Hunter's Third Birthday!

Hunter's Third Birthday was a success! We started off the morning right - with a big bowl of Fruit Loops laced with M&M's....the breakfast of champions!

Then, we headed to Opa and Oma's house, where we set up for the party while watching the Broncos lose to the Raven's, 30-7...that part of the day was sad.

The party got kicked off at 3:30. We had 31 people partying like 3 year olds at the bash. It's always lots of fun to get our families together. It also involves way too many presents for Hunter...but, oh well! The kid is spoiled.

This year, we went for a construction theme. I had SO much fun with this theme, and it was more inexpensive than you would imagine.

I loved my Caution wrapping job. I was so proud of myself after I wrapped Hunter's presents, I immediately ran upstairs, drug Chase down two flights of stairs and anxiously awaited his response. He said "wow, we got him too many presents."

We went with a yellow and black color scheme since wasting money on Construction themed plates seemed a bit ridiculous to me. Hunter was VERY excited about the "big truck" which we purchased as an accessory to his cake. For the tablecloths, I put my creativity to the max by purchasing plain black plastic tablecloths and then using white duct tape to make them into roads. Very exciting! Chase will remind me in 10 years that I was desperate to find the white duct tape...I wouldn't rest until we had some!

Yay for dump truck cakes! This cake was SO easy and so much fun! I lined two dump trucks with Glade Stick And Seal paper (much easier than foil, saran wrap, or wax paper). Then, I baked several normal chocolate cakes, and one Gluten free cake. After the cakes were cooled, I tore them into pieces, and lines the trucks with them. I topped each layer with a good helper of Chocolate pudding before adding the next layer of cake. For the regular cake, I topped everything with Oreo cookie crumbles. I added gummy worms to both cakes. They wouldn't have been complete without the Construction cone candles I ordered online. Not only were these cakes a huge hit, but, they were delicious without being overly sweet, and cleanup was a breeze. Hunter might get dump truck cakes for the rest of his life! :)

I also handmade 4 or 5 construction themed signs using yellow construction paper. I printed shadowed graphics I found on the internet and used Word to create text documents, and then it was as simple as cut and paste. This is the only one we got a picture of, but we also had a front loader, Work Zone, Party Zone, and Hard Hat Area. Another picture-less detail was the construction cones I borrowed from Sloan and Rafe which lined the walkway to the party. I went a little overboard with a roll of Caution tape from Home Depot as well. I also purchased 12 plastic hard hats from the internet. Some went to party guests, and a few others were used as chip bowls. Again, easy, and no bowls to wash afterwards!

Finally, the kind ladies at the Chambers and Parker Rd. Home Depot Customer Service were nice enough to give me 11 Home Depot kid aprons. I bought a pack of fabric paints and the kiddies had fun decorating their own aprons! Easy, and best of all, free! And no candy because I figured they got enough of that the night before...

I hope all my birthday boy's wishes came true that day...and with the loot he got, I believe he didn't even HAVE that many wishes! Happy Third Birthday Hunter! I love you!