Ethan's 4th Birthday Party

My son recently decided that he was no longer a train/superhero man and became obsessed with all things Bob the Builder. So, for his 4th birthday party I decided to do a general construction themed party. I figured it would be easier (and cheaper) to do 'Construction' rather than a Bob party and I am very pleased with the results.

First things first: The Invite

 

I searched google to get some ideas about an invite and ended up combining quite a few ideas from several sources. I designed this with Photoshop in about 30 minutes and was pretty excited with the results. I sent the file to Staples and had them printed on card stock. All together, the invites cost me about $20 but that included a half full box of envelopes and a few left over stamps. I think it was worth it to get something one-of-a-kind and cheaper than most online printing companies.

Decorations:

I just happen to own a Construction Parking sign so I set that out in front of the house along with a caution cone and some balloons. I also put a homemade sign on the front door so people would just come in rather than knock! Here is what it looked like walking up the driveway -
 When you walked inside the goodie bags were on display along with yellow construction hats for all the guests to wear. Each hat had a '4' on it! The goodie bags were actually boxes - tool boxes - complete with tools, a few pieces of candy and each kid's initial. I got these really cheap at Oriental Trading. They were actually religious craft sets that were on clearance but I obviously didn't use them as intended. The hats and some construction themed foam stickers were also from Oriental Trading and equally inexpensive.

I bought a 1000' roll of caution tape off Amazon for about $5. I used this to make "curtains" over the doorways and strung it up around the table and playroom. To make the curtains, I placed a piece of black duct tape face down on the table in the length of the door way I wanted to cover. I cut pieces of the caution tape in varying lengths and stuck them to the tape. I made sure they overlapped a little. Once the entire length had caution tape I stuck the duct tape to the molding on the top of the door way. I've used crepe paper to do this at other parties and I really like the effect! I also used construction paper to make my own caution cones and construction signs to stick up on the walls. The signs said things like, "No work zone", "Speed limit 4", and "Hard hat area".

I used a yellow table cloth, orange cups and black plates and napkins for tableware. I also used small construction signs on the table and stuck them in the food. An idea that I didn't use but would have been cute is to serve the food in clean tool boxes. I liked this idea a bunch but I already had tool box goodies so I skipped it. As a centerpiece, I used one of my son's Tonka dump trucks and filled the bed with Candy Blox. These look like Legos but taste like Sweetarts! You can really build with them, too! 

         I used took an old blueprint and added black cut out letters as a backdrop for the table. I put the blueprint inside a poster frame that was already being used in our dining room. 

         Lastly, I used a work site cooler for the punch and set out a bowl of stickers next to it so guests could decorate their cup (and keep track of it)!                         In the playroom, I set out all of the construction themed toys we had on hand such as our son's work bench, building blocks, tools, and 'diggers'. I also used poster board to make a backdrop for photos while Ethan opened his presents. I used his wrapping paper as a template to make a large bulldozer and stapled it to the wall.

Food:

To go along with the theme I decided that we should do some sort of 'build your own' bar. I considered tacos, nachos, or ice cream sundaes but finally decided to have a build your own baked potato bar (it had nothing to do with the 10 pound bag of potatoes in the pantry)! I made vegetarian chili, coleslaw, sauteed mushrooms, garlic & herb butter and ranch butter to go on the taters. And I set out diced red onion, shredded cheese, salsa, parmesan, and marinara sauce. The food had signs stuck in them like "Spud X-ing", "Under Construction", and "Caution: Hot Taters". 

My Dynamite Punch was a blast! (Yes, pun intended) I mixed flavored lemonade and ginger ale in the cooler. I poured about 10 Pop Rocks bags into a bowl and set it next to the cooler. Guests were told to put a spoonful of the 'dynamite' into their cups and then pour in the punch. Then it explodes in your cup! We had a lot of fun making this punch! Word to the wise, red punch and bluish green pop rocks do mot make a pretty color!

Lastly, we had cake! This was my first attempt at a fondant cake. I was always against making one because I think fondant tastes like YUCK! I liked the idea of this cake enough where I figured I'd give it a try. I made a 4 layer vegan chocolate cake with simple icing and 4 colors of fondant icing. I made the fondant a few nights earlier. It is good for up to 4 days if wrapped tight and kept on the counter. 

Making fondant is not easy! It isn't really hard either but it takes TIME and practice. My practice batch was too sticky and gummy. My second batch turned out too brittle and cracked. It was not easy to get the rolled out fondant on the cake. And it tasted like super sweet plastic! BUT the cake looked awesome and the kids loved the taste. My niece even took home the extra fondant pieces to snack on (ewww!)

As you can see, I used a new, clean back hoe to tear a hole in the fondant and start digging into the cake. I think that the cake turned out pretty good for a first timer!

Activities:

We bought several bags of sand and dumped them in the backyard for the kids to play in with all of our construction themed vehicles. It turns out we have a bunch of these! We were going to make a mud pit and have a relay race in the mud but it got cold outside so we decided not to give all the kids hypothermia!

 I bought a set of over-sized cardboard blocks from Oriental Trading. These we used to play 'Demolition'!

The plan was to let each kid try to build the tallest tower they could in a set amount of time and see who could make the tallest tower. Once the tower was built, the kid got a chance to knock it down. We used a tennis ball painted black and tied to a string attached to the ceiling as a wrecking ball. We had so much fun knocking our towers down that we just forgot about the time limit! Even the adults were building towers to demolish! In fact, this was such a fun game that it is still up in the playroom over two weeks later!

Other game ideas that might work well for an older kid's birthday party is an obstacle course. The kids have to get a dump truck from one side to the other by going under saw horses, over a pile of sand or dirt, across a 2x4 set on bricks, etc. I also read several blogs that 'built' a house. They used a large cardboard box and let the kids get it to code but adding shingles, windows, door knobs, etc. and painting the exterior. 

And finally...

After the food and games, we went back upstairs to sing, make some wishes and eat some cake. I used a clean saw to cut and serve the cake! Make sure if you do this to clean the saw first, even if it is brand new. They have an oil on the blade to keep it from rusting that must be washed off!

Then it was time for presents! Overall, I think the party was a HUGE success and I know that my son had a great time!