Bike Party - Part 1

For Cody and Jaden's 5th birthday party, we decided on a bike theme. These two boys absolutely LOVE their bikes! Each time we go outside, bike-riding is nearly always their first chosen activity, so I knew they'd enjoy doing some bike activities with their friends. Most of our party ideas were borrowed from my talented party-planning sister who had a bike party for my nephew Ian a few years ago. Also, my sister-in-law Sarah gets the credit for taking nearly all of these fabulous pictures. 

Our morning was such a fun one! Here are the birthday boys, testing out the bike wash prior to their party. Note the bicycle T-shirts that they helped me pick out.

We chose to have the bike party at my parents' home because they live in a quiet cul-de-sac (perfect for multiple preschoolers biking around simultaneously). Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for your sharing your home with us! Here are a few pics of the party decor...

Cody and Jaden invited 6 little friends to their party-- 4 preK friends and 2 cousins. It was a cute little group of kiddos! When the kids arrived, they all left their bikes in the bike parking lot outside.

Once inside, the kids signed their names inside these two bicycle birthday books for Cody and Jaden.

Our first activity was creating license plates. Each child started with a foam rectangle piece and decorated it with markers, stickers, or gems. We had foam letter stickers for the kids' names too.

You can tell in the picture above that Jaden is filling his entire license plate with stickers. He almost ran out of room for his name! Cody, on the other hand, kept his license plate nice and simple.

My parents helped the kids attach their completed license plates to a bike basket (great finds at the dollar store!).

They all turned out quite cute!

This next activity was meant to be a time-filler as kids were getting done with their license plates at various times. As it turned out, all the kids finished at about the same time, so we all played the game together. We had rigged up the wheel on my brother's bicycle to be a sort of "spin the wheel" game.

We used two playing cards stuck together and taped to the bike frame to hit against the spokes and slow down the wheel.

The spokes contained various numbers that matched with a certain activity. Whichever number was closest to the playing cards when the wheel stopped spinning dictated which activity we did. Most of the activities were related to the number 5.... sing 5 words of a song, hop up and down 5 times, or do 5 jumping jacks.

This creative game was Jason's brainstorm. He did a great job of running the station too. The biggest hit for the kids was just spinning the wheel. :)

After this quick game, we brought the kids inside for a bike driver's license test.

Dani, Ryan, Jaden, Joshua

Zoey, Abby, Cody, John

I asked the kids various bike safety questions like what to do when crossing a street, what to do if they see lightning, how to stop their bikes, and what to wear on their heads when riding.

When everyone passed the safety test (which they all did with flying colors), we had the kids sign their names on the back of the license.

Grammy and Papa (who were just wonderful behind-the-scenes helpers with everything!) laminated the driver's licenses to make them look official.

These 4 and 5 year olds were finally ready to hit the streets! Bicycle stations coming up next....