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Our Parties: Take a Ride in the Ca$h Cab!

August 14, 2011

I am so excited to bring you our Ca$h Cab party – the celebration of my husband’s 59^th birthday (otherwise known as “Oh no, I’m almost 60!”). Our family found Discovery Channel’s Ca$h Cab this Spring and have been watching and playing ever since. (If you don’t know the show, someone hails a taxi in NYC and is surprised to find they are on a game show that takes place during their ride. They have to answer general knowledge questions to earn cash.)

Since the show lends itself to a more masculine theme, it was just right for us. The designers I turned to were too busy to take on the project, so I put my limited design skills to work. With free taxicab clip art (thank you www.carclipart.com!) I created invitations, banners, and cupcake toppers. The color palette came from taxis: yellow and black with a black and white check.

On the front door I strung together several traffic signs on a yellow checked ribbon.

I was lucky enough to find four yellow table runners for $4 each at Old Time Pottery. But my multi-purpose decorating element for this party was black and white check Duct Tape. At $6 a roll, the Duct Tape was a total steal. It now comes in so many fabulous colors and patterns, I’ll be sure to decorate with it again! I used the Duct Tape on the invitation envelopes, table runners, on the centerpiece, on goodie bags, and around condiment bottles.

The centerpiece is a model taxi sitting on a Southern Living Home pedestal from my collection. I elevated the taxi on a round, paper mache box that I painted black and wrapped with the Duct Tape. On the bottom of the box, I taped play money.

Our menu was inspired by New York street vendor food: hot dogs and pretzels with cheese dip that we supplemented with some family favorites, including baked beans, hash brown casserole, watermelon salad, and deviled eggs. I wrapped the Izze bottles with black and white striped scrapbooking paper and topped that with yellow Post-It Note tape. (If you haven’t tried using Post-It Note tape, it is terrific because it’s repositionable.)

The dessert table featured a homemade chocolate cake with cream cheese icing (my husband’s favorite) decorated with Sixlets and a taxicab topper from Two Sugar Babies. We also offered lemon straws, more Sixlets, citrus licorice, lemon melts, and another of Don’s favorites, caramel cupcakes. To elevate the cake and flowers, and to continue the NYC theme, we wrapped our daughters’ cardboard “bricks” in pages from the New York Times.

In living room, we decorated the fireplace with another banner and New York street signs to set the stage for a fierce game of the online version of Ca$h Cab. I affixed the signs to yard sticks that I painted black and arranged in yellow tin buckets and secured with dried black beans. The girls and I painted the taxicab form (ordered from Oriental Trading) and they served as our living cab. We made Don answer questions correctly to earn his gifts. I also like to color coordinate gift wrapping, so we choose a selection of yellow, black and white papers for his gifts.

For party favors, I had a local bakery make extra large black and white cookies. I packaged the cookies in zip lock baggies, topped with Duct Tape (of course) and a thank you note featuring our cab icon.