Sometimes, kids can’t choose their own birthday theme and it’s up to the parents to decide. This year, the very talented Brittany Schwaigert of GreyGrey Designs had just the right idea for her son’s 6th birthday that she knew he would love — a Creative & Playful Wheels on the Bus Birthday Party! Brittany is known for going above and beyond with party themes, so it’s no surprise that she added so many amazing DIY touches to this party — just LOOK at that school bus dessert table! Make sure to check out her Party Details for information on how she put it all together.

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Black frosted ‘tire’ doughnuts, sour candy ‘stoplight’ skewers & an amazing school bus birthday cake
• School bus invitation & banners + DIY yellow school bus inspired door wreath & entry roadway birthday signs
• Stop sign & school bus cookie pops + a hot dog bar with vintage Coca Cola crate condiment holders
• School bus shaped party favor boxes filled with candy & bus wheel yo-yos

PARTY DETAILS as told by Brittany…

This party is a special one for me. You see, my son is 6 and he has special needs. Specifically, he has Tuberous Sclerosis. This is his birthday party. For 4 years in a row, he has had no interests to speak of, since he has been trapped in a life of seizures. Last year, the week of his birthday, he broke his leg. He spent his birthday party weekend in the hospital.

But, this year, he has been seizure free for 20 months (KNOCK ON WOOD) and he has grown into a person who we are just now really meeting. He has blossomed and started talking and expressing what he likes and dislikes. And this is amazing. For 5 years, I picked his birthday themes by guessing, or by doing whatever I thought was cute. But this year, it was crystal clear what kind of birthday party he wanted. And though he didn’t really tell me, since he is not that verbal yet, I knew he would love a school bus party. He is obsessed with school buses. He runs to the school bus every morning and loves to sing along to Wheels on the Bus.

I knew that there was no one else in the world who could make my school bus party come to life but Piggy Bank Parties. I mean, really. LOOK at that invitation. Greyson carried it around for weeks. I know I say this every time they design something for me, but this is going to be a big seller for them!

I always like to do a door hanging of some sort for my parties. This was a simple wreath form, wrapped in yellow tinsel from the Easter section. This tinsel had little pink bunnies all over it, but I put my in-laws to work removing all of them! Slave-driver! I added some scrapbook embellishments and a little piece of herringbone felt. The sign was made by Pink Fish Studios on Etsy. I loved it because I can hang it in his room after the party. And of course, I had to do something for my foyer. I struggled with what I wanted to do, but I finally decided to make some street signs. I made them shine by using red/yellow gift wrapping foil on top.

I have seen a few other Wheels on the Bus parties out there, but of course, I needed to do something completely out of the box. So, I made the entire table into a bus! The shape worked perfectly for the tabletop to be the hood of the bus. Corrugated cardboard is one of my favorite party materials to work with. You can get big rolls of pretty much any color. I used it for all the yellow of the bus. For the “windows” I used blue foil. The letters are from the teacher/school department at Hobby Lobby. They come in black and white. The lights on the top are glittered scrapbook paper & the lights on the front of the bus are aluminum foil!

Mad Lily Cakery killed it as usual with this adorable cake. And the best part? Only the details are fondant. The rest is buttercream. Delish! I caught my son today, with his little grubby hand in the leftovers, saying “cake!”  And what’s a Wheels on the Bus party without wheels? Autumn Lynn’s Chocolate Sins did these BANANA doughnuts for me. These things got OUTTA here. Everyone loved them!

The amazing glittered stands are from Cupcake with Character. You might recognize them from my Born to Rock party. I knew I could use them for both parties and they were perfect!

A vendor I have always wanted to work with is Marie at Sweets Indeed. She makes awesome candy skewers and I LOVED these stoplight skewers! I added these adorable favor tags by Piggy Bank Parties and some polka dot ribbon to finish them. I also love love loved the cookies from Whimsy Cookie Co. The buses matched Greyson’s birthday shirt perfectly! I had them put on sticks because, hello, stop signs are on sticks!

All the plates, napkins, and balloons are from my friends at Birthday Express.
This color just so happens to be called “School Bus Yellow!” We had a hot dog bar, so I used a couple of my vintage Coke crates to hold some red and black plastic ramekins that I got at Target for toppings.

For the favors, some adorable wheel Yo-Yos from Birthday Express were perfect! Instead of presents, which my children DO NOT NEED, we had guests bring donations to The Confetti Foundation. If you don’t know about this foundation, please visit their website and donate! They provide birthdays in a box for hospitalized children. And it just so happens that I am a birthday fairy for them! Our awesome guests raised over $400! That’s 20 boxes for kids! I filled these AMAZING bus favor boxes with candy for the kids. It’s amazing that these made it to the party. My boys would NOT stop trying to play with them. I had to hide them!