Ry Guy's Construction Theme 2nd Birthday Party

What do you do for a little boy who is pretty much obsessed with all things related to wheels and tools? Have a Construction Theme birthday party, of course! Notice our awesome t-shirts. Fit right into the theme!

Last year, we kept it simple and had a small party with mostly adults Ry Guy was comfortable with.  This year, we focused mainly on the kiddos with some simple activities, but still kept the guest list small so he didn't get too overwhelmed.

It came together even better than I had hoped. We had such a fun time and the kids enjoyed themselves too. My little guy was a little shy at the beginning, but after a few minutes he got involved and had a blast.  I loved seeing his smile and hearing him giggle over each new experience.

Ok, here's the details:

We decided to have the party at 3 pm - after Ry's nap so he was well rested.  Since it was middle of the afternoon, we just had snacks, so that was pretty easy. I had fun "re-naming" all the food items after construction or building related things.

Menu

• Honey (glue)
• Yogurt (plaster)
• Blueberries and Strawberries (pebbles)
• Grapes (rocks)
• Apple slices (couldn't come up with a cute name for that)
• Sunflower Seed Clusters (gravel)
• Maple Almond Granola (sawdust)
• Brownies (asphalt)
• Apple Juice (varnish)
• Iced Coffee (diesel) - served with cream and simple syrup
• And a big jug of water... it was hot outside!

Decorations
The decorations were fun! Overall, I think it came out pretty cute.

• Caution tape (Amazon)
• Orange cones (Amazon)
• Mylar dump truck balloon (Amazon)
• Kid size plastic hard hats (Amazon)
• Orange, yellow and black balloons (Dollar Tree)
• Tablecloths, napkins, paper plates, etc. (Halloween clearance last year at Walmart) 
• Yellow cups and spoons (party store) 
• Blue pop up canopy for shade over the food (from our camping stash)
• Sawhorses/lumber for the food table (from the garage.  I think it added to the construction feel, but really we just didn't have another table to use.)

Invitation
I made the invitation myself using Microsoft Word (fancy, I know). I primarily used the Stencil font that comes with the program.  I used some free clipart to make it pretty. I was inspired by this invitation I saw on pinterest, but customized the design to make it work for us (I also made my invitation fit 4 to an 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock (mostly because I get more bang for my buck that way and also because I already had some black notecard size envelopes I wanted to use.)

 

Also, I designed the food tags and signs myself using Microsoft Word and some more free clip art. I got it all printed at a copy store for about $4. I figure I would have used more than $4 worth of printer ink if I'd printed all the stuff myself.

 

I would have liked to have had a happy birthday banner somewhere, but ran out of time to put one together. Oh well, if that's my only regret, I guess we're ok.

Activities
I wanted to keep the kids' activities simple, unstructured and focused on free play. The kids played with all the toys, but the sandbox seemed to be the favorite.

• Plastic storage tub filled with play sand (Home Depot) and sand toys, trucks and sand shovels [this is now Ry's sandbox for the summer. I like that I can just snap the lid on when we're done playing to keep the critters out]
• Ry's kid-size table and a bucket of Duplos legos (M built the table -isn't he handy?- and the duplos were a gift last year)
• Blanket and Melissa and Doug blocks (gift from last year)
• Bean bag toss  (both bean bags and sign were homemade) I cut out and painted a piece of cardboard to look like a construction sign, "Men at Work".  The kids had fun tossing the bean bags, but didn't seem to care too much about actually getting the bean bags through the hole. What do you expect from toddlers, right?

Happy Birthday, Little Bear! You're growing up so fast. We're so thankful for the brightness, energy and big ideas you bring to our lives. We love you! - Mom and Dad