I love planning parties. I look for any excuse to throw an event, hand-make decorations, decorate a cake. I always go overboard; it’s just my nature. Some people say I’m crazy when it comes to parties and do too much (*ahem, my mother). But you know what, I do it because I really, truly love it. Sure, I may get a little cuckoo when I execute the event, but it’s all worth it in the end.
I had a hard time choosing a theme this year because my boy is still obsessed with trains (as you may have noticed), and we did a Thomas theme party last year.
I needed to switch it up, so I went with his other latest obsession: Bob the Builder. And thus I began planning our construction themed birthday party.
A few months ago, I shared the invitations I created for his birthday party. These dump truck invitations came out super cute, and really set the stage for our big construction themed party!
Construction themed birthday parties are easy to plan. I actually found this to be one of the easier parties to decorate for. I worked with a lot of oranges, yellows and blacks, common colors you’d see on a construction site.
I always like to set the stage with a really fun entrance – we had lots of balloons, caution tape, and traffic cones leading up to the house. I created my own signs using orange paper (I actually made a lot of signs using orange paper- it was super easy and it fit the theme perfectly!).
I also used a lot of my boy’s own trucks and toys to decorate around the house. They even were used for food displays!
I love wrapping my utensils. It is such a simple activity that can be down ahead of time, but just looks so much more polished than throwing the forks in a cup or basket. I used silver plastic utensils (the ones that look real but aren’t), with yellow, orange and black napkins.
I usually like making my own banners, but I ended up finding these super cute ones at Hobby Lobby here and here.
The favors for this party were sand pails filled with different toys: play-doh, blocks, a toy truck, stickers, bubbles and some snacks. I added each child’s name to the pail using stick-on foam letters.
I also have a yearly tradition of putting out a book that is related to the party theme, and I have my guests leave a message for my boy. When he turns 18, it will be fun to hand him all of the books from these parties. This year I chose Mighty Mighty Construction Site.
Outside, I set up a a wheelbarrow to put the gifts with a sign that said “DUMP GIFTS HERE”.
I made another sign on orange paper for our drinks; this time it was made to look like a gas station sign and said REFUEL HERE. As you can see, I went with orange cups, and decorated with even more trucks!
For activities, I sectioned off a large covered area with CAUTION tape (Home Depot sells huge rolls). Inside the area I had a dirt pile, building blocks, bubbles and kinetic sand. Hard hats were required in the work zone, of course.
I also found a construction themed pinata on Amazon that had pull strings (three-year-olds hitting at a pinata just doesn’t sound like my idea of fun).
There were also truck tattoos for all the kids!
Of course, no party would be complete without cake. I made a full sheet chocolate and white cake with chocolate frosting. The dirt path number 3 was made from crumbled Oreos; and I decorated with crumbled graham crackers, Pirouline Wafer cookies, mini Reese Cups, Malt Balls, mini York peppermint patties and silver chocolate nuggets. I picked up the banner at Hobby Lobby as well (they were my go-to for all my construction themed birthday party supplies). And yes, the candles were shaped like traffic cones. It’s hard to see, but I also used a cinderblock to prop the cake up on the table.
The construction themed birthday party was a really fun theme. And it was pretty inexpensive to put together. Most of my decorations were using toy trucks that we already owned (and a few that I picked up at a tag sale a couple weeks prior). The rest of the decorations I purchased at Hobby Lobby, Walmart and Amazon for low prices. And of course, a roll of caution tape is not that expensive! I made the signs on craft paper that I already had on hand. As for activities, we stuck with simple things like the dirt pile, bubbles and blocks. The kids also loved the Kinetic sand. We also have a swimming pool and swing set- no one was bored!
This was one of those parties that was actually really easy to throw together but looked like I worked on it for months (which normally I do). So, if you are thinking about throwing a construction themed birthday party, don’t stress. Keep it simple, and use as much as you have on hand. You’ll be surprised how easy it all comes together!
