Construction-themed birthday party!

Today I am featuring a guest post from my real life friend and college roommate Jodi.

Jodi always jokes about how the second-born child gets the short end of the stick, but I don't think she's giving herself enough credit. She put together this fantastic construction-themed party for her son's second birthday with loads of creative handmade details. Everything was so cute I asked if I could share it with you.

Jodi doesn't have a public blog, so please leave your love or questions in the comments below!

Without further ado, let's get to the photos! I'll let Jodi do the talking from here.

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Thanks Erin! Being the second-born and having an early January birthday myself, I know how much it stinks to have your birthday and Christmas so close together. That is why I felt terrible when my own second-born child’s birthday ended up falling just five days after Christmas. My goal was to throw him a great party without a single Christmas decoration in sight!

Like most 2 year old boys, my son, Henry, loves anything with wheels, but he has a particular fondness of construction vehicles. So, that seemed like a logical party theme. I printed up the invites on white cardstock and them mounted on a heavier brown piece using some cute construction vehicle clip art I found online.

Unlike my daughter who has a summer birthday, we don’t typically spend much time outside during my son’s winter parties. Therefore, I like the idea of setting the theme at the front door using a few outside decorations.

I borrowed the large Tonka truck and the cones from a friend.

I came across this idea for the wreath, but wrapping the extension cord was a little trickier and more time consuming than I thought it would be. So, I only used one cord and let some of the straw wreath ($4 at Hobby Lobby) show through. I cut the number 2 from foam core board and then used Mod Podge to adhere scrapbooking paper to it. The painted dump truck came from Jo-Ann Fabrics and is hot glued onto the 2.

The decorations inside were much more fun! I followed Erin’s directions to make the streamers to hang above the table.

I really wanted to stick with the brown, yellow, orange and black colors as much as possible to tie the party together, and this made a big impact! I got a huge roll of caution tape from Home Depot for about $7 to use as the base streamer.

The birthday boy’s attire consisted of this appliquéd dump truck t-shirt found on Etsy ($13.50), a construction worker vest (Oriental Trading, $4), and borrowed safety goggles.

A few of the guests even came in construction attire as well!

I’m a sucker for Oreo Balls and thought they would look cute in one of my son’s dump trucks loaded in the back like rocks. I talked my husband into making some for the party, and they were gone in a flash.

The cake was made by my husband’s aunt and it turned out great! She was the one who originally shared this cake with me, and I knew I wanted to have something similar for Henry’s party.

She graciously offered to make it, and I was thrilled to pass on the task to her. She even created the black and yellow slanted striped inside!

I think this name banner may have been my favorite part of the party, although it got a little lost in the mix given its somewhat more muted colors. I used scrapbooking paper in the yellow, orange, brown, and black hues to cut out the triangles for the banner. The letters in his name were cut from white cardstock.

Then, I raided my dad’s stash of odds and ends and glued a variety of nuts, bolts, screws, washers and the like to the banner. The triangles are attached with washers and twine.

I was able to get some copies of old plans from a commercial real estate agent for free to use on some of the surfaces where I set out the food and where the guests ate. It was a great addition for no cost at all!

I was able to find little sticker sheets and construction scenes (Oriental Trading $10 per dozen) to use as favors and decided they would look great rolled up with the leftover plans and tied with raffia.