Aiden: Under Construction

So it's just over a week past, but it was party time yet again at the Filter's house!  I asked Aiden what kind of party he wanted for his 5th birthday.  After several back and forths between bugs or dinosaurs or fire trucks or worms or motorcycles or race cars, he FINALLY decided on 'a Worker Party'.  ...Come again?  Like a construction worker?  Really?  I had kind of gotten my heart set on the motorcycles or even the worms.  I didn't see this one coming, but that's what he wanted.  Even after a week he still hadn't changed his mind.  So here's Aiden's 'Under Construction' party.    

Side note: I might have over compensated with the video and pictures to make up for the lack thereof from Ella's party.  But bear with me.  I'm like an addict trying to detox.  I can only let go a little bit at a time.  I have to be able to hold out 6 more months for Maddex's birthday before I can host an event again...    

If you'd rather skip all the pictures and avoid having to muddle through my play by play, here's Aiden doing a little run through of his party stuff before the boys got there.

  

And here's what little bit I did get of the kids playing.

CLICK HERE (not letting me post it directly because the internet has a personal vendetta against me)

This is why I mentally plan their parties months in advance.  Because I stumble across funky things like those 2 huge styrofoam pieces I found on the curb of a wine shop.  The only thing I can come up with was that a chair was shipped in them?  I had originally stopped because of the boxes I needed for Ella's tiki hut only to discover these rare gems along side them.  Had I not known I was doing 'a worker party', that foam would not have screamed at me, "Make me into a tractor!"  This whole set up is practically left overs.  The only thing new was the caution tape, black spray paint and the 'oops' paint in the clearance section (and what a perfect yellow it was too!).

The front loader is made from the 2 pieces of styrofoam with a box across the front.  The "grill" is the rubbery liner you put in your cabinets (I had this because I used it under the rug instead of an actual rug pad-it's cheaper and does the same thing!) spray painted black.  The shovel is a gardening box attatched with those plastic candy canes people put in their yards at Christmas time (courtesy of the Goodwill).  I stuck the hook part of the candy cane through a pool noodle to keep it nice and snug inside.  I needed something so it wouldn't pull through so I swiped the handles off of one of the kids old bikes.  The tires were from Aiden's Monster Truck Party which were pretty much pulverized considering the amount of slip n sliding they went through last summer.  So I stuffed them.

Brian gets credit for the shredded cardboard to be used as dirt.  That was actually a genius idea considering everything I was coming up with would have knocked kids out.

Wrecking ball look familiar?  One of Ella's beach balls from the luau.  I have been saving the kids' Yoplait yogurt containers for months!  Poor design when it comes to eating out of it (why the top is small and gets bigger at the bottom is beyond me-for little spoons only!) but great for stacking.  When I started saving them I knew I could use them for something and once I got wrecking ball in my mind, well, it was just meant to be.

Next stations...

Time cards, hats and free aprons from home depot!  Measure and sand the wood pieces.  All very lame compared to the beans I mean rubble.

I wasn't sure which would be the bigger hit.  The beans or the demolition area.  But I think it was a fair toss up!  They spent more time filling their hats and dumping them on their heads than anything else:)

Here's one of those 'well it sounded good in theory' type things.  Hammering nails (golf tees) into styrofoam.  Won't make that mistake again. End of story.  Blueprints for the blocks.  On the off chance that 5 little boys will want to sit and do a calm activity.  In case you were wondering, crazy is waaaaaaaay more fun than calm.

I found these finger mustaches at the dollar store a while back.  I couldn't resist!  How can you work in construction without having a mustache?

Aiden wanted cupcakes, not cake.  So I took him to the store and he picked out lemon cake and lemon frosting.  If I were solely in charge, the cupcakes would have ended up being chocolate (dirt...since that's a totally creative idea, right?).  But I let the kids be in charge of their cake/non-cakes and I have to say, I like where he went with this!  I would have never picked that out and they were so good!  I kind of wish I had one right now.  He had no requests, just frosting.  Simple is good.  I like this guy!

 Another simple move I made was ditching the finger foods and just sending the kids out on the porch with sack lunches (so cunningly appropriate).  Apparently Maddex's jar of baby food just wasn't cutting it:)

 I punched the kids' cards for a full days work and sent them home with some hard earned cash...and trail mix.  Why trail mix?  I have no idea.  It's what Aiden picked out.  Again, if it were up to me, it would have been chocolate coins to go along with the bills.  I guess I'm just partial to chocolate?

 The aftermath.  Crushed hats and a deflated wrecking ball.  If only I had thought to snag a picture of what used to be the hammering station.  I'm sure you can imagine though.  Think bean bag pinata.  And broken golf tees.    

Happy Birthday, Aiden!  You're my main man!