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Friday, June 20, 2014

Michael’s DUMP EVERYTHING 2nd Birthday Party


Michael’s DUMP EVERYTHING 2nd Birthday Party
 
I was originally going to go with a train theme for Michael’s 2nd birthday party.  I had the invites and a bunch of other stuff already picked out, but as it got closer Michael seemed less interested in trains and more into diggers.  So I left it up to him, “Michael, would you like a train birthday party or a digger birthday party?”  His response, “dig-dig birtay pary.”  Michael’s language skills have come a long way in the past few months.  He went from saying only single words to talking in sentences in a matter of a week at about 21 months old.  A month later, his actual speech became a lot clearer.  This language explosion has really had a significant impact on our family life.  Michael is able to be part of our conversations now and eaves dropping on Michael and Anthony’s chats completely melts my heart.  Michael is happier because he’s less frustrated in getting his point across.  Some of the things he says now assures me that he has been listening for a long, long time before he could let us know himself.  But back to the party…
Pinterest and Etsy were my main resources for ideas and I searched “construction party” on Oriental Trading, Shindigz, Birthday Express and Amazon to find some products that would go with the theme. 
I purchased a digital file invitation on Etsy from Mason’sMommy Designs.  If you’ve never done invitations this way before, I really recommend looking into it.  Rather than searching countless invitation websites for the perfect invite, just do a search on Etsy – I searched “construction party invitation.”  Mostly digital file invites will come up but there are also printed invitations for sale, but those tend to be costly.  Complete your purchase and send the seller your party information and a picture file (if your invitation needs a photo).  The turn around time is usually fairly quick.  This seller got me back my invitation file in less than 24 hours.  Once the seller emails you the invitation, you can upload it to a site that can print it.  I used Mpix.  The cost was about $1/invitation and I received them in a few days.  Invitations… done!
 
Next, I started thinking about the favors.  I’ve mentioned before that I am a big fan of the Dollar Tree and that was where I started my shopping.  Luckily, they carry a variety of individual CAT diggers.  My boys have these and they LOVE playing with them too.  I was able to find the amount that I needed at a local Dollar tree, but you can also make a bulk purchase from them online.  They will even ship it to a store near you for free. 
I envisioned the truck sitting in a bucket on top of a pile of dirt.  I ordered black tin pails from Oriental Trading and filled the bucket with candy instead of dirt.  It didn’t seem complete without some sort of label, so I searched on Etsy once again.  I came across a listing from Popcorn and Pixels that included food tent labels, cupcake toppers, and  thank you tags.  I knew I could find a way to incorporate all of that so I made a purchase.  It was also a digital file, so I received the file from the seller and printed them myself.  I used the cupcake toppers as my favor labels.  I printed them out on full sheet label paper and then used a very large hole puncher to cut them out.  I placed them on the front of the pail, bagged the whole thing in a baggie and tied it up with orange and yellow bows.  I was very pleased with the end result!

 
I printed the food tent labels and used them to label the food I had set out for guests.  It was a morning party so we kept it simple with bagles, muffins, croissants, and yogurts. 
The cupcake topper labels also served another purpose – another little something for our little guests.  Construction hats of course!  I wrote each child’s name on one of the labels and stuck them on construction hats that I purchased on Amazon. 
 
 
 
 
The construction theme made décor fairly simple… black, yellow, and orange tablecloths, paper goods, and balloons.  I purchased CAUTION tape from Amazon and hung it in various places in the yard and used the boys’ diggers as weights for the balloons.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to design and cut a Happy Birthday banner.  Decorations… done!

 
The guest list totaled about 23 children so I planned a few activities to make sure everyone was entertained.  Children do tend to keep themselves busy but I always worry that they’ll get bored.  I purchased a bulldozer piñata through Amazon and a tool picture frame craft from Oriental trading, which both seemed to please the kids!
 
I purchased cones and rings to set up for a ring toss game.  I found a Pinterest the idea of a wrecking ball game – wrap large boxes (diaper boxes worked perfectly and I always have plenty of them), have the kids stack them up and then have a big ball for them to throw and knock them over.  The kids enjoyed setting up the blocks just as much as they enjoyed knocking them down.
 


 
 
Most people have a sandbox in their yard, but my boys love dirt.  My husband built them a dirt box and it is filled with their shovels, pails and of course, diggers.  We had the dirt box ready to go and I think most of the children played in it for a little while.
 
 
Desserts… my personal favorite part of any party.  We had “paint brushes,” which were rectangle rice krispy treats put on a stick and dipped in chocolate and “logs,” which were chocolate dipped pretzels.  I also made chocolate cupcakes, which were coated with chocolate frosting, sprinkled with cookie crumbs and completed with a digger cupcake topper purchased from Amazon.   


 
I saw several versions of the cake I wanted to make on Pinterest, but I feared that although it looked super easy to do that it would be a major Pinterest FAIL.  Luckily, I was totally wrong!  I baked two chocolate round cakes – one 10 inches in diameter and the other 8 inches.  Once they cooled, I sliced off the top of each cake to make a flat surface.  I frosted the larger cake completely and then laid the smaller cake on top pushed to one side.  I frosted the top layer.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a number2 and placed it on the top layer.  I sprinkled cookie crumbs (I used Oreos) over the entire cake and made sure to get around the outline of the number two.  I removed the paper and it worked perfectly to leave a smooth 2 on the cake.  I added some CAT diggers that I used for the favors and spelled out MICHAEL in shapes I cut out on the Silhouette.  I have to admit that I was very proud of how the cake turned out!

 
I bought the birthday boy a dump truck t-shirt from FreshFrog Tees on Etsy and I think he looked super cute in it!  Michael seemed to really enjoy his “dig dig birtay pary” and I had lots of fun planning it as well!  Starting to think about Matthew’s 1st birthday now…

 
 
Love, Language & Diggers,
 
Marisa
 
 

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