Under Construction!

Last year, I had the privilege of helping out one of my best friend, Harriet, with her son's third birthday party. At the time, Noah just adored Thomas the Train, so we worked on his All Aboard party with a railroad theme. As Noah was preparing to turn four, his new obsession centered around all things construction-related and thus, determined the theme of his celebration this year! I designed the invitation with graphics from Little Fairy Land and prints from Woofy World, which set the tone for the party and were just perfect, as the little construction guy resembled Noah so much!

The party was held at an indoor playground called Peekaboo Playland, which provided an amazing setting. The food and desserts were placed all on one table, which was anchored by large paper mache letters spelling out Noah's name and tied together with ropes as if it were still being built, along with a tiered tray of cupcakes! I made construction-themed fondant toppers to adorn the cupcakes, but because the guest list was fairly large, we decided to decorate them with both fondant and paper toppers. The latter were also designed utilizing the coordinating graphics. This is a great way to not only provide diversity in the cupcake presentation, but also to keep down costs. Though I made sure to make enough fondant decorations for all the kids to avoid any arguments!

To achieve a more industrial look, I purchased some textured foam tiles for the table from Big Lots. Along with the galvanized trays and buckets, I also used some trucks and toys to present the food, which consisted of "break time sandwiches", "excavating empanadas", "wrecking potato balls" and "nuts and bolts fruit salad". I had found a circular saw made out of wood at Hobby Lobby and decided to paint it silver and glue it to a candlestick, which turned out to be a cute little stand! We cut out some parchment paper to put on it and decorated it "spare tire donuts" and "chocolate construction hats". The "stuck-o & cement pizza" was served directly to the kids at their tables.

I inserted decor all along the table and the counter behind it relating back to the theme, inclusive of mini hard hats, cones and flashlights. Additional use of tool boxes aided in holding napkins and extra utensils and drinks were found at the "fueling station".

I couldn't be happier with the table setting for the kiddos... I mean, construction workers! The location had two picnic tables with benches and we mimicked the food table with the foam tiles and added plates and orange cone cups from Celebrate Express. The fabulous ladies working there laid out the construction hats on the benches and were ready for the crew to put on and get to work! And by the way, we really appreciated their help in setting up, as we only had 15 minutes to do so! I picked up some yellow tool belt attachments, which we used to hold the plasticware and provided some extra fun details.

The favors were probably my favorite aspect of the party! I was originally planning on utilizing little metal buckets to store the gifts, but when browsing the aisles of the 99c Only Store for ideas, I found the perfect plastic tool boxes for, well, 99 cents! I designed the thank you tag to fit into a plastic i.d. badge holder and attached it to a matching striped lanyard. Inside the toolbox, the guests workers found tools, a couple of construction vehicles and adorable bubbles in the shape of a construction guy ~ all found at The Dollar Tree!

I was so grateful to not only have had the opportunity to plan yet another birthday for Noah, but to be there with my family to help him celebrate another amazing year! Noah and my daughter, Anabelle are just THE cutest together and we are so extremely thankful to have him (and his parents) in our lives! We are honored to be part of his crew! ♥