The Rutledge Family: A Construction Birthday Party

As we discussed last week, our sweet little Brooks turned the big TWO a few days ago. We celebrated this past weekend by inviting all of his little buddies over for a Construction themed birthday bash. Because the little guy is too young to care what kind of birthday party he has, it's still "mommy's pick" and I tried to choose something that he would love (he's all about "diggers" and "tractors") but that wasn't too overdone. (Those "mommy's picks" become fewer and farther between as the wee ones get older - Will is insisting on a Buzz Lightyear party for his upcoming bash, complete with a "jumping bean" - a bouncy house).

So I started the process several weeks ago by perusing Pinterest, Etsy, and other various mommy blogs for ideas for a creative construction party. Once I had a vague idea of the colors, time and place for the party, I contacted one of my Etsy faves ianandlola for the invite design. I first used this Etsy shop for Will's Thomas the Train themed birthday bash last year. She designed the cutest little train ticket style invites last year and I knew she could drum up something equally as cute and unique this time. I gave her the wording and she went to work. I thought the finished product was really cute - I especially loved how the crane was holding the number 2 :)

After the invite, I started thinking about menu items. The party was mid-afternoon, so no huge meal was necessary, but I still like to have little munchies out for the guests. I tried to stick with the construction theme, so we had "brownie boulders" (I kept waiting on someone to crack a joke about the brownies being hard as "rocks", but no one was brave enough I guess), a "build-your-own sandwich station", "dirt-cups", a "stack-your-own lumber" tray (french fries), and "nuts & bolts" (Chex Mix). I tried to get pictures, but I apparently suck at photography - better stick to party planning ;) Brandon's aunt made the cake - a simple chocolate-iced yellow sheet cake with little "diggers" on top. I bought the construction toys at Target in a set for $5.

I tried to stick with construction themed colors throughout the decorating - yellow, orange, black and grey. I bought the yellow and black caution tape at Home Depot for $7 and used that instead of streamers. My husband was in charge of taping the caution tape up, and I must say that he was pretty proud of himself for his creativity. The orange cones were borrowed from my neighbor who works for a paving company.

After the kiddos came thru my husband's beautifully decorated front entrance, I had a "decorate-your-own hard hat" station set up. The kids really seemed to enjoy this and I felt like it got them in the right spirit right from the start. I ordered the hard hats from Oriental Trading for super cheap and picked up a few packs of stickers along the way. The sign read "Safety First! Decorate your own hard hat!" The kids wrote their names on address labels and pinned them to the front of their hats and then proceeded to use tons of stickers to make them their own.

The kids played and played and played their little hearts out. My mom's house is great for parties for the little ones. The kitchen is large enough for everyone to gather around, the den has enough seating for all, the kids LOVE to use the long and wide hallway for "racing" their scooters, big wheels and tricycles, and between my kids and my neice and nephew, all of the breakable stuff has already been broken. In fact, other than the squeals of laughter coming from down the hall, it was almost easy to forget where they were. When the party goers started to dwindle down, they were sent home with their very own canvas tool belt (Home Dept $.77/belt) holding a sucker, yogurt covered raisins, and these cute little handmade glycerin soaps from BrownBagBathBars. They were yellow or orange and shaped like little dump trucks. I chose the banana and creamsicle scents and the tag read "For the Clean Up Crew". SOOOO CUTE! All the parents raved over these "goody bags" and these were probably the cheapest favors I've ever done.

All things considered, Mr. Brooksie had a wonderful 2nd birthday party. He was given an abundance of gifts and sugar and for a two year-old, that's all that matters. I think I saw him drinking out of at least three or four different juice boxes and eating off as many as three people's plates (and also the floor at one point, but hey - if you can't get away with that on your birthday, when can you??) Thanks to everyone who made it out after Friday night's horrendous tornadic weather to celebrate my baby's 2nd birthday. I don't think there was one person there who hasn't been to all my boys' birthday parties and to me, you all feel like family. Mr. Brooks is one lucky boy to have each of you in his life. Cheers!