Bob the builder birthday party for a 3 year old Invitations: I printed the invitations on bright orange paper (Staples) and cut them out in the shape of a traffic cone.
They read Can we party? Forman: Birthdy Boy's name, Shift Starts 12 noon, Quitting Time 2 pm, Job site : Our address Call \*\*\*\* to say Yes I can. A few parents even RSVPes yes their child can. Upon arriving at the party each guest received a plastic tool box (purchased at AC Moore) and a plastic construction hat (Oriental Trading). I put the kids names on these to avoid fights/ confusion later in the party. The tool boxes said _________'s Tools. Inside were items needed for the party, a set of plastic tools (party city) 4 oz of bubbles, a pack of 4 crayons and a coloring book that I made. I downloaded coloring pages from www.bobthebuilder.com. To these pages I copy/pasted the character descriptions to the pictures so that those guest who are not as familiar with Bob as my son is could learn about him and the team. I further expanded these descriptions to include what each character's job was for the day. These "jobs" were the various activities that the kids could do during the party. Bob was first and his page said "Please have your mom or dad read through this book so that you can meet the team. Each team member has a job to do. My first job will be decorating my tool box with stickers." I had a table set up with foamy stickers in a paint tray for the kids to peel and place on there tool boxes, some even decorated their hats as well. Next was Wendy, her job was to paint the deck. I placed water and paint brushes in a paint tray on the deck. The paint tray was great that it was flat and shallow so spills were minimal. The next page was Travis, whose job was to mow the lawn. I put out both of my son's plastic lawn mowers and some rakes. Lofty's job was to build a block tower. We purchased 100 cardboard blocks on E-Bay for about $50. You can also use shoe boxes, but this was easier for me. Next came Pilchard who loves Bob so much that he wanted everyone to make a Bob mask. I cut out a large Bob Face, cut holes for eyes and punched holes at the ears and fastened a large fuzzy pipecleaner to each to fasten them. Spud wanted everyone to decorate his barn. We had a cardboard playhouse (puchased at Target) for the kids to color and play in. For Scoop we had an obstacle course with a tunnel and some traffic cones. I borrowed the traffic cones for the township. They were super nice and delivered them to us at no charge. Dizzy's job was to pave the driveway, and the kids could color with sidewalk chalk. Muck's job was to "repair" the swingset with the plastic tools. And finally Roley's job was to break the pinata. The loot was collected into the toolboxes. These activities worked well for this age group as each could do what he wanted when he wanted (except for the pinata). For Decorations we used Birthday Zone construstion tape (Birthday Express) and signs made on bright orange paper which designated the location of each activity. I also had a few that said Kids at Play. For food we served Saw cut PB & J, I cut the sandwhiches in a zigzag. For the parents I had two salads, I labled one as Wendy's famous recipe and the other as Mrs. Bently's. For the cake I bought a new /clean dumptruck and made brownies. I stacked the brownies in the truck with gummy worms between to look like dirt. The best benefit to this I realized during the party: it is so easy to serve because it is already cut. We also had fruit salad, grown wherelse but Farmer Pickle's Fields.
