Construction Birthday Party

Last Friday, we threw a big joint birthday party for Ben and Nate to celebrate Nate's 1st birthday and Ben's 3rd birthday. Both sets of grandparents came in for the occasion and all of the kids in Ben and Nate's playgroups and the kids they see most regularly came to the party, too. In fact, we had 100% attendance - 21 kids in all!

When thinking up a theme for this year's big day, a few ideas crossed my mind but ultimately only one prevailed. The boys both love trucks and tools so of course we had to do a construction theme. How appropriate for two little guys who have witnessed so many home improvement projects in our own new house these past few months!

So, Foreman Ben and Foreman Nate of Martin Brothers Construction were "born" and the construction ideas really started to take off once the creative juices started to flow around our household. First, let's meet the birthday crew:

These are the invitations I made that went out for the big event:

One of the best parts of the day was that one of my dearest friends, Julia Spencer of More Precious Than Photography professionally photographed the party for us. Check out her blogsite for more of her work: http://morepreciousthan.blogspot.com/ .

So, on top of having a spectacular time during the festivities, I didn't have to fear that I would miss any crucial photo opportunities amidst all of the activity. So, most of these photos you see below are taken by Julia and a few of them were also given to me by my mother-in-law Cheri since she also always has the camera ready! Thanks to you both!

And so the workday begins...

As each "construction worker" entered the party zone, he or she had to "clock-in" to the job and collect his or her timecard. Each timecard had three different sections, zones 1-3, and each of these represented an activity that the child was to go off and do. Once a zone was completed, they reported back to the clock and got a sticker for their hard work.



Of course each worker needs a hard hat and a kid-sized Home Depot apron for the job (tied with Caution tape, naturally!). Thanks, Home Depot, for donating these aprons to us!



Certain sections of the house were roped off and trespassing was not allowed in other areas (by order of Ben and Nate!) :)


One of the zones was a Construction Play Zone, which, if not obvious, was basically a big play area filled with trucks, tools, cardboard bricks and other blocks. Even the girls seemed to have fun playing here!



Sammy and Will in the background.

Samantha and Amelia tom-boying it!

The other two "work zones" were crafts: in one area, Hard Hat Central, they had to decorate their hard hats with traffic sign foam stickers. In the other area, Color Site, there were Tonka pages to color.



CC helping Ben color a truck picture for the fridge.


Nicholas and Julia.Mary helping Ethan decorate his hat (with little Ezra in the sling!).

Elaina smiling and Tyler underneath her, hard at work. The last picture is Julia, hard hat all decorated already as she colors a picture.



Lunch was done in "worker style" as well. Each of the little workers got a personalized brown bag lunch filled with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a juice box. Some of them also ate some of the other sides - Wheel shaped pasta salad, fruit salad served in pickup-truck-shaped carved-out melons or "cone chips" (aka Doritos).

We used large trucks as serving bowls and each child got a mini traffic cone to match the large one that was in the center of the table.

For dessert, Ben and I made a fun cake, complete with an Orea road, cone candles, Whopper boulders and real Matchbox and Tonka trucks! With so many people at the party, it worked out well that we needed a larger cake since I actually made two of them that I combined into one large sheet cake. Each birthday boy was able to have his own side of the cake...and of course we sang Happy Birthday twice!

Both of the birthday boys always enjoy their desserts!

And what truck party would be complete without a large truck filled with Dirt Pudding!

Present time was extremely chaotic with two birthday boys and so many eager kids. But, I wanted to open the presents at the party since I know many children often look forward to seeing their gift get opened. Nate got his very open Anywhere Chair from Pop and Nana for his birthday so they each had their own special seat.

This car carrier was a big hit with the boys (thanks, Nicholas for the gift!). I just loved this photo of Kyle admiring it!

Finally, here are many of the great candid shots that were caught throughout the day. I especially loved seeing these since it helped me to really relive the event and see how much fun people were having with the activities and props :).

Grandpa G and a very smiley Nate!

...and with Ben. It looks like there is some mischief being exchanged here, if you ask me, based on that sly smile of Ben's!

Aunt Maggie drove in from Lancaster for the party so Ben and Nate had fun seeing her for their big day.
CC and Nate...

The Martin grandparents with the boys.

...and the Caulfield grandparents, too!

Kaya in a lovely profile shot.

Talya in deep thought!

Our youngest participating worker for the day, 7-1/2 month old Brianna. There were a few other babies there but Brianna was the youngest worker on the job.

Amy and Bri.

I LOVE this picture of Nate...one of my favorites from the whole day!

Our family photo...one serious and one as Ben tries to steal Nate's stickers off of his hat!

Nicholas.

Aimee and Jonathan.

Tricia and Jacob.

Jonathan eating his lunch. The poor guy sat next to Nate and kept having all of his food stolen by our little chow-hound!





I LOVE this picture of Ben, too!

Nana and Nate.

Nicholas and Samantha enjoying their lunches.

Julia concentrating on something.

Jonathan.

Julie and Koen, Talya's little brother.

...and there's Talya now!

Even the moms had fun with the hats and aprons! :) Here are Aimee and Barb striking a pose.



Pop with Nate.

What a fun day we had celebrating with our two little men. I hope you enjoyed seeing these photos and got as into the construction theme as we did while we were planning this party. Check back on Friday for some photos from Ben's actual birthday. These birthdays never seem to end around here this time of year - ha ha!