Ainsley's birthday party

This year, for the first time, we mailed out invitations inviting Ainsley's friends to a birthday party. We have always had a party for her, but we usually send out an evite or emails to invite people to celebrate with us. Ainsley wanted to have a Cars birthday party. I found Cars invitations and some neat ideas on the internet.
This is a little hard to see because of the newspaper background, but those are racecars made from packs of gum and chocolate candy. Ainsley helped me make them. The rectangle Ainsley decorated (on the right side of the photo) is a license plate. Each guest could decorate their own. We had a little glitch in the making of these--I thought all the foam shapes were peel and stick. They weren't! So, I found some glue, and thanks to Tommy (he helped the kids with the glue while I made the lunch), it worked well. Each child got to bring home a racecar, a can of play dough, and his license plate he/she made. The racecar idea came from this website.

This is the cake I made. It was fun to make. The cars on top are actually cars from the movie. I ordered them off the internet, and they were part of Ainsley's present from us. I adapted the cake design from a few different websites--here, here, and mostly here.

Counting us, we had 8 families there! I was worried that we wouldn't all fit, but it worked out!

Ainsley opening her presents.

Happy birthday to you . . .!

The "Birthday Girl" crown came from Claire, Emi, and Allie. Ainsley still wears it.

We had hot dogs, chips & cheese dip, and veggies and dip for lunch.

Thanks to all our friends who came and helped Ainsley to celebrate her special day!