Tuesday, February 24, 2015

// // Leave a Comment

Disney Cars Preschool Party!!

We were selected to host a Disney Cars Preschool Party as a DisneySide Home Celebration!  I have loads of Cars-themed activities and ideas and am so excited to share them with you!!  First, though, a quick FTC disclosure:

I received free products in order to host a Disney Side at Home Celebration.  The opinions expressed here are my own.



Disney has always been able to bring a little magic into any adventure our kids can imagine, and just setting up for our party reminded our kiddos of their adventures at Disney World last fall.  Standing at the party table was magical, and I loved watching my son examine everything while we set up!  He just couldn't help touching!  And guess what...it's all real!!




As our friends arrived, we listened to the Cars soundtrack and let the kiddos play with cars and trucks on our ramps and train table.

Preschoolers have a short attention span, though, so we jumped right into our games!

Cars Themed Preschool Games!!


#1:  Cars Parachute Games!



Parachutes are always a popular activity for our preschoolers, and we tied it into the Cars theme by using a Cars ball!  We played three parachute games:  First, played Keep the Ball: we tossed the ball in the middle of the parachute, and everybody tried to keep it from going over their edge of the parachute while trying to bounce it over someone else's edge!  Next, we played Opposite Races.  Two assigned cars (er..kids!) raced across to each other's places while going under the mushroomed parachute.  So, we counted to three, lifted the parachute high in the air, and then the two kids ran underneath it to switch spots with each other.  Our final parachute game was Waves.  The kiddos took turns (some by themselves and some with a couple friends) sitting in the middle of the parachute while everyone else made waves (or wind) by moving the parachute up and down.  The kids love this game!!  

#2:  Red Light, Green Light!

This game is a classic for a reason...everybody loves it!  The kiddos were all happy to play it over and over until everybody had a chance to be the stoplight.  Play is super easy:  The stoplight stands at one end of the room while everybody else lines up at the opposite end.  The stoplight announces "Green Light" and turns away from everyone else while they all race toward the stoplight.  Then the stoplight announces "Red Light" and faces everyone while the racers quickly stop!  Traditionally, anyone that the stoplight sees moving gets sent back to the start.  Since we had a lot of young players, we skipped the sending-kids-back-to-the-start part of the game because it can get very stressful.  Traditionally, the winner is the first person to reach the stoplight.  In our version, everybody won each time!  The light just kept turning green and red until everyone made it home!  Then, I chose a new stoplight for each round.

#3:  Cars Matching!



We spread a deck of Disney Cars Memory Cards out on a yoga mat.  Older children may enjoy a traditional game of Memory, but I knew our younger crew's attention span would not last that long!  So, after we spread the cards out, we challenged the kiddos to simply find the matches!  They didn't have to take turns, and they even ended up helping each other (love that!!).  Towards the end, we encouraged them to leave the cards face-up because they were having a hard time finding a couple of the matches.  It was nice to have a calmer game to go with the other full-body, high energy, loud games, and the kids were all very happy with the matches they found!


Cars Themed Snacks!


We had a ton of fun making these Car themed snacks!  And the best part: most of them were fruits and veggies...I love a healthy, fun snack!

#1:  Apple Cars



Use apple slices, grapes, and toothpicks to make these cute little racers.  And, in case you wondered, these were the most popular snack...well, except for maybe the cupcakes!




#2:  Rainbow Cupcakes



These were just too much fun to resist making!  Each cupcake had a slightly different design, and making them is very simple!  Click here for detailed instructions!  But you can hardly tell from the outside.  It became a magical surprise when they opened up the cupcakes and saw rainbows!




#3:  Stop Light Sticks


Use celery sticks, cream cheese, and bell peppers to build these stop light sticks!  Add a toothpick on for a post.  We also used a new, cleaned marker lid to cut the circles out of the bell peppers.




#4:  Celery Trucks



Use celery sticks, round crackers (broken in half), peanut butter, and raisins to build these cute little celery trucks!  We even used gluten-free crackers because one of our little friends can't have glucose!


Disney also sent us these little Cars place-mats, and I have to tell you: they are the coolest thing ever!  The kids loved eating on them and then, when they finished, it was super easy to roll them up and clean up the mess!



Finally, as they finished eating, they chose a car to take home...



...and got to play some more!  In addition to the ramps and cars we had out earlier, we also had a special Car Wash Fort (though, to be honest, they used in about a billion ways...it's never just a car wash fort!).  You can also see our Cars ball peeking out!



I had a great time, and I especially knew the kids loved it when I tucked my 4-year old in at the end of the day and he said, "Mom, can we have another Cars party tomorrow?"
Yeah,... Disney = Magic...and we love it!

A huge thank you to Disney Side Home Celebrations for making a magical morning for us!


I received free products in order to host a Disney Side at Home Celebration.  The opinions expressed here are my own.






I may share at any of these parties!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!





0 comments: