Ian's Bike Birthday Party

Ian LOVES riding his bike. As soon as we mentioned the possibility of having a bike party for his birthday, Ian was hooked. He thought it was so cool that his friends could bring their bikes to the party! We let him choose five friends to invite. He chose three friends from his preschool class (including two girls) and two church friends. We had Ian's party the day after Ryan's -- on a Sunday afternoon.

Getting Ready
Once again, we were so blessed to have Grammy and Papa around. It was a little harder to get motivated for the second back-to-back party. :) Grammy helped Kim think through the bicycle cake. We copied a design that we found on Pinterest -- I think an old Family Fun magazine idea. It was very simple.

 

Ian was actually a VERY good helper for his party, too. He eagerly cut out all of the bike "traffic signs" that we hung around the cul-de-sac.

Grammy and Ian worked together to line the driveway with bike flags that Papa and Grammy made from colorful scrapbook paper, wooden skewers, and a stapler. It looked very festive.

Papa and Matt worked together to brainstorm just the right bicycle obstacle course.

Ian thought the "bike wash" (made of cut plastic tablecloths hung from a broom handle) was especially fun.

This "tunnel" (made from pool noodles suspended from a hockey stick) was also fun.

Of course, Ian was more than willing to test the course before his friends came.

Ryan wanted to help, too!

Papa created a bike "parking lot" for the guests.

Grammy organized the license-plate-decorating station by putting the foam stickers inside muffin tins. (Genius!)

The Guests
And then ... PARTY TIME! It was fun seeing each guest's bike and helmet as they arrived.

Ty

Caleb L.

Caleb B.

Kinnley

Natalie

all the bikes parked in their parking spaces

Activity #1: Decorating License Plates 
The kids were very excited about decorating their own foam license plates. Prior to the party, I had cut out foam rectangles, hole punched the top (so that we could put zip ties through and attach them to their bike basket favors), and found the letters for each child's name. We gave the kids some basic directions and showed them some of the foam sticker options. They immediately got right to work!

They needed help removing some of the adhesive backs, but overall could do this project by themselves.

The finished products turned out so cute ...

... and so unique!

Activity #2: Riding in the Cul-de-Sac and Obstacle Course
As soon as the license plates were done, we told the kids that they could ride around our cul-de-sac for a few minutes. (Our neighbors were all so sweet -- some even parking on the street leading up to the cul-de-sac and walking to their houses so we could even use their driveways during our obstacle course.)

The kids eagerly rode around,

and they especially enjoyed testing out the "bike wash" and tunnel.

After a little while, we gathered the kids together and had Ian demonstrate the obstacle course for his friends.

We tried to include some bike AND non-bike riding portions, like shooting baskets in a neighbor's driveway,

zig-zagging through cones,

launching a stomp rocket,

and zipping down driveways.

The kids seemed to enjoy watching others finish, too.

Activity #3: Decorating Bikes
Since it was a pretty hot and sunny afternoon, we took a water break and came into the shade for a while. We showed the kids our "bike decorating bar" full of supplies for decorating bikes -- jingle bells, handlebar streamers, spoke beads, straws that were sliced down the side so they could fit over spokes, crepe paper, balloons, pipe cleaners, etc. The kids took their job to decorate their bikes VERY seriously. They worked for a good 20 minutes or more on this activity and many probably would have worked much longer. It was fun to see their unique ideas.

Here's Kinnley with her completed bike! The bikes all looked so festive as we headed to the neighborhood park together.

Activity #4: The Park
Five of us adults donned fluorescent parking vests and accompanied the kiddos across the street to the neighborhood park. (Grammy stayed back at the house with sleeping Ryan and got all of the food set up.)

We brought the bikes onto the tennis courts ...

... and let each of the kids take turns being the leader in follow the leader.

Then, we played a round of Red Light, Green Light. Kim flipped a paper between red and green while saying the words, and Matt was the policeman with a whistle. In typical preschool fashion, they took this game very seriously and did NOT want to be sent back to the starting line. They all stopped immediately when seeing the red sign. Once during the game, Matt blew his whistle "just to see if it's working", and one of the kiddos (with a guilty conscience, I guess?) turned around and started heading back to the starting line. Of course, no one was really sent back! They seemed to really like this game.

After a juice break, we gave them a little bit of time to play on the playground before biking back to our house.

Food
Since our two-hour party was right in the middle of the afternoon, we just served cake, ice cream, and some of Ian's favorite snacks -- fruit (strawberries and grapes), popcorn, Goldfish, and fruit snacks.

The kids enjoyed chatting,

and then I read them the book Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen -- a cute book that we had each child sign as the "guest book" for Ian's party. (By this point, Ryan was finally awake ... missing most of his nap the day before on his party day made for one tuckered out little boy!) :)

Presents & Favors
Then, we moved into present time. The child that brought the gift helped Ian to open it. Ian got some really thoughtful and fun gifts!

At the end of the party, Ian handed out favors to each child -- a bike basket (a modified Easter basket with Velcro to attach to bike handlebars), a water bottle, a bike bell, and candy. While we were at the park, Grammy had also attached each child's license plate to the front of the bike basket with zip ties.

Ian is truly blessed with wonderful friends! It was so much fun celebrating with them and watching them all have fun biking together. We love you so much, Birthday Boy! :)