Rowan's Construction Birthday Party

Yesterday was the big birthday celebration for little Ro. After deciding he didn't actually like choo choo's, which had been his go to birthday request all year, we landed on all things construction. As is the tradition at our house lots of the decorations for the party go up at the beginning of birthday month, making it a month long celebration instead of just one day. So around the first of February our house became quite the construction zone, with "CAUTION BIRTHDAY ZONE" tape everywhere and lots of construction equipment hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. When I got home from vaca I added blow up road signs, balloons, construction cones, and a few more banners to really push things over the top.

 Here is the big three year old himself, ready for the party to get started.

 All the kids got construction hats to decorate with constructions stickers. The birthday boy got a head start on his decorating before the party began.

This year Rowan's party was bigger than ever thanks to all his Grandparents being in attendance and my sisters two best friends from childhood making a surprises visit, which I loved! The more the merrier! Uncle Able and Aunt Kari were back from vacation as well so we were ready to party. This year's menu was of course also construction themed. Turns out you can turn lots of foods into  construction things so I had a difficult time keeping the menu from getting out of control. We had nails (cheesy poofs), tires (chocolate donuts), traffic cones (buffles), a dump truck dumping out chips, and everyone got to construct their own hamburgers and salads. I took the liberty of constructing a fruit salad and a construction sight cake prior to the party. The cake was my absolute favorite of all time and was beyond adorable if I do say so myself. 

 Orange cups and white duct tape made perfect traffic cone cups. When I bought the orange cups Rowan informed me they weren't traffic cones because the didn't have white lines on them. Luckily duct tape comes in all colors now so it was an easy fix.

 All the CAT machines we already had minus dirty (the one on top of the counter above) who he got for his birthday. We actually had one more that I guess I must of given away because after searching for it all month I still can't find it. But don't worry we have worlds of trucks. My house has never been more of a boy house and I love it!

 Zach's addition to the party were the MSDS signs on the drink containers, material safety data sheets, used to designate what is in containers, from what I hear. He found it very entertaining.

 Rowan was a fan of the tires!

The little dump truck was dumping out chocolate rocks and there were toffee chocolate balls serving as boulders around the bottom. Both thanks to 42nd Street Candy on Western, right down the street from the spice shop. The Road was made from crushed up Oreos and melted butter and the sand was crushed up gram crackers. I got the construction cone candles on Amazon and have lots left over since they accidently sent me two packages of six instead of one. If anyone needs some let me know. Of course Stinky (the trash truck) was in charge of the construction site.

I put the cake together during Rowan's nap. His reaction to the cake was priceless!!! He loved it and just sat and stared at it for a long time. I could hardly bare to cut into it, but it was delicious.

 Singing happy birthday at a Blakley celebration is never boring!

 It took quite a bit of effort, but Rowan got the traffic cones blown out by himself.

 Bonus of a construction cake is that you get to eat the cake with CAT machines when you are done!!

The afternoon and evening was full of family fun, eating, and celebrating our big three year old. Rowan requested present time be first, which I'm fine with because it means the kids have new fun things to play with all evening. Rowan loved all his presents which included: Harry Potter outfit complete with glasses and cape, Ty Trux the dinotruck (from the Netflix serious Dinotrux that we watch), puppets, and a puppet theater that can be set up in a doorway (very cool stuff), and stack-able robots when Uncle Able and Aunt Kari arrived a little later. He has thoroughly enjoyed all of them and has been playing with them non stop since last night.

Here is little Rowan patiently waiting for everyone at the party to come watch him open his gifts. He did a great job thanking everyone and giving hugs when he was done as well. Such a big boy.

 Yes, his shirt says "I'm digging being three!"

After presents it was time for the pinata. Rowan asked for "the thing you hit and candy falls out of" early in the week and he picked out the one that looked like a present over the dump truck one at the store. This particular pinata game was made much more entertaining thanks to the Harry Potter robes. Of course Grandma had brought Zane a robe and pair of glasses of her own because she loves me, well and Zane too, but mainly so I don't have to referee arguments over Harry Potter glasses.

 HP, with a swing and a miss!

 The birthday boy tried jumping on it, but sadly doesn't weigh anything so it didn't do much good. All the kids got multiple turns hitting it before it finally broke.

