My little man turned 3 years old in the beginning of February! He is something else guys. Something else! Haha, most days my head is spinning from the toddler antics he pulls, but at least the things he comes up with are pretty cute! And for some adorable reason he’s asked for a “front-loader birthday” since before Christmas. Hence the construction birthday party theme!
What You Need for a Construction Birthday Party
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Easy to shop list here
- A DIY Excavator Bucket
- Construction Birthday Shirt for toddler!
- Construction Cake
- Construction Trucks
- Construction Party Bags
- Construction Hats
- Construction Tape
- Yellow paint
- Yellow, black, gray, and orange balloons
- 2 Drink Dispensers
- Digger Balloon
- Construction Party Plates (Dinner, Dessert)
- Yellow Plasticware
- Yellow, Black, Orange construction paper
- Yellow Napkins
- Black Table Cloth
- Yellow Duct Tape
- 1/4″ Wooden Dowels or sticks
- **Party Pack for 16 guests**
Food for a Construction Birthday Party
For Reuben’s construction birthday we just did a kid and adult snack bar. If party hosting overwhelms you, know that just doing snacks and not baking ANYTHING will save you a LOAD of stress! Most snacks can all be purchased in advanced and easily stored for weeks after.
I chose a variety of snacks that fit some fun construction ideas!
- Mini Hostess Donuts: “Spare Tires”
- Chex Mix: “Nuts and Bolts”
- Black Olives: “Wrecking Balls”
- Cookie Straws: “Logs”
- Apple Pouches: “Oil”
- Non Caffeinated tea: “Gas”
- Darker Juice or Soda: “Diesel”
- Frosting Painted Marshmallows: “Wet Paint”
Other Ideas!
- Redvines: “Pipes”
- Graham Crackers: “Plywood”
- Candy bar of anything: “Supplies”
- Popcorn: “Rubble”
- Pudding Cups with Crunched Oreos: “Dirt”
- Cookie Cups: “Buckets”
- Spoons: “Shovels”
For the adult snack bar I provided a veggie tray, cheese, meat, dip, and adult beverages.
Best Construction Truck Gifts
Construction truck toys are awesome for generating creativity in your kiddo both in and out of the house all year round! With construction toys you can easily talk about teamwork and helping each other which is so important to their social growth. You can both also create endless tasks and stories for the construction toys to accomplish! I love seeing Reuben come up with his own construction adventures. Just share this kid’s birthday wishlist to have friends and family help build their construction world!
Easy to shop list here!
Construction truck toys are awesome for generating creativity in your kiddo both in and out of the house all year round! With construction toys you can easily talk about teamwork and helping each other which is so important to their social growth. You can both also create endless tasks and stories for the construction toys to accomplish! I love seeing Reuben come up with his own construction adventures. Just share this kid’s birthday wishlist to have friends and family help build their construction world!
- Tow Truck: Tow all sorts of toys and trucks around the house.
- Log Truck: We have this $14 one from Walmart and he’s always lifting everything he can onto its bed. (The logs and log holders were ditched a long time ago haha.)
- Excavator: You can’t have a team without your digger! Ps. If your trucks are staying inside, you should look into plastic toys rather than metal for less noise and destruction to property ;) . Here’s the metal excavator we have, it will last forever and they literally ride on it, but it’s a beast!
- Front Loader: This is the truck that brings all the blocks, cars, and animals to his friends.
- Dump Truck: Now these come in all shapes and sizes. I love our green toys version of the dump trunk. Lightweight but incredibly durable.
- Roller Truck: This is the one that Reuben always points out on the job site!
- Fork Lift and Flat Bed Truck: Lifting and loading are probably Reuben’s favorite words in the english language right now. So this is clearly a winning combo.
Construction Book Gift Ideas!
Easy to shop list here!
- Mighty Mighty Construction Site
- Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site
- The Little Excavator
- At the Construction Site
- Cars and Trucks and Things that Go
- The Ultimate Construction Site Book
- Dinotrux Dig the Beach
- With Any Luck I’ll Drive a Truck
- Construction (Construction Crew)
- Demolition (Construction Crew)
- Roadwork (Construction Crew)
DIY Excavator Scoop for Construction Birthday Party
The excavator scoop was fun and pretty simple to put together. Since I have toddlers, I have an overwhelming amount of diaper and wipe boxes, not to mention the random sized Amazon boxes!
Materials and tools:
- 4 medium diaper sized boxes
- 1 large box
- Yellow duct tape
- Yellow paint
- Cheap medium sized paint brush
- Command hooks, or nails, or tacks
- Strings for balloons
Steps:
- Take three or four diaper boxes and paint any side that your guests will be able to see bright yellow. It will dry fast inside and you can easily finish the painting in an evening.
- Take a bigger box, open the flaps and tap the edges together to make the box longer. Then use an X-acto knife or scissors to cut the bucket teeth out. Next, paint that box black or gray.
- Using yellow duct tape you can bind the smaller boxes . Be sure to use enough for good support! The best way I found to hang the boom and bucket was over a high shelf, a ladder would work too. I weighted the end boxes with a 10lb jar of coins. To hang it above the party table I taped the backs to the wall and stuck tacks through the tape. This wasn’t the best approach as the bucket actually did fall at one point!! I just didn’t want to put nail holes into the wall. You could attempt to use command hooks and cut holes into the back of the boxes to hook them into.
DIY Construction Birthday Cake
I always like to put a disclaimer that I’m no real baker. I just follow recipes and, when it comes to cakes, I usually mess it up in some way! HENCE the Oreo dusting saver technique! I did it with Reuben’s first birthday cake here. And I did it again in this party!
I made a double layer chocolate cake with a box mix. Covered it in chocolate frosting. Crushed some CHOCOLATE Oreos and dumped them from the top down one side and covered the bottom of the plate with them too! Next I stuck the trucks inside and put them to work! To keep the Oreos inside of the trucks, spread some frosting inside the beds and buckets and stick the crumbs inside!
CAKE TIPS from a non pro:
- Use a Cake Box Hack to make your cakes taste store bought!
- Zap up your can of frosting for thirty seconds and pour it over your cake to easily frost.
- Coat in cookie crumbs to cover up any cake fails (#mylife)
Game Ideas for Construction Birthday Party
I considered having games at our winter party, but the space was just a bit too cramped for anything so we just sent all the kids out to go sledding and play in the snow!
- Bean Bag toss home depot buckets
- Parent assisted building “contest” (everyone’s a winner). Get some wood piece odds and ends, some hammers and nails!
- Construction Piñata
- Race: Blow a ping pong ball <<(this link will make you crack up) out to or around a construction cone!
Such a fun and easy birthday party to throw! Reuben was ecstatic about every moment. He kept asking all day if I would “give him his party yet?” Sooo he might not quite understand what a birthday party is yet, but he would definitely have another one if I gave it to him! Guess he’ll just have to wait for his sister’s second birthday! I’m thinking rainbows and a pool??!
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