15670

Bob the Builder Party -3yr- Tool Box Favors

April 2007

Susan in Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Special Mention

For my son's third birthday he wanted a Bob the Builder party. So the first thing I did was check this site :)I got some great ideas, and with some of my own, everyone had a ball. This is how it all went. 

I got the invitation wording from this site, and sent it in an email to my family members with lots of Bob pictures. Second year of demolition is complete. Time to rebuild! We will be breaking ground on April 21st at the Bannockburn Surname Construction site. Your shift begins at 11:00am. Company paid lunch break provided. Crew boss will provide hard hats but wear work clothes and please bring your own protective painting gear. Please Contact the shift Foreman if you are unable to make your shift at phone number"  

I had a table set up with prizes on display and another one for the presents. As each guest arrived I gave them a hard hat and my son opened his present and put it on the table so people could see what he got but didn't feel left out with not having presents to open themselves. Two of his cousins got little reflective vests as well (the 4yo and his 2 1/2yo brother) just like the one I had my son wearing which I picked up for $1 each at Dimmeys (not sure what the American equivalent is probably a dollar store or cheap department store) 

Once everyone had arrived we went outside to a large outdoor table setting which I had covered with a tarp. I had cheap poster paints set out on ice cream container lids and everyone had a plastic toolbox from Bunnings (like Home Depot I think) which only cost me $1 each. I also had some small wooden letters to spell out their names which I got off eBay for 20c a letter. These were a huge hit and everyone from my 18 month old daughter to my son's 17yo cousin loved doing this.  Then it was back inside for lunch. I had a new paint tray with veggie sticks and hummus "paint" meat croquette "logs" (croquettes are a dutch recipe of meat mornay rolled in egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried we have them at every family function) and mini quiches in the trailer of one of my son's trucks.

After everyone had nibbled a bit at them I brought around party pies and homemade sausage rolls in brown paper bags and told them that I as foreman had gone down to the corner shop to get them lunch. They thought that was great as after they had finished eating I went around the table again telling them I'd picked them up a scratchie each from the shop while I was there. I got these off eBay as well they had my son's name and birthday on them and said Thanks for coming to my party find Bob to win. These were proper scratchies that needed a coin to remove the silver and four of the 9 children (ok one was a 6 month old baby so she didn't care either way) were winners. They got to pick which ever prize they wanted off the table. 

Straight after that we played pass the parcel so the other children didn't have to wait too long for their prize. I had wrapped one prize in birthday paper and then put layers of newspaper over it but every second or third layer was plain colored wrapping paper. Anyone who got to take the wrapping paper off the parcel got to pick a prize. That way I knew which round was a winning round and could stop the music on the children who didn't have a prize yet. 

We were going to have rides on the trailer of my Dad's ride on mower but it was rainy and cold all day so the kids just played for the rest of the party time. All my nieces and nephews love playing at their grandparents house anyway (we live too far away and in a small house so my folks host our parties) and so mostly our family don't bother much with games and things.  The plan was to hot glue the letters onto the toolboxes sometime after lunch but since the day was so cold the paint never dried so everyone had to take their toolboxes home to glue the letters on. Luckily this wasn't a problem as everyone seems to have a hot glue gun in our family but this should be kept in mind if you have a winter party. 

The birthday cake was brownies served in the back of my son's dump truck and everyone said it looked great how I'd used the toys to serve and add to the theme. (I didn't tell them I got the idea off this site - that can be our little secret lol) 

Since the toolboxes didn't dry in time for me to put their goody bag items inside I just used some of the extra brown paper bags to hand out glowsticks the scratchies which I'd picked up again from the table and "dynamite" sticks which I'd made from red construction paper and party poppers. I'd wanted to make them with bonbon snaps as suggested on this site but I couldn't find them anywhere this being April and had to make do. The party poppers made it easier to get a nice round shape though and the strings hanging out of the tops looked like real fuses. They were a huge hit and promised some fun at home as everyone knew party poppers were an outdoor thing. Of course I warned the parents that there was lollies hiding on top of the poppers so no one threw them out by accident! 

This was a great party and all the adults told me what great ideas I'd had for it. The toolboxes really were the hit of the party and everyone was entertained. There were 9 children at this party a 17yo girl a 14yo boy a 11yo girl a 9yo girl a 4yo boy my 3yo son a 2 1/2yo boy my 18 month old daughter and a 6 month old baby girl. All had funand left with a prize and a hand painted toolbox. Not bad for such a mix of ages and genders for a Bob the Builder party I'd say!"

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