Can we survive it? Yes we can! Bob the Builder birthday part prt. 2

I'm two days old from leaving the terrible twos (but don't worry, the terrible threes are the new terrible twos, so if you're still in the twos, don't worry, not much has changed for me either). We had Elio's party today, making use of the weekend for the celebration. And in true Elio form, it was his party and he cried if he wanted to. This is a kid who doesn't love confusion and fuss (although he loves the idea of a birthday party and all that comes with it in theory), so he was a little cantankerous. But nonetheless, I think he had a good time. So it's worth it.

You saw the first instalment of this party earlier. Nothing fancy or elaborate, just some simple toddler crafts and a ribbon pinata. The rest was just playtime. The weather forecast tricked me into believing it would be raining, so I ditched the idea of an outdoor scavenger hunt. Silly me. The sun was shining after all. You can't win for trying.

We started with a simple last minute craft. Literally I put this together last night based on a dump truck card I saw on pinterest. It worked well. We used scrapbooking paper because construction paper is now flimsy and poor quality (what is with that anyways??). I outlined the dump truck with a silver sharpie, and cut the parts out of craft foam. The kids used Elmer's white glue to glue the pieces on to the picture. The load was supposed to be Cheerios. By the time they got to the load, the kids were more or less tired of gluing. Nonetheless, very cute and VERY EASY.

Next up we did a little birdhouse thing. Ethan was planning on making these, but when you see them at the Dollar Store for $2, you have to give your head a shake and question whether or not the DIY is worth it. Bingo daubers are bar none my favourite craft supply for toddlers. They are easy to use and really only require gross motor skills. Even little Heidi, our youngest guest who is 18 months was very easily able to accomplish this on her own. 

The trouble with Bob the Builder is he is a little "5 years ago". We know and love him from hand-me-down DVDs and it isn't on that often anymore. So Bob themed stuff is hard to come by. But with a little help from an overhead projector, it's pretty easy to Bob-ify a generic construction party. Construction themed decor was simple- caution tape and black and yellow balloons and streamers. I got great ideas from my good friend Trisha on decor. Clever girl that she is had a similar party for her son, and came up with the road lines on the table cloth, and serving food in dollar store dump trucks. We were not having dry food (ie. chips and pretzels etc.), but rather crepes with fruit toppings, so I used plastic buckets and shovels for some of them. Cheap, thematic, super cute. I made little place cards for seating out of craft foam, shaped like road signs.  

So I think I'm good for birthday parties until January (sorry Ethan). I'm covered in nutella and bingo daubers, but I'm happy. The excitement is worth the effort for sure. 

Happy trails!