My Son's 3Rd Birthday Party

got a sandbox? put a bunch of trucks in the sandbox.. add big legos for building construction.. Toys R Us carries the Home Depot line of wood sets that they do on their free Saturday kid events.. you can give out hard hats (Oriental Express should have them or IParty).. If you are on the North Shore, let me know. I'll come up with a cake idea for you (make it too if you want!)..

I really love theme parties like this, which make it fun without the hosts going to the unnecessary expense of hiring some sort of entertainment or huge bounce house. We did dinosaur parties, insect parties, and similar things for our son. Use his existing trucks as decorations. A big dumptruck could hold drinks or snacks or goody bags. You could make your own invitations by buying plain cards and adding construction themed stickers - I love the idea from the other post about listing "Foreman" and "Job Site" on the invite. You could use extra stickers and some markers to let the kids decorate their own plastic "hard hats" which they can wear during the party and then take home. You could put their names on them ahead of time. Have a few extras in case something gets broken though. I've seen cakes made to look like trucks - you could start with a plain sheet cake and cut the upper corner out to make a "cab" that is smaller than the cargo area of the truck, then frost and decorate. Plain or chocolate donuts can be the tires, with candies as the headlights/taillights, and so on. You could use gel icing to write the child's name - "Billy's Trucking" or whatever. It's hard to find games that can be played by kids with a big age range, but a truck pinata might work, as would the pin-the-tail variation mentioned by another mom. You could try a beanbag toss into a dump truck or bulldozer, with older kids standing further back. If it's hot, turn on the sprinkler and let them have a "truck wash" and give small toy trucks such as Hot Wheels as favors. Designate someone as photographer and then email the photos to each parent. Have a great time!

Did you try Oriental trading comany? They usually have activities for different themes. Just don't expect to get Bob the builder toys around here! I guess they are no longer available in stores! I found this out the hard way in Feburaury!
If you need a cool construction cake let me know! Mamasource members get 15% off!
Jen...
www.sauguscakecreations.com

I have 3 boys so I have done 5 construction parties!

I love the caution tape for decorating.

I always got a new truck, cleaned it & put it on the cake. I crumbled a cupcake to look like a pile of dirt & made the truck dumping it.

Homemade playdough is probably my favorite to keep a variety of ages busy & engaged. Be sure to have tools to use with it.

I loved getting gift bags & having the kids decorate them with construction stickers & their name. Then I line them up to be able to put in their favors, left over cake, playdough, etc.

I usually set up an area for them to play with leggo/duplo or other building set. I put out truck books too.

We made our own ice cream using zip lock bags, ice & salt in the outside bag & cream sugar & vanilla in the inner bag. I am sure you can find the instructions on-line. It's really easy & all the shaking keeps everyone busy. It comes out soft and so yummy.

I love a treasure hunt for the cake. At that age you can either have an adult along to read clues or I did pictures. I had winter birthdays so I wanted to be sure they went up & down the stairs a bunch of times. 1st plan where the cake will go/the end. Then work from there.

I would recommend doing the party earlier in the day. I once made the mistake of thinking I could do it after nap time.

Have fun!

I had a Lego themed party for my son when he was @8. I realize this is not true construction theme, but I found a cute idea for the invitations and I made them myself. I am sorry that I cannot remember all of the details, but they were sort of like this:
Project -[birthday party]
Foreman - [your child's name]
Construction Site -[location]
Start Time / End Time
I wish I could think of more details - but you get the idea.
Hope this helps a little.
M.

Just saw this bulldozer cake on parenting.com

http://www.parenting.com/recipes-article/Recipes/Birthday...

maybe have a dump truck cake have him wear a construction oufit jeans plaid shirt construction hat and maybe you can ask the guest to come dressed as something constuction like.i don;t know if you have a sand box or not but maybe the boys could "build something".sorry i am short on ideas

We are doing the same theme for our son who will be turning 3. We were planning on burying little treasure boxes in the sand box and having the kids use the trucks to dig up the boxes.

We were also thinking about having truck races. Have all the dump trucks, bull dozers, etc lined up at one end, and have them race to the other end of the yard.

That's all I have for ideas, but hopefully I too will benefit from the ideas others post.

Hi B.,

Happy Birthday to your son! In addition to the great ideas already listed, maybe your son likes Bob the Builder or Handy Manny? Inexpensive plastic construction hats instead of party hats and little plastic tool belt party favors with these themes maybe can be found at a local party store or Christmas Tree Shops. If you have some wooden blocks, leave them out as an activity on a "tool bench" for the kids to work on. Hope this helps. Good luck!

I had a bob the builder party for my son when he was that age. they had lots of stuff at I-Party for that theme. If you are looking for games you can do creative versions of traditional games like tape the bucket on the front loader instead of pin the tail on the donkey. if it will be nice out & you have a sand box you can give little construction vehicles to the kids a party favors and let them just play in the sandbox with them for a bit. I made a regular sheet cake and used the bob the builder characters (purchased at target) to decorate and then he was able to play with the toys after.
Hope this helps. Have a great party.

You'll have to google for this - I'm not sure if it still exists - but there was a guy who had created a bulldozer swingset thing - it was very expensive to buy, but he started renting it out for parties. It looked amazing. Good luck.

There are some really great ideas at the website below:

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/construction_party...

My two cents: I really like the idea of having the guests "clock in" at the time clock when they arrive -- through the garage! And then clocking out and getting paid (with play money) when they leave. Cute!

Find some big cardboard boxes and strings and turn them into cars/trucks that the kids can decorate and then play with! Here's a picture of a simple one that I googled ::http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eastlan...

I made a pirate ship for my son when he was three...got the cutest video out of it!
Have a great party!
Genie Mamadoula