Construction Vehicles Party -3yr- Oreo Dirt Cake

For our son's 3rd birthday party, we used Construction Trucks/Tonka as our theme.

INVITATIONS: I made the invitations with scrapbook paper and trucks stickers from Hobby Lobby. They read: A party is under construction for Foreman Son's Name 3rd birthday!  We hope you can join the celebration! It will be a truck load of fun! On the inside on the invitation it read:  Job Site: The X's Work Zone Our Address Project Date: Shift Time: Bring your Work Order and come ready to dig! Included in each invitation was a Work Order with the friend's name on it stating each activity they would get to do at the party. We were prepared to have the party in the house and garage in case of rain but the weather was great so we had it in the backyard. We had stations set up with simple signs that matched the Work Orders from the invitation.

ACTIVITY STATIONS:

READ IT! (We filled an empty plastic swimming pool with books about trucks that they could sit in and read).

DUMP IT! (We had several Tonka Dump trucks with a big pile of rocks that they could fill the trucks with and then dump them into another pile.)

DRIVE IT! (We used all of the little trucks from our play room and put our son's large rug outside that has the design of a town with roads on it).

BUILD IT! (We bought a $12 cardboard club house from Hobby Lobby that could be colored and decorated and placed all of our son's play tools next to it. The kids pretended to build the clubhouse with all of the tools. We also had markers and crayons so they could decorate it).

DESTROY IT! Using a large stick, some heavy duty string and a cheap lightweight ball, we created a wrecking ball that the kids could knock over small cardboard boxes with it looked like a fishing pole with a big ball on the end of it. We wrapped the ball in CAUTION tape from Lowe's and duct taped it all together so the stick didn't have any rough parts on it.

FIX IT! Pin the Scoop on the Excavator (similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey) We painted a large excavator on a posterboard and painted a separate scoop for the excavator. The kids took turns taping the scoop onto the excavator.

EAT IT! We served a brown bag style lunch similar to a construction worker lunch. Each time the child finished a station, we used a hole punch to mark his Work Order (as if he were clocking in and out).I wanted to stamp each child's hand as they came to the party as a way to welcome them to the work zone but was unable to find a cheap trucks stamp. 

CAKE: We made Oreo Dirt Cake (lots of good recipes online) with gummy worms throughout the cake and placed it in a plastic container and then put the container in the back of a Tonka Dump Truck. A very small kid's shovel was used to get the dirt cake out of the truck. Candles were small construction cones purchased online. We also made brownies and cut them up into bite sized pieces and placed them in the back of another dump truck to resemble more dirt.I placed my son's 3rd year picture on the table since the cake didn't have his name on it

DECORATIONS: We used Caution tape purchased from Lowe's all over the front door and entryway and lined our sidewalk with real construction cones borrowed from a contractor friend. The backyard had the stations with signs and there were trucks everywhere! We also used lots of yellow streamers and a few construction hats from a party store.

PRIZES: Home Depot gave me free aprons that I personalized for each child with a paint pen. They also received truck stickers, a coloring book that I printed from tonka.com, and a small trucks book that I found on clearance at Gordman's. I put their prizes in brown lunch bags labeled with their names on them. The kids all enjoyed the party but eating dirt and worms was probably the most fun for the 3 year olds!