Thursday, December 18, 2014

Will's Construction Birthday Party

Will loves trucks, and backhoes, and bulldozers, and bobcats, really anything that could be remotely related to a construction site, so it seemed fitting to have his 2nd birthday party be a construction theme.


I got the hard hats and truck favors from Oriental Trading Company; the hats were $6 for a dozen and the trucks (that included a cute little notepad, crayons, and stickers inside them) were $11.50 per dozen, and since I only needed 10 total it worked out to be pretty inexpensive. I wrote each child's name on their hat and truck. Will still wears his hat at least once a week almost 3 months later, so for 50 cents I'd call it a good investment.


Our food consisted of kid friendly finger foods, some of which were served out of dump trucks borrowed from a cousin. We had raisins, animal crackers, a veggie tray, fruit, and a cheese and cracker tray along with some lemonade and water. 


And then of course there was also cake. My amazing mother-in-law whipped this cake up for us, and she did a fantastic job. I think she used chocolate graham crackers to make the "dirt", and she just picked up some small construction toys at the store and scattered them around and on the cake. I have to say, my mother-in-law is pretty handy to have around when it comes to parties and such, I think I might keep her.

We also got Will a t-shirt with a track hoe on it for him to wear to the party from Old Navy for $5. 


After everyone got some food we sent the kiddos down into the yard to play for a bit, then after a while everyone else headed down there too for the opening of the presents.


One of my best suggestions when it comes to throwing a successful party for a small child, especially when there will be other small children present too, is to not over plan and keep it as casual as possible. We pulled out every single type of outdoor toy we could come up with for the kids to be able to play with and then just let them all run free in the back yard the whole time. If they wanted to watch Will open presents they could, but there was also plenty of other things to occupy them, so it really cut down on the stress for everyone I think.


There were some presents that brought the kids in for a closer look from their play though. This is a mower that my parents got for Will. He is obsessed with mowing, it would have been a great party theme as well, but I though construction stuff would be a lot easier to come by. He loves watching people mow, and now, mowing with his very own mower. This one even came with a little gas can that attaches on it and a pull string to start it up, just like a real mower. As soon as Jake got it out of the box and put together he was off!


The other present that brought kids out of the woodwork was Will's big present from us. We had given him a few smaller presents on his birthday, just some clothes that we wrapped individually so there would be more packages to open, but we saved our big present for the birthday party. And it was a definite hit.


I found an old, beat up Cozy Coupe for sale for $15, that we (mainly Jake) sanded down and painted. To get the bat symbol on the side Jake just used some frog tape and an exacto knife and freehanded the bat in order to be able to paint the yellow over the black. It's not the perfect Batmobile, I'm sure Morgan Freeman would never approve, but for our little Batman it is the perfect "matman car".


We also threw on the little Batman cape that my (again) amazing mother-in-law made for Will, so Batman was riding in style. 



After Will had a chance to play with the Batmobile and mower for a bit we decided it was time for cake.



Apparently we should have practiced the candle part earlier in the week though, at least we know he listens when we tell him not to play with fire I guess. 


After we sang and cut the cake everyone just hung out, ate cake, and left whenever they felt like it. Will went back to playing with his mower and Batmobile, he couldn't decide which one he wanted to play with more. It was a really laid back party, and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. The day was beautiful, the food was great, and the friends and family were, as always, wonderful to see.






Happy Birthday Will!

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