COVID birthdays are kind of non eventful, but we wanted to do something at home for Luca to celebrate him turning three! I cannot believe he’s three years old (all parents say this, but it’s true – you cannot believe where the time went!) Luca loves cars more than anything. He sleeps with about 30 in his crib (yes, he’s still in a crib – milking that for as long as he’ll stay in there!) and over the past year, he has really come to love construction vehicles – excavators, dump trucks, etc. He is obsessed with Blippi on YouTube (particularly his video on diggers!) and thus, I thought it would be perfect to give him a construction vehicle themed party.
Since it’s COVID and we don’t want anyone but our family in our home for safety reasons, we had my family (my parents, my sister, her husband, and my grandmother) over our apartment. The party planner in me wanted to go all out and bring a sandbox into our backyard for him to dig sand and all these other extravagant ideas, but my husband talked me off that and made the poignant point that it’s COVID and it’s okay to not throw a big shebang and that all Luca cares about is us being with him on his birthday and being surrounded by his family (especially my parents, he’s really in love with them!)
Instead of coming up with activities and games and sandboxes, I just focused on some festive decor that he would recognize like dump truck balloons, parking cones, and of course, a birthday cake with construction vehicles digging up dirt at the top (made masterfully by Sugarsuckle, a bakeshop in Hoboken, NJ that I absolutely love!) I made some simple snacks labeled appropriately for the theme, because we were doing pizza (keeping it easy, guys!) and I didn’t want heavy snacks before such a heavy meal. And then for dessert, some festive desserts alongside the cake which Luca had such a blast blowing out the candles for.
It was such a beautiful day (everyone came over around 3:30pm and stayed until bedtime!) and I’m so grateful for our family’s health and something to celebrate amidst such trying times. Luca had a blast, got some great presents, and still talks about his birthday party. Especially the piñata, his first one! He totally nailed it and we have such an amazing video now of Luca running into the basement, seeing the piñata tied up and going right for it with a broom!
Many of you asked me to share where I got all the decor for the party, so I wanted to share officially in this blog post. Here you go:
Food
- Food label printables
- Shovel spoons for dessert and dips
- Fuel station printable
- Cake by Sugarsuckle
Decor
- Construction theme colored balloons
- Happy Birthday sign with construction vehicles
- Construction signs
- Dumptruck balloon
- Black road tape
- Traffic cones (tied the balloons to them!)
- Construction tape
- Porta Potty printable sign
Other
- Dump truck piñata
- Construction kinetic sand toy
It was a special day and a blessing to celebrate with our family. Cheers to 3, big boy!
And of course, Roma had a blast…
Photos by Erin Dwyer Photography.