few horse type decorations and things would tie in with the farmyard and tractors, and still add a bit of girliness. You could fill a kiddie pool with dirt (if you’re brave), and let the kids push their farm vehicles in it, and then use the dirt to plant seeds in pots to grow flowers, or just let them scoop out the dirt to plant their flowers. You could also “bury” small little treasures (e.g. animal figurines) in the dirt for the kids to find and scoop up with their tractors. Another idea might be center the party theme around one of Virginia Lee Burton’s transporation books. Katie and the Big Snow is a bit seasonal (assuming your daughter’s birthday is coming up in the spring/summer), but “Choo Choo” and Maybelle the Cable Car also both feature transportation characters that are female. The illustrations would be a great starting point for the theme and decorations, and you could read the book as part of the party, and then do some related activities. What ever you decide to go with, I’m sure it will be a wonderful party. It’s great that you are supporting your daughter in what she loves, and not trying to force her towards the stereotype of what a little girls should be interested in. You’re obviously a wonderful, caring mom!
Great ideas Supermom Chelsea!!