Christopher's Construction Party

Our son, Christopher, turned 3 this month. He loves anything to do with construction ... construction trucks, signs, all tools, hard hats etc. ... and so it was easy to pick a theme for his party. I found a bouncy house in the shape of a digger a few months back and it was a go! The color theme was orange, yellow and black. It was so much fun to decorate the house and I must admit I went a little crazy with the caution tape! I found so many great ideas on Pinterest and I hope by sharing my party with you I will be paying it forward. Feel free to message me in the comments if you have any questions where I found things (just be sure to leave contact info).

Outside Front of the House Decor:

This was the front walkway and door that greeted our guests. The ladder and tools are my husband's that I just decorated with caution tape and tied balloons to (not pictured).

The front door read "Caution 3 Year Old Ahead" and is a sign I made by hand from a poster board and sharpie I purchased at Walmart.

Favors:

When you entered our house there was a table full of hard hats and tool belts. The hard hats I purchased from Amazon.com and the tool belt are from Home Depot (.77 cents each).

I used our chalkboard and wrote "Welcome Workers! Grab your uniform and report to Site Supervisor Christopher." As kids arrived we let them pick which color of hat they preferred and then tied on their tool belt and explained what was inside.

Each tool belt contained a construction party blower (found on Amazon.com) and then Work Orders (see explanation later in this post).

My husband made a logo for our son's pretend construction company. We printed and cut them out as circles and taped them on the front of the hats. They read "Christopher Lehmann Destruction Inc. Crew". ;)

For the favor, each child received a small truck in a bag filed with whoopers (boulders) and recces pieces (pebbles) when they left. The trucks come in a 5 pack and can be bought at Target, Walmart or Amazon.com. The favor tag was found online and can be downloaded here: Link

Inside Decor:

Let me tell you, decorating your house with caution tape is way too much fun! This is our front room and I simply taped up caution tape and a bunch of signs (the one on the mirror came in a four pack that I purchased from Amazon.com). I then added a cone and dump truck that we already owned to the toy dresser and we were set.

Also if you want to keep your party guests out of certain areas of your home caution tape and a "Danger Keep Out" sign works great and totally fits the theme!

Port-a-Potty sign on the bathroom door! Port-a-potty sign found here: Link

See I told you I went a little crazy ... I even decorated the bathroom!

I love this "Workers Present" sign I found online and I put it above the mantel since all the presents would go in this room. The sign can be download here: Link. I made the 3 banner using the leftover poster board from the sign on the front door and the "Party Zone" sign. The 3s were cut out of black construction paper and glued on to the poster board.

One of my favorite decorations went behind our food table. I simply taped caution tape and black and orange streamers in a repeating pattern at the top of our cupboards and then let them hang to the floor. It created a dramatic look for practically nothing!

Food:

The food table decorations included a "Dig In" banner that my husband designed and printed on card-stock (I had found a pack of oranges/yellows at Michael's for $5). My husband also designed the food tags which labeled all the food as their constriction counterparts. My son already owned the three construction trucks and all the tools on the table and they added a fun touch! 

I found the adorable idea of calling the cutlery "tools" on Pinterest. I already had a paint can from my daughter's painting party and just crumbled up some napkins on the bottom of the can to give height to the forks and knives. The plate and napkin holder I just happened upon in the Target $1 bins.

For the food I kept it simple. I have made the mistake in the past of trying to make a bunch of fancy food from scratch for parties and have realized (1) kids don't eat fancy food (2) I will have no life/sleep the day/night before and morning of the party (3) it really is not worth the effort. So even though I still love going all out on party decor and details, I go pretty simple when it comes to food.

Drinks were lemonade and apple juice labeled as gas and diesel (another Pinterest idea). And the "Refuel Here" sign we saw on Pinterest and then my husband just redesigned it.

I bought some warning tape on Amazon.com for $4 and wrapped that on the water bottles to make them more festive. 

The dessert table was a lot of fun but again I kept it simple (everything was bought except for the dirt cups). We had a cake, build your own dirt cup station with four different toppings, and then mini cupcakes. The "Party Zone" sign was another sign I made out of poster board I found at Walmart. The "Build Your Own Dirt Cup" my husband designed.

The dessert table was decorated with caution tape and again tools we had around the house.

This is a Costco cake and it works perfectly for a construction party! I just added a few small trucks that I already had bought to give away as the favor and some smashed up Oreos as dirt and I was good to go! The candles I bought at Walmart.

I loved the idea of doing a build your own dirt cup station. I made the dirt cups ahead of time with chocolate pudding and crushed up Oreos. Then for toppings we had wafer cookies (2x4s), whoppers (boulders), recces pieces (pebbles) and gummy worms (worms). The kids LOVED it and had more than enough sugar during this party!

Dig In Dirt Cup Topper Here: Link

Cupcake Topper / Road Signs Here: Link

My husband made this fun, themed sign for the outside garbage can. 

Games/Things for guests to do:

 
The party was mainly in our backyard where we had a big bouncy digger, our play set/sandbox and tables set up.

On each table in the middle I put a construction cone (two for $1 at the Dollar Store) with a dump truck printout that I had printed on white card stock and cut out (Link). I then ran balloons from a weight inside the cone out the top (not pictured). On each table I also placed coloring sheets (Link), crayons, and fake legos from the Target dollar bin. 

"Work Orders" were in each child's tool belt which they received as they arrived. The "Work Orders" listed the different locations where, now as construction workers, they had to do their "jobs". There was the Bounce Zone (the bounce house), the Wrecking Zone (the wrecking ball game), the Dig Zone (the sand box) and the Build Zone (inside the house in the front room where there were blocks and Duplo legos for the kids to build with). The older kids were really into this and checking off each box! I found the general template here (Link) and then my husband tweaked it a little bit to make it more personal.

This is the Bounce Zone and as you can tell the birthday boy thought it was pretty cool!

The second zone was the Wrecking Zone (another Pinterest idea)! I wrapped a bunch of boxes in brown and white packing paper and drew bricks on the brown and wood grain on the white. The kids could stack them as high as they wanted and then pull back the wrecking ball and knock them over. The wrecking ball was an old ball that we tied twine to and then covered in Duct Tape. We then attached it to the top of our swing set. It was a HUGE hit!

The boxes.

Our little construction worker!

The third zone was the Dig Zone ... AKA the Sandbox!

I just filled the sandbox with my son's construction trucks and shovels and then sprinkled some fake Legos (again Target $1 bin) so that the kids had something fun to dig up.

The fourth and final zone was the Build Zone. In one room I put all our toys that kids could build with (i.e. connector blocks, wood blocks, Duplo Legos, train tracks etc.). This also became a great space for the babies and toddlers to play, away from the outside craziness.

Can you tell by his face he had an amazing day?!

Happy 3rd Birthday Christopher!

Thank you for checking out my party blog and if you are planning a construction party for a special little one in your life I hope this post gives you a few ideas!