Can We Build It?? Yes We Can!!

Today was Eli's birthday party. This is the first party we have ever had for him, because he has not really been the social type until here lately. At the top of his list of invites was mommy, daddy, Kyndal, Dawson and Brynne. He wanted to invite Hayze and his friends, Logan and Cole, from school. Cole wasn't able to make it. Eli was so excited for his party, because he has had to sit through all of the other kids' parties since school has started. He just kept saying the last couple of days, "Is it my turn now?"

Several months ago I came across the idea for a Construction party. Eli's never really been into construction .. I'm sure he would have rather had Star Wars ... but the ideas were too cute to pass up!



Our local Lowe's has free Build and Grow clinics for children two times a month. Being a thrifty mom, I arranged for us to all meet at Lowe's at 10 a.m. to build gingerbread houses. When you do the clinic you get a free tool apron and goggles ... SCORE!! The kids all really enjoyed it, especially Brynne! I think she may be a construction worker someday, during her breaks from the Hunting Network!



After we built our houses we came back to our house for treats and games. I had the fortune to happen upon construction-themed resin plates and cool see-through glasses at Target several months ago, $1 for two plates and $1 each glass. So I picked them up as extra party favors! We decorated the table with a black table cloth and caution tape. For the centerpiece we put a big, really old, metal Tonka dumptruck in the center of the table and filled it with brownies for dessert. At each place setting was a construction hat. Above the table hung construction signs. After eating brownies and opening gifts, we headed upstairs for the first of two games.

Our first game was a wrecking ball game. We stacked up large cardboard blocks and put three numbers on it. We hung a tennis ball from the ceiling, taped to a string, and the kids pretended to "wreck" the building, trying to hit the number Dawson called out. Then we headed to the garage. In the garage was a blow-up pool filled with dirt. In the dirt, plastic tools were buried. Each of the kids' parents were given a sheet that had certain tools photocopied on it. The kids then had to dig in the dirt and find the tools on their sheet. They got to keep the tools in their tool apron to take home.

Before coming back inside we did the caution cone pinata. I made an orange cone pinata and attached caution tape strips to the bottom. One of the strips pulled a trap door that released the candy. It worked out that Eli pulled the last strip that was the right one. Rick shook out the candy and the frenzy began!

To end the party, we had purchased a stand-up photo cutout from BuyCostumes.com I took pictures of each of the kids, and we're going to use them as our Thank You notes. It was cute!

All-in-all it was a really fun, and calm, party! Eli said his favorite part was building the gingerbread house. We plan to do more of those clinics. It was really fun!!