Construction Party -4yr- Lowes Aprons

This was my sons 4th birthday.  My husband works in construction and building so tractors, big trucks, and anything constructions is what our boys love.

INVITATIONS: I took my son outside dressed in his play hard hat, an orange t-shirt, and his rubber work boys and took his picture pretending to drive dads backhoe.  The front of the invitation had this picture on it and said Weston The Builder Is Turning 4!  The invitations were black and all the words were typed on orange or yellow cardstock.  I used construction stickers for added decoration.  The inside said: There's lots of work for us in store! Come to: The Phillips Construction Site. (Then our address) September 22nd is DYNAMITE! Your shift will be from 3' til 5'.  Come ready to work! And call before you arrive... (RSVP number)

DECORATIONS:  We had the party at our home since we have a private drive with a lot of land.  I made construction signs out of thick poster board that said: Workers Ahead, Constuction Zone, Speed Limit 4, Caution.  My husband nailed them to a 2x4 and stuck them in a bucket of dirt. We lined our driveway with them. We used my husbands work equippment to make a semi-circle around the party area.  His tractors, dump truck, and backhoe.  We used caution tape to tie them together to keep all the children in the designated area. 

We had a big construction banner made that said Weston The Builder Is Turning 4! and hung it on the dump truck.  We set big orange construction cones all around.  My husband brought in a big load of sand and dumped it in the middle of the party are.  We gathered every bucket, shovel, tractor, truck, etc. and put it in the sand for the kids to play with.  We also brought out my sons tool table and put it by our playground area for extra play.  We had tents set up with tables of snacks.  All the decorations were construction, black, orange, and yellow.  Bought at the Party Store and on the internet. 

SNACKS: We served bugle chips shaped like cones in buckets with a shovel for scooping, fruit, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and other snacks.

PARTY FAVORS:  As every child arrived they were given a plastic hard hat that said [their name] The Builder.  I got pink ones for the girls.  We then had them go over to our big backhoe and have their picture made driving it.  I also made a sign to set in this picture that said Phillips Construction Site.  When all the children arrived we began. 

GAMES: First we had a dirt pile dig.  I had a seperate pile of sand set aside that I had buried treasures in the day before.  Each child gat a shovel and a bag and went to work.  Whatever thay found thay got to keep.  I hid little toys, balls, bubbles, pop-rocks, little tractors, construction penceils, etc. in it. 

Then we played a game of toss the bricks in the wheel barrels.  This was handy for us because my husband is a brick layer so bricks are all around.  After each person made three bricks in they won a whistle. 

Then we had an obsacle course.  It had tires to crawl through, a plactic wheel barrel of sand to push around a maze of orange cones, stop and do jumping jacks, hop on one foot, tug a cement block tied to a rope across the pavement, climb up our swingset, go down the slide, climb on top of a big rock, and blow your whistle.  I had adults all along the way helping the kids move from one station to the next.  The kids loved this. 

As each child completed this course they won a construction apron, donated by Lowes.  I made name tags for each one on the computer that said [their name] The Builder.  After they all put their aprons on we then busted our dump truck pinatta.  When it broke open the kids filled their aprons full of candy.  We bought an awesome construction cake at a local bakery. 

GOODY BAGS:  At the end of the party every kid went home with their hard hats, all their prizes and a home made goody bag.  I made it out of a paper sack.  Again the sack said [child's name] The Builder.  It was decorated with cardtock and construction stickers.  Bags were filled with rock bouncy balls, construction color sheets (printed on Tonka web site), crayons, and more. 

Everyone was a winner!!!  In our thank you cards we sent each child their picture taken at the beginning of the party on the backhoe.