Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Race Party

One of the biggest events in a cub scouts year is the Pinewood Derby Race.  In our pack, our leader hands the kits out in December which gives our scouts around two months to create their master pieces.  The kits contain a block of wood, four wheels and metal rods.  Each scout is allowed to use his imagination and create whatever they want as long as it stays within the rules.  The night of the race, each scout will have his car inspected and then wait his turn to race against his fellow scouts.  The winners receive an award and will get to race their car against the winners from other packs.  

These are two examples of my sons derby cars.  His Mario won first place in 2013 but the Angry Bird lost in 2014 and it was to big and we had to remove the sling shot so it would fit under the finish line. 

 

As for the party and the reason for this blog....one year I got creative and decided to make treats for the kids in the Pinewood Derby Theme.  Below find my treat creations and directions to make each of one.

 

S'MORES CARS

My first idea was S'mores Cars.  These are really simple to make. but the end result was amazing.  You will need:

• Marshmallows
• Mini Oreos
• Teddy Grams
• Gram Crackers
• Melting Chocolate

I made the white hearts but you can use anything as a grill to cover the whole I made dipping the Marshmallows.  To make it easy, have all your ingredients ready to assembly the car.  I broke up the gram crackers and separated the mini oreos in advance as my chocolate was melting.      

To melt the chocolate, I always us a double boiler.  Once your chocolate is melted, dip the marshmallow and place on gram cracker base.  While the chocolate is still melted, add the oreo wheels and teddy gram.  Once the chocolate hardens, everything is stuck together like glue.  The kids loved these and it was a huge hit for the parents as well.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED CAR PRETZEL RODS

 

My next treat was Chocolate Dipped Car Pretzel Rods.  You will need:

• Melting Chocolate
• Pretzel Rods
• Car Candy Mold

There really wasn't much to do on these but melt the chocolate and pour into the car pretzel rod candy molds I found at my local Micheal's Craft Store.  Make sure to gently tap the mold after you pour in the chocolate to allow air bubbles to escape.

CELERY CARS

To balance out all the candy treats, I also made these celery stuffed with cream cheese cars with grape wheels.  As you may have figured out, these were the last to go.  You will need:

• Celery
• Light Cream Cheese
• Grapes
• Toothpicks

Cut up your celery and add cream cheese.  Add the toothpick and grapes for wheels.

Next time I would not use the teddy grams because the longer they sat in the cream cheese the softer they became and ended up not being a good fit.  I would try gummy bears because they may hold up better.
 

STOPLIGHT RICE CRISPY TREATS

Rice Crispy Treats are so easy to make and should always be at any party.  Young or old, they are a party hit. For the derby party, I turned regular rice crispy treats into stoplights using M&M's as the different color lights.  You will need:

• Rice Crispy Cereal
• Marshmallows
• Butter
• M&M's (Green, Red and Yellow)
• Small tube of icing

Follow the directions on the rice crispy box to make the treats.  After they have cooled, cut into rectangles.  To make the M&M's stick to the rice crispy, put a tiny bit of icing on them and it will hold them on like glue.

I hope you enjoyed my treat ideas and end up using them for your scout party or race car theme birthday.  Thanks for read!!!

Mario Kart Birthday Party

My son is a huge fan of Mario and Luigi.  I have always felt that all holiday should be over the top for a child as they are grow because you really only get a handful of years to create lasting memories before they are adults and moving away.  So for his eight birthday he asked for a Mario Kart party and me being crafty mom, got the wheels rolling to create a party of his dreams.  

My first thought was invites.  I loathe store bought invitations and always try to create my own with a personal touch.  These are so easy to create and anyone with just a little computer skill can do it.  I start by searching yahoo images for Mario backgrounds.  Once I find one (which in this case was the mountain road) I copy and paste it to powerpoint.  If you haven’t figured out, powerpoint is my favorite tool to work with.  I then searched images for all the characters and did the same copy and paste.  I pulled in a picture of my kiddo and added the words for the picture below.  It’s easy to then print on card stock and you have your own cute invites for much cheaper and cuter then the store bought.

 

My next thought was the cake!  I love to bake but I’m no pastry chef.  I knew what I wanted but couldn’t find anything like it at my local store to purchase so I created my own.  I found the little pull-back cars on amazon and the idea took shape.  Why not a race track in the figure eight since he was turning eight?  I was pretty simple after that.  I used two different flavor (chocolate and white) mixes to make four round cakes.  Then I found sheets of black fondant for the track.  Fondant is not cheap so I don’t use it unless I have to.  These sheets worked great because all I had to do was cut out the shape of the track.  One sheet per side.  The bananas are from a pack of fruity hard candy.  In hindsight, I would use a gummy banana instead of the hard because a guest at the party did make a comment about HOW hard it was compared to the rest of the cake.  So take that in mind if you want to create this cake yourself.  I think I used three cans of white icing and one tube of green.  Make sure to put icing between the cake layers to use as glue to hold it together.  Also make sure to cute the bubble top off the cakes so you have a flat surface to work with.  I was able to pick up the candles at my local Dollar Tree for $1.00 each to complete the look.

 

We had several games but the kids loved the “Smash Yoshi Eggs” the best.  I took regular eggs and cut a small whole in the bottom to drain out the yokes (which I used for the cake and breakfast).  I then carefully washed them with hot water to make sure all the yoke was clean.  Leave them to drain overnight so that they are complete dry before moving on.  The next day, I filled them with confetti and a few had special “Happy Birthday” confetti so the kids could win a prize.  I used small squares of tissue paper and glued over the whole and then took a green marker to color my dots.  The kids took turns grabbing an egg and throwing it at a wall outside to see who could find the “Happy Birthday” confetti and when a prize.  The eggs turned out harder than I thought to crack and several took a few times to smash. 

I also had the Wii running for the kids to battle each other in a Mario Kart video challenge.  The winner of each game also got to pick a prize.  The prizes was candy filled Mario toys you see in the picture along with trophy’s and medals I also found at the Dollar Tree in packs for $1.00.

I didn’t do much decorating because all the favors made the room filled with stuff anyway.  What I did do was turn one of my walls into the game screen.  I used a $1.00 light blue plastic table cloth from the Dollar Tree and then found the Mario wall decals at Kmart.  I just cut the decals out and taped to the plastic so that I could use them to decorate my kids room after the party.  This worked great and was easy to clean up afterwards.  I found the brick images on yahoo and printed them on some brown card stock I had on hand. 

Now my favorite part of any party…FAVORS!!!!  I made VIP Access badges for each kid using powerpoint like I did the invites.  I also found cute colored sun hats from Oriental Trading which I added cut out foam letters to match the characters hats in the game.  For the favor bags, I used plan brown paper bags and printed off labels I created in powerpoint to add a special touch.  At the end of the party I let the kids use the bags to grab whatever toys/candy was left to take home. 

I love how the chocolate coin question mark box favors turned out.  I had these small boxes on hand that I bought years ago with the thought that they may come in handy later.  I found the image on yahoo and added it to shipping labels.  I like to use shipping labels when I create my favors because they are cheap and easy to work with.  You print off your image and peel and stick to our favor.  I was able to fit two question marks on each label and print 20 per sheet.  I peeled and stuck to the box on all sides.  I then filled with yellow tissue paper and dropped the chocolate coins in. 

It was a fun party and my son has asked for a repeat for several years but I try to push for something different so that I can create more ideas!