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Blending Two Birthday Party Themes

Both my boys have birthdays in January (five days apart from one another) so we usually opt for one big birthday party to save my sanity after celebrating the holidays. Choosing a theme this year was a lot more challenging since my littlest guy, Aiden, wanted a race car birthday party and Dylan, my oldest, wanted a police party theme, so my work was all about blending these two party themes to create a cohesive party. I focused on the very reason why Aiden likes race cars because they’re FAST and FUN! I took elements of the race car birthday party theme and mixed it with all things police birthday party theme, plus added a dose of reality…if you drive too fast you most likely will be pulled over by the police!

From there my idea really took off! I came up with a cute and meaningful theme name, “Growing Up Too Fast”, which is exactly how I feel these days — I can’t believe my babies are 3 and 5. Seriously, where does the time go? Each year seems to speed up and go by even faster.

Below you’ll see how I mixed up both the race car birthday party decor with police party decor which ended up creating such a fun party space! Guests stopped by the pit stop to re-fuel on donuts and snacks, grabbing “tools” to eat all that fun party food. This party theme was a total hit with both the kids and adults!

Welcome Your Guests to the Birthday party

From the very moment your guests arrive get them excited to join the party by showcasing the theme outside, giving them a little surprise of what’s to come. :)

We decorated our courtyard with a race road, checkered flags, cones, balloons and giant tire inflatable wheels which are actually pool floats. You can find the balloons I used in the shop: police dept latex balloons, race car party checkered Mylar balloon and the Happy Birthday police badge Mylar balloon.

Styling The Dessert TablE

When designing the dessert table I wanted to continue to the tell the story of both party themes — race car birthday party theme mixed with all things police party theme. So what better way to blend these two themes by having police cars chasing a race car!? And if you want to learn how to style and attach mylar balloons to a wall and what very important material you need to make it work! Read all about it here, How to Style Party Backdrops with Balloons. You’ll thank me later when your balloons actually stay attached to the wall and you can even put them up days before the party! Yes, to pre-planning!

When designing a dessert table I usually start with what I want my focal point to be. I am such a fan of jumbo balloons with tassel garlands I knew I wanted them to be part of my focal point. Since this party didn’t have the typical single theme, I wanted to clearly show the two themes blended in a way that guests would see how they both work together. I thought using a letter banner and letter balloons to spell out my theme name would be perfect to clearly connect them both in a cute way. The combination of the jumbo balloons, tassel garlands, the letter banner and letter balloons really pulled the two themes together, showcasing the theme name and the color palette strongly connected everything.

Find the round jumbo balloons and the tassels garlands in the shop. I am such a fan of tassel garlands cascading down a jumbo balloon and I loved how the tassels looked with the giant tire inflatable wheels creating that perfect symmetry which framed the table beautifully. I used a “spell anything” black and white letter banner, added some checkered flags and spray painted the letter balloons to match the color palette. Find the items I used to style the dessert table in the shop: race car balloon, black and white “spell anything” letter banner, red round jumbo balloons, tassel garlands, letter balloons, black cake stands, and yellow cake stands.

Cookies are by my friend Sugar Cravings. You can find her on Instagram at @sugarcravings, she really is an amazing cookie artist and makes the best sugar cookies for kids birthday parties.

The containers I used for the snacks can be bought from Home Depot. I used a label maker to make the snack container labels and added these mini scoops, both can be found on Amazon.

Pulling it all together

When styling a kids birthday party with two themes, figure out a fun way to blend the two themes together. I thought creating a concessions snack table would be the perfect way to mix the themes, adding decor elements that relate to both the race car birthday party theme and the police birthday party theme.

And what better idea than making a donut wall another focal point! Get my DIY step-by-step tutorial on how to make a donut wall here!

Read all about how to make a DIY peg board donut wall which was so fun for the police birthday party theme and find the black and white “spell anything” letter banner, pink donut balloon and letter balloons in the shop. The stop sign decal, black wrapping paper and giant tire inflatable wheel are all from Amazon.

Nacho Bar

Create a nacho bar inspired by a concession stand, it’s such a fun party food idea! I’ll be showing the exact how-to on the blog soon. Don’t underestimate the excitement of your guests over a nacho bar, everyone loves nachos just as much as they love donuts! I used apple baskets (from Michael’s craft store) for the chips which I lined with plastic bags so the basket would stay clean. I got nacho paper container trays from Amazon, and I used black plastic bowls for all the different nacho bar toppings.

Kids Tables

For the kids tables I love styling each little guest a special seat with their own place settings and favors welcoming them to the party. I always add fun centerpieces to each table that coordinate with the party theme and costumes are so fun for little kids to really get their imagination connected to the theme.

Party Activities

You gotta have party games to break the ice! We did a toss-the-bean-bag game, which is a corn hole game set I got on Amazon and we played toss-the-tire, too, which is really a toss-the-ring game but I modified it to fit into the theme by using inflatable tires instead of rings. You can find a similar ring toss game on Amazon, the one I purchased is currently unavailable now. And we raced police cars and race cars, I set up two roads to race the cars and added cones. The roads are actually bulletin board borders that teachers use which I laminated. I purchased both cars from Amazon.

We played with balloon race cars and had a mug shot photo booth!

Favor Table Styling

And last but not least I created a favor table thanking all our guests for celebrating with us. I absolutely love giving favors! Sending guests home with memories of the party and even potential for them to make more makes my heart so happy. I like to style favor tables near the exit of the party, reminding guests to grab a favor on their way out.

Find the black and white “spell anything” letter banner and race car balloon in the shop!

And that’s a Wrap!

Until next year’s party… which is actually only 6 months away since I got to this post a little late! Really where does the time go?

And if you’re new around here, Sugar Moon Bloom is a celebration studio where I share all things celebration and lifestyle. You can find party supplies, decor in the shop, my fully-styled party packages for kids birthday parties with all the party goodies you need and tons of party, holiday and hosting inspiration.

I’m so happy you found me!

You can check out all my styled birthday bundles here! And if you want more party inspiration follow me on Instagram @sugarmoonbloom where I share lots of celebration fun.

Here’s to celebrating the milestones with style, joy and ease!