Unlike last year where we decided to go on a vacation with our 2-year-old to Los Cabos on his birthday, this year we celebrated our son’s third birthday party at our place. One of the major reasons I wanted to have it at our home was that I hardly got to invite my friends and family over last year. With all my travels, pending projects and of course never having enough time to complete errands- planning a party, potluck or dinner was never on my list. However, this year I am hoping to host more parties and get together for our friends and especially now when our son is getting older and making so many memories.

Vir’s Third Birthday is such an important milestone for us. He is a preschooler (unbelievable), full of energy and questions, finally potty trained (Thank god!) yet still in that adorable toddler stage where he wants his independence but still wants mom and dad around for everything. I made sure to make his big day truly special and so we went and choose a theme that is exactly what he wanted and cared about at this age. TRUCKS and TRUCKS and all kinds of trucks. He clearly knows way more heavy-duty vehicles than me and often corrects me if I call a dump truck just a truck.

I took me 2 weeks to put together his Construction Theme Birthday Party at our place. I think this was by far my biggest Pinterest mom moment. I thought through every detail and scanned several stores to land the items I needed for the party and visualized in my head.

Invitation: I wanted to make an invite for Vir’s party, I always make the invitations on apps like Canva or order from Shutterfly. But I decided to buy a template from Etsy store, I looks for the right card and was very happy with my choice.

 

Decorations: The most important element that truly brings out the theme of a party are the decor pieces. From Amazon, to Etsy, to local Boutique shops and party stores I went and shopped everywhere. We used our dining table as the main table to display the cake and construction items. The key pieces I used for the construction theme birthday party were:

• Construction Cones
• Hard Hats (they are very thin plastic material)
• Road Signs to decorate around the house
• Happy Birthday Construction Banner
• Dump Truck Foil Balloons for backdrop
• Caution Tape to decorate around the house
• Toy Dump Trucks to hold candy on the table
• Toys Trucks for decoration (excavator, bulldozer)
• Crane for the center table
• Balloons (Yellow, Orange and Blue and Black colors) around the house
• Yellow and Light Blue Table covers
• Center table Candy (Chocolate Balls, Lollipops, Wafers, Cookies)
• Tool Box party favors for the center table

You can also get

• Yard Signs
• Banners
• DIY cardboard dump trucks backdrops

 

Dinner wear: For adults I kept the simple and goodquality plastic plates and cups, but for kids we stuck to the theme and included the below

• Dump truck them paper plates, napkins and water cups
• Yellow Paper straws
• Serving trays or boxes in similar color or theme

I avoided black as much as I could and used more yellow and blue colors for the theme. I used a lot of black and grey on Vir’s first birthday party.

Snacks and Kids Table: For kids we rented 2 small center tables with 16 chairs from a party place so that the kids could comfortably sit, eat and play the games there. It was tough to have them all seated in 1 place for long, but I was so happy at different times of the party several kids sat to eat, chat and play. Apart from candy on the center table I has these items on the kids table

• Fruit Punch flavor Juice packs
• Veggie sticks
• Fruit Salad
• Sandwiches
• And of course, Cake

 

Construction Birthday Cake: I had so many designs in mind for the cake and found so many great ideas on Pinterest. Having visualized a lot of yellow on the center table I stuck with a blue 2 tier cake for 40 people in chocolate flavor. The kids loved it and most of all Vir was so happy! We got it from Alphorn Bakery, I have ordered all our event cakes from there.

Party Activities and Games for Toddlers : This Birthday party had 15 kids mostly of the age 3 and under, except for a couple of 6-year-old. Initially I was looking for a party entertainer mostly a balloon twister and I couldn’t find a good one as it was too last minute.

Not many party entertainers fit in a construction theme, so we made 2 simple activities, but the biggest hit were the 20 construction trucks out of which Vir owned most and few I borrowed from our friend who has a 4 year old equally obsessed with trucks as Vir.. All the kids found their favorite toys and played together. It was amazing that there was no crying and yelling for any toy!!

Truck Coloring Pages and Crayons– I downloaded this  that I found online and gave it to the kids.

• You can download it for FREE here.

• I will say at least 3 of them spent more than 2 minutes on it. This activity will work better with elder kids over 5 years.

 

• Pound the Nail Game: I was sure that kids will enjoy a fun pounding session. Just give each item to the kids and ask them to pound the nails. Offer more nails and Styrofoam when kids are done with one session. The game was huge hit and surprised everyone. You need:
• Styrofoam cubes
• Plastic Golf Picks
• Toy Hammer

 

Sand Play Site: You can also make a sand play area if you have a backyard and can take the party outdoor. We didn’t do it as we have a town home and no backyard or outdoor space.

• Construction Pop up photo booth– This was also a huge hit. I forgot about it until the end of the party but all the kids who hadn’t left loved taking their pictures and seeing them too. I got this from Arnes in Houston.

Party Favor for kids: I found the cutest party favor box from here ! The sell 12 boxes per pack so I ordered 2 bags. In the favors I kept sunglasses, whistle, fun bracelet, small trucks and candy for kids. Also, the hard hats, hammer and a gas balloon each was used as a favor. For older kids and babies, I got age appropriate gifts.

Party Food for Family and Adults- All the parents and adults in the house got good few good hours to chat and indulge in adult conversation as kids the were busy having fun. We had drinks and snacks items as the party was from 3pm-6pm. Here is the food we kept which hardly got wasted

• Cheese Platter- 5 Cheeses,Dry fuits and jams with crackers from Whole Foods
• Tomato Basil Bruschetta from Whole Foods
• Caprese Sandwiches from Whole Foods
• Cut Fruit Platter from Whole Foods
• Samosas from Tarka Indian Kitchen
• Chips
• Dry fruit
• Chocolate Balls
• Lemonade
• Wine
• Beer

Family Matching Outfits: We also coordinated our outfits with yellow as the primary color. Instead of wearing the family construction T shirts we wore our regular outfits but stayed in theme through color. I wore a Yellow Striped Jumpsuit (sold out), Vir and Deep wore matching yellow bow ties and my mom wore a yellow shirt.

I hope you have a great celebration and these ideas help you prepare better!

XOXO