Building Birthday Bash!

We decided to go for another huge, joint birthday bash this year for the boys. October is a busy month, and it just wasn't going to work for me to plan and host two parties. Not to mention, they have so many friends who are siblings, that it just makes sense to have a joint party when there is already so much overlap in the guest list.  The only theme both boys could agree on was a tool/building party. Mac was pretty adament he wanted a poop party, but I think the ideas on Pinterest are fairly limited for that, so we went ahead with the building theme.

I have to give a huge shout out to Home Depot and Lowes, who pretty much sponsored our party. I was grasping for ideas on what to do to keep the kids entertained, and James said he wanted everyone to do a real building project. He loves going to the free kid workshops at Home Depot and Lowes on the weekends, so I called our local stores and asked them if they ever had any leftover projects. I was thinking they could sell me a bunch at a discount, but I was blown away by their generosity. Home Depot gave us 25 sets for each kid to build their own wooden tool box, and they gave us an entire box of paints and paint brushes and Home Depot paper plates. I had left a message for Lowes and once I scored so big at Home Depot, I forgot all about them. They called me the day before the party and told me to come by and pick up a box and it had a variety of projects, aprons and goggles for all the kids! So even though the party had so many guests, it was CHEAP! Despite Tim being convinced the party would be a total disaster, I am happy to say I proved him wrong and everything turned out much better than I could have ever hoped for! Here is the check in for the guests as they came into the backyard, they each got a hard hat and tool belt. 

 This is the table we had set up for the kids to build and paint their tool boxes at. Kelly's dad has an insane amount of tools and he gave me a huge box full to borrow for the party so we had plenty to go around.

 Hammering practice station with strofoam blocks and golf tees.

Little Legos were banned from this party, but we brought out the train table and all the Duplos for the kids to build with.

Hands down the best thing I did was pre-make all the kids lunches and have the "Construction Crew" lunch bags ready for them to grab at lunch time. It made things so easy, and despite Tim's major doubts, not one kid complained about their lunch. All the adult food was inside, so this kept the kids outside and parents didn't need to worry about making their kids a plate. The kids each had pretzels, an applesauce pouch, a juice box and half a sandwich.

The boys wanted cupcakes, so I made both chocolate and vanilla that we topped with tools and construction trucks. I got some old blueprints from Seth to use as a tablecloth. And I love how the free Home Depot plates totally color coordinated with the rest of the party ;)

 Part of the adult food table, I forgot to take a picture once the food was out. It was nothing fancy, just lunch meat and chicken salad with croissants and pretzel rolls.

My little Mr Fix-It. He was so excited that we got all the goggles from Lowes, they are a part of almost every dress up outfit he puts together.

We had a bunch of empty boxes, tape, stickers and markers on the driveway so kids could build towers or decorate them. The inflatable hammers came in handy for knocking over the towers and ended up being one of the most popular activties.

Tim topped off the sandbox with fresh sand and we put all our construction trucks in there for another activity.

The hammering practice was another huge hit, and then pulverizing the strofoam with the hammers won over and we had styrofoam everywhere. Luckily the leaf sucker made clean-up quick after the party, and even though the activity did not go as I planned, the kids had an absolute blast.

The big blocks at BellaVita were always James' favorite thing to play with at preschool, and Mac loves them too. I asked if we could borrow them for the weekend, and I am so happy the teachers didn't mind! The kids (and dads) had so much fun building huge towers with them in the yard.

 The tool box station was definitely a big hit too. Poor Tim stood hunched over like this for so long that he woke up sore today!

 Cute Chloe ready to build.

 Break time for the Construction Crew!

Kellen looked so grown up eating his lunch in all his worker guy gear.

 I am not going to lie, as soon as I planned the party theme, I thought of this shirt and knew Mac had to wear it. It was Kate's youngest son Will's last year, and I am so glad she let us borrow it. How cute does he look?!

 Singing to our two birthday boys!

 Anne got so many great pictures when I handed off my camera, I should have used her as the photographer for the whole party!

Mac and Stella Blue, they both look so big!

Almost the whole crew-there were 25 kids total!

 The Nichols crew. The personalities in this picture are so spot on, I love it.

After everyone left, I had Steve grab a quick picture of the 4 of us, I am so glad I did!

 I love my boys so much, and I love throwing parties for them! This one turned out so awesome, everyone had a great time and I think it was our best birthday party yet. My only hesitation in throwing big parties for the boys is that it usually means a lot of presents. Although getting presents is fun, no kid needs a huge pile of presents to open after all the excitement of a big party! Luckily, all my friends listened to my requests to just bring one gift and a bunch of people went in on a joint gift for the boys. So even after a huge crowd like we had, each boy had 4 presents and then had one big joint one to open. It was perfect, they were thrilled with everything and none of us are feeling overwhelmed by having 20 new toys ;) Last night James told us it was his best birthday party yet and told us thank you for throwing him such a fun party. That made it all worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate, it was a wonderful day and all four of us had a great time with our friends!