Rowan opened lots of suckers, leaving a trail of wrappers, but I don not think he actually ate any of them. The picture above could be my favorite from the entire party.

The cousins all played well together. The little boys built things and worked on cars, while the older kids were deep into Harry Potter for most of the evening. They all joined forces at the end of the evening for a puppet show.

When I went outside to check on the big kids during dinner they were deep in discussion about how there could possibly be eight movies but only seven books of Harry Potter. These are the questions that plague men's souls.

 You might not notice but Zach has on a waste management shirt (for stinky) and I have on Caterpillar's 90th Anniversary shirt which of course had CAT machines on the back.

 Uncle Able made the construction hats look good.

 Me and the birthday boy!

It was a great party and I am quite sure the birthday boy had a wonderful time. It was the first year that he really could understand that all the celebrations and fun were all for him. We ended the evening going through my cedar chest, looking for Zane's tooth fairy pillow, and ran onto the famous finger print overalls, that are just the right size the birthday boy. So glad Grammie was there to see Rowan in his Daddy's overalls. 

Many thanks to everyone who came out and showered my little peanut with love. He adores you all and was so excited to have all his favorite people in one place, and so was I. Love you all!!

Rowan's 3rd Birthday Week: These are a Few of Your Favorite Things

1.Verny: This needs no explanation. Verny is Rowan's favorite thing, his little baby, who he adores. He dresses him, cuddles him, sings to him, and has taken him everywhere for the past few months.

 

2. Snoopy: Ever since Rowan got his Snoopy costume in November he now loves all things Snoopy. He has snoopy slippers, shoes, shirt, books, stuffed Snoopy, and now a dancing Snoopy all of which he loves and which make him beyond happy.

 

3. Construction Equipment: All diggers, CAT machines, cement mixers, semi-trucks, dump trucks, you name it, he loves it. All this love was brought about by a simple eleven minute cartoon on streaming Amazon. I thought Stinky and Dirty was a feature length film for a couple weeks, because Rowan was always watching it. Nope, eleven minutes of a backhoe and a trash truck. Now our house is currently decorated like a construction site for Rowan's birthday.

4. Working: This includes all types of tools, hammers, wrenches, screw drivers, drills, chain saw, weed eaters, lawn mowers, tool belts, and all that goes into being a "berry worker." This always includes deep sighs, "I'm off to work mamma." "I have to fix my fire truck, again... sigh." "Let me fix your bicycle Bobo, it's broken.... again." Everything is broken, all the time around here. Lots of fun!

5. Playdough: Rowan has a long attention span and will sit and cut up playdough for long periods of time. A little bit each day, for the past few months.

6. Writing: Rowan doesn't know how to write any real letters, but loves to draw and act like he knows how to spell, "What your name?" Then he pretends to write you a letter. So far he knows one letter, A, sometimes. But he does enjoy drawing, coloring, and stamping. He also has some pretty good cutting skills. He made me a valentine on Valentine's day, which melted my heart!

I might have taken it to the beach with me:)

7. His tall thing: This is a step ladder and until Monday this was only at Grandma Blakley's house. But on Monday Grandma B brought him his very own tall thing, which he has carried around for days, fixing things. And yes he did fall off and bump his head/belly, but that's the chance you take when you love climbing on tall things, right? But he still loves it. See number four with his love of working. The tall thing is used to fix various things around the house.

8. Foot Fart: As previous described on the blog Rowan loves jumping around, kicking, dancing, and having a blast, all while in his undies. He plays this daily and he has started inventing new games such as 'leg up' and 'jump on mamma.' He would prefer to jump on the couch or on people if at all possible. Of course he also invented the Rowan dance, which he does daily and thoroughly enjoys. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Rowan dance in person, you should definitely ask him to show you sometime.

9. Being a puppy: At any point in the day Rowan can be found crawling around, with his tongue sticking out, being a puppy. "I a puppy mamma. I not your baby." Zane plays along with this well, petting him, teaching him tricks, building him dog houses, playing catch. It's adorable and might have something to do with his love of Snoopy.

10. Tractor, bicycle, scooter, all outdoor fun: Last but not least Rowan loves playing in the front yard these days. This involves his tiny tricycle, scooter, and our new addition of the ride on tractor. He usually takes a turn on each one, every time we go outside. Turning the wheel on the tractor is usually "too hard" but other than that he loves driving around everywhere.