Elias' Construction Birthday Party

Elias turned three yesterday!  I'm so not ready for my boys to grow up.  Elias loves all things construction: dump trucks, tools and building so a Construction Party was perfect for him!

My favorite part:  we put this all together for under $25!

Since our house is smaller my main decorating focus is our mantel.  The dump truck Elias received for Christmas, my mom made the topiary for me using "Happy Birthday" construction ribbon and other ribbon I had around the house (I had the dowel rod, brown spray paint and metal pail already), I painted the Dump Truck Plaque and "Happy Birthday" sign (using paint I already had), and I put Elias' invitation in a frame Josh made and I painted for his Dinosaur Party last year using some turquoise paper and photo corners I already had.

Total spent on the mantel was $2.00 ($1.50 for the nerf ball inside the topiary because I decided I wanted one about 10:00 the night before and Dollar General was the only place around us open and $0.50 for the Happy Birthday ribbon on clearance at Target).

My sister designed the invitation for me.  I printed it on white card stock I already had and used envelopes left over from our Christmas cards. :)

I placed yellow, orange and turquoise balloons attached to a traffic cone on the mantel and on the sidewalk leading up to our door.  It was too windy to get a picture of the outside balloons. :)  We purchased the helium tank at Target ($20 and paid for it with a gift card we got from our credit card rewards points) and used it for all three birthday parties (so $7 for this party).

For our activity,we purchased these small hammers from Harbor Freight ($11 total) and each kid put together a small wood construction kit we collected over the past couple years from Lowes and Home Depot.  Each kid also had an apron with their name on it.  I covered a small folding table with a yellow plastic tablecloth I picked up for free at Target using a coupon.

For dessert we had birthday cake, cookie sandwiches, orange jell-o, Reese's Pieces and yellow Kool-Aid.

The backhoe was a present from Elias' Pops for his birthday.  We had the black fondant left over from Jeshua's Superhero Party Cake.  I baked the cake from scratch and my mom decorated it.  We placed it on a blue plate for some extra color.

I had all the items in my pantry already from couponing to make all the food.

We made chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with orange icing in the middle and orange sprinkles.

The cut paper garland behind the table was left over from last year's birthday parties.  Sometimes being a pack rat is a good thing :)

These were supposed to be circle jigglers...oh well. :)

I placed Josh's wrenches and screwdrivers and Elias' toy construction vehicles in my mom's apothecary jars.

These jars are also my mom's and are filled with Reese's Pieces ($4 at Dollar General).

I wrapped some of the Happy Birthday ribbon around the kool-aid and the bottom of the table.

Guests took their project, hammer, apron and a small bag of Reese's Pieces home in a paper bag (picked them up at Earth Fare) tied with orange baker's twine (I already had) and a tag designed by my sister.

Total spent:  $24 for everything!  Since I knew back in the summer what kind of party he wanted I picked up the ribbon and tablecloths on clearance and I used materials I had already or found for free for the rest.  I'm very pleased with how this all came together!

{You can see my Construction Birthday Party Pinterest board here}