A Construction Site Birthday Party

For Graham's third birthday he wanted a Construction Site theme. He is in LOVE with the book "Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site," and loves all kinds of construction equipment especially excavators. Since we still have really nice weather in March it was also a great party to have outside and limit the mess and clean up. 

I was really proud of myself for making this a manageable party and reducing the amount of projects and details I wanted to do. I really had so many more ideas that would have been super time consuming, more money and just were not that important at the end of the day. Even John commented how impressed he was! We did go over our guideline of inviting only as many kids that fit at our dining room table (8) mostly because the party was going to be outside and because when we started adding in just our family friends and their kids (who are all around Graham's age) we were at 8 and I hated to not have some school friends there as well. So I increased our number to 12 and it was still a nice and manageable number!

Here is our front door area….Caution, Graham's Birthday Zone Ahead!

The favors were in John's tool box and were not very much because the kids also went away with their own construction hat and vest that they wore at the party. But I found adorable construction site themed rubber duckies that included in the bag with some candy.

 

The first stop for the guests was to "Punch the Clock" and pick up their hats and vests before heading out the construction site. Some kids were very much into their costume and others not so much but they were so cute when they did wear them! These were also given out as favors when they left.

Then the kids headed outside to our construction site. We had seven different stations set up for them….a coloring station, "Hammer Away" which was a block of styrofoam and some golf tees and little wooden hammers, "Dig Away" which was our water table with sand instead and some trucks, "Bridge Building" which was toothpicks and marshmallows for them to build things, "Ring Toss" which is pretty self explanatory, "Break Time" which was a bubble machine and individual bubbles to play with and then the "Build it and Demo it" which was a homemade wrecking ball hanging from a tree and various sized boxes to build something and then demo it down. Lots of fun!

Graham at the "Dig Away" station

Friends working at "Bridge Building"

Graham's creation at the Bridge Building station

"Hammer Away" station with his friend

Graham was such a good birthday boy. He loved welcoming everyone and then would tell everyone goodbye and thank you for coming to his party. He was having so much fun he didn't want to stop for pictures! 

Peyton (although seems mad in the picture…she was just being bossy) was awesome! She was so excited for Graham and wanted to make sure he had everything he wanted and was happy and having a good time. Even in the morning Graham started throwing around the "I'm the birthday boy," card when they were taking turns doing something and she graciously just let him pick and was all about making this day awesome for him. So sweet and such a wonderful thing to watch!

Being in charge….

This was the set up when you walked out the door with the table/food for kids on the right and then an adults "Refuel Here" station with coffee and pastries.

The table had road stripes running along it

"Gravel" also known as Puppy Chow  

Grapes as "Boulders"

Yummy homemade gluten free chocolate donuts with a chocolate glaze as "Truck Tires"

Rice Crispy treats dipped in colored chocolate with sticks as "Paint Brushes"

Oranges as "Wrecking Balls"

Gluten free chocolate cake with gluten free chocolate brownies mixed with brown sugar in the middle as dirt. Graham LOVED his dirt cake and that the candles were actual construction equipment

The wrecking ball area….so much fun and the kids loved it and played there forever!

It was such a fun birthday and Graham LOVED his party. He had so much fun and was appreciative of everything. We loved celebrating with our friends and it was just a great day celebrating our sweet boy!