I think just about all little boys love construction, 'big diggers,' and all the things that go along with it... I know my son does. What little boy wouldn't love a construction party theme for his birthday?

When my son turned three, I gave him a construction birthday party (It was actually construction and Bob the Builder mixed together). These are some of the ideas we used...

Setting The Stage

A few orange construction cones leading up to the front door of the party, along with caution tape will let everyone know that they are entering a construction zone.

Start you inside decorating by clearing out the furniture and roping off your construction site with caution tape. You'll also want to make sure that you place plenty of construction signs. (I got both of these items at Birthday Express.)

If you want to add more festive party decorations, combine the caution tape and construction signs with yellow, black, and orange streamers as well as yellow, black and orange balloons. In addition, add a little curling ribbon to the balloown. Another nice touch for decorating is to gather up all your child's toy cars, trucks, construction equipment, etc. and place them is areas that need a little sprucing up.

I also found these great giant tools Shindigz that help set the stage for the construction party theme. You can tape these up on a wall, let the kids play with them, or even set them up to use as picture props. If you feel like your decorations still lack some pizzaz, try a couple of traffic lights to get everyone excited!

As far as decorating your food table goes, that's a breeze with a construction party theme. Simply cover your table with an orange or yellow table cover, add a few streamers and caution tape, and put a couple of toy 'big diggers' on the table to fill in the gaps. What could be easier?

Having an outside construction theme party?

If you plan to have your party outside, place orange cones around the perimeter of your construction site, and rope off all the areas that might be hazardous with Construction Party Zone Streamers. Run the streamers between trees, around porches, and anywhere else that unauthorized personnel should avoid!

For a construction party theme, the decorations for an outside party are pretty much the same as an inside party -- even the food table.

A Special Memory Making Opportunity

If you decide to splurge a little on your party, this has got to be it...

This 'big digger' really does triple duty... It serves as a great party decoration to really capture the construction party theme, it will be the hub of all the activity at the party, and it's also an outstanding place to take pictures of all the kids at the party.

You can have each child pose for a picture on the bulldozer. Then when you send out your thank you cards, you can send the picture to the parents. The other parents will love that you were able to capture such a precious memory for them.

If you have a digital camera, you can instantly print out the pictures and send them home with the kids in an inexpensive frame as a party favor that they will treasure. There are more memory making ideas here.

Construction Party Activities

Having a construction party theme for your child is really your chance to let your creativity shine!

Rather than having traditional party games for your party (something smaller children aren't always so good at anyway), why not let them actually do a little construction?

Before the guests arrive, set the stage for a construction project that all the kids can be involved in as a team. Kids love to move dirt -- something not possible inside, but you can make a mock construction site indoors with paper, foam, etc. Cut off large sections of gray paper, and crumple them up to make boulders of varying sizes. Place the boulders all around your construction site. Cut out pieces of brown craft foam to look like sticks. Use your imagination and whatever you may have around the house to create a construction scene.

As the children arrive, give each child a construction hard hat and vest and tell them that they have a very important construction project to do today. (You can have them blow bubbles until all the guests arrive.)

Once everyone has arrived, have the little builders clear the construction site of all the boulders, sticks, trees, etc. Provide dump trucks, wheelbarrows, and other play construction equipment to help them get the job done.

Once they are done, you can give them large strips of paper to create the roads. They can use markers to make the lines on the roads. Once they have 'paved' the roads, you can add a cardboard house for them to work on. The house can be a pre-purchased house make for kids to decorate, or you can create one yourself out of cardboard.

Have the children use marker, crayons, etc. to work together to decorate the house. Once they are done with their construction project, they'll be ready for refreshments.

NOTE: You may want to have some other games ready for them to play just in case they finish their construction project ahead of schedule. A bulldozer piñata would be a fun activity to plan after they have all worked so well together.

What To Serve

You can have a lot of fun with the construction party theme when it comes to preparing food for your guests. Don't go overboard making complicated dishes for your party. Keep things simple and creative.

When you set up your serving table, you'll want to think of it like kind of a buffet. Cover your table, and then set out your food, plates, napkins, plastic ware, etc. I usually put drinks at one end with cups, finger foods at the opposite end, and 'real' food in the middle. After I get all the food placed, then I put some little decorations out to dress up the table. Remember, the food is part of your overall presentation.

I usually make a big deal out of bringing the cake into the party. If it's a birthday party, I'll light the candles first, then bring the cake into the room and sing happy birthday. The lights dimmed, the candles lit, and the singing, all help to make the birthday child feel special.

Dinomite Punch - Create any kind of punch you want. After you have placed a filled glass in front of each guest, add some dynamite dust (a few Pop Rocks^TM candies) to each one. Since this candy is processed with carbon dioxide, it will crackle, pop, and spit when it comes into contact with a liquid. The kids will love it!

Construction Shaped Sandwiches - make tuna or chicken salad sandwiches. Use a car or truck shaped cookie cutter to cut out construction shapes. You can pack them inside a paper bag with a bag of chips to give each child a 'construction lunch'.

Other Snacks

You'll want to add some other muchies to the party table to make sure that everyone has something to eat. Chips, popcorn, pretzels, trail mix, m & m's, rice krispie treats, etc. all work well. In addition, you'll want to provide other drinks besides the punch... especially water, but you may also want to include soda or drink boxes. You can turn over a construction hard hat and put the munchies inside to make a neat way to present them at the party.

The Cake

The most creative thing I can suggest for a construction party is a 'big digger' cake. You can see pictures of the one I made for my son's three year old birthday to the right and below.

It was a double decker chocolate sheet cake that I frosted with white icing. I turned the entire cake into a construction scene with miniature signs, construction cones, and construction equipment. I even went so far as to put holes in different spots on the cake and make it look like the 'big diggers' were digging up the cake and doing work.

It sounds like a lot of work, and the pictures don't do it justice, but it was really pretty quick and easy.

What really made it worth the effort was seeing my son's eyes light up when he saw it. Not only that, but he still talks about his 'big digger' cake and wants me to make him another one.

Don't Let Them Leave Empty Handed

Party favors and prizes are sometimes the most difficult things to come up with. With a construction theme party, if you decide to do the construction project above, there really won't be any prizes you need to come up with. That means that you can concentrate on simple party favors instead!

On our last construction themed party, we saved ourselves a lot of trouble by just purchasing pre-made favor packs like this one from Birthday express.

Another way to get double duty out of your decorations is to give them away as party favors or prizes -- that is if you can get your child to part with any of them.You could save yourself a lot of time and money on your favors by buying a Construction party pack like the one to the right..

When you purchase party favors and prizes, Oriental Trading Company can be a life saver.

Do you have a great idea for a construction party? Share it!