Birthday Boys!

Saturday was the big shindig for the boys’ 1st and 3rd birthdays. Everything came together pretty much as I had planned, with lots of help from Justin and my in-laws. And, it was fun! A bit chaotic and messy, but I suppose that’s all you can expect from a party for 2 little kids.

The theme was “construction”, which I promptly searched on Pinterest, and found all of my ideas. My goal was to make most of the decorations, and not spend much money on any of it, saving my birthday budget for their gifts. So, forgive me if stuff looks a bit “home-made”. It is.

The kids table, covered with a dollar tree black table cloth, and given road stripes with duct tape. I did spend $5 on a roll of caution tape, and used it various ways, including around the edge of the kid table.

The “punch bowl”

Birthday banner, printed onto construction paper and cut out

(thanks Justin, you are a straight cutter!)

The play area, turns out that this really wasn’t necessary. None of the kids really played here, and it just created more mess. The signs I made out of poster board.

The food. Again, tablecloth with road stripes. Balloons tied onto the dowel that usually holds one of my quilts. I guess I didn’t take a picture with all the food out on the table. We just had stuff like, a veggie tray, chips and salsa, a meat and cheese platter, candy, etc. The trucks were dispensers of food, which was really cute. (So the dump truck was ‘dumping’ chips into the chip bowl, a smaller truck was full of reses pieces…etc).

The silverware and napkins were in Justin’s grandpa’s old tool box

The cake…SUPER easy, and turned out really. A chocolate cake, with a chunk cut out and piled up to make a mound. I cut the hole, then frosted it, then dumped crushed Oreos into the hole and onto the mound. Chocolate covered “rocks” I found at winco in bulk, and I made safety cones out of orange spice drops and starbursts. Took about 5 minutes to decorate. My kind of cake.

For little gift bags for the kids, I got $0.77 tool belts from Home Depot, and put candy, a little measuring tape, and a construction pencil in the pockets.

Thatcher immediately crushed his cake his his fists, and then proceeded to eat 10% of the little pieces, and throw the remaining 90% on the floor

Thad ate his properly with a fork.

The aftermath. They both got a ridiculous amount of gifts. They got some really fun stuff though. Going to have to re-organize some closets.

Overall, the party was really fun. The only thing I regret, is no family picture. (Justin, are you reading this? Why do we NEVER remember to do that?) Maybe next time.