When I asked Jackson a while ago what kind of cake he wanted this year, without hesitation he said ‘bulldozer!’. So… that led to a construction theme for his party, which we had on Sunday at a local park. The weather was beautiful, and he was allowed to invite 4 friends (the age he was turning). Most of them have younger siblings around Morgan’s age, so we had quite the crowd there.
If you have kept up with this blog for any length of time, you know that I enjoy making cakes. It’s not something I do very often or have much time for, but birthdays are the perfect excuse for me to spend hours making a cake. I don’t really enjoy party planning or anything like that, but I love making these cakes. Here’s my repertoire I posted about previously. Last year I made Jackson an airplane cake, and knew I had a lot to live up to after that one, but I think the bulldozer came out pretty great! Gavin helped a ton with getting the right dimensions and adding a lot of the detailed piping at the end (there is even an air vent on the back!
We played some games where the kids had to push little dump trucks with sand through cones and empty them out, and they also had to throw some sand bags into bowls. For their prizes they got construction hats and tool aprons (courtesy of Home Depot)
This is one of Jackson’s best buddies, Abe:
The blowing out of the candles:
And Jackson can always eat some cake!
Both sets of grandparents were in town for the occasion, so Morgan had fun with them, as well as some of the other younger kids.
Overall, we had a great time, and loved celebrating our sweet Jackson!
Leapfrog Music Table - both kids have loved this, and we have lots of adorable video of them playing with it and dancing away (ie: swinging hips) when they are barely able to stand up. Very cute. The legs also come off so they can play with it on the ground (currently put away until Mackenzie will use it).
Parents Mirror Pound a Ball - we lost the orange ball pretty quickly, and never found it, but even with 3 balls, both kids have loved this toy. Yes, it can get loud, and yes, it can take a bit of parental intervention to remove all the *other toys they have stuck down in this thing, but I would still list it as one of our favorites. (It’s also been put away right now waiting for little Mackenzie to use one day)
This picture isn’t exactly the one we have, but is very similar. This has been a GREAT toy, both kids have loved it, and we have started using it with Jackson to practice his letters and numbers. The only drawback to ours is that the part you pull down to erase is pretty tricky, so when they are real young, kids need help to erase. But both mine have figured it out eventually. Ours has the slots at the top for the magnets to go into like this does, but I have seen them made with pull out drawers to store the magnets, and I think they would be less likely to get lost that way. We are almost always missing one of our 5 magnets - when we find it, then another goes missing! This toy has taken a LOT of banging, and is still holding up great.
Again, this is not the one that we have, but close enough. We actually have 2 of these, one for Jackson and one for Morgan. They do have music, but mostly they love them because they can ride up and down our wood floors, chasing each other, etc. Morgan likes to ride hers outside since she’s still too small for her bike. Jackson also enjoys ‘fixing’ the trucks - using a screwdriver to take the batteries out and put them back in.
Train tracks and trains (we have a couple sets) - these are from IKEA and very inexpensive (they also fit with the more expensive Brio tracks I believe). Jackson has spent hours putting these tracks together in different configurations. Morgan likes driving the trains on the tracks, when Jackson lets her (which is not very often!).
Good quality puzzles. We have a number of wooden ones, some easy and some harder (we especially like the ones by Melissa and Doug), and my kids do them over and over and over. Morgan has already learned her alphabet (even though she doesn’t talk yet) by doing the one pictured above so many times.
Lite Brite - this was a gift for Jackson over a year ago, and he loves it. He quickly used up the pages that came with it, but has since spent hours creating boats and trains and spaceships - you name it! Morgan loves to play with it as well (when he lets her!).
Beads and shape pieces - these are from IKEA (for a total of $8), and literally provide hours and hours of entertainment. Jackson and Morgan both love playing with these - you have to put the beads on little spikes on the plastic piece, then you iron it when they are done and they melt together. Now, these do end up all over the floor. But my kids know that if they don’t pick them up, I will vacuum them up, and they will be gone. The container comes with enough beads to literally last years. I have found it is much more fun to actually create the designs than do anything with them once they are ironed. Jackson loves to make patterns with his shapes, and Morgan is learning great finger dexterity, because it is tricky to put them on the shapes, but she really enjoys it, and of course wants to do what big brother is doing. Warning - if you iron too long, it will melt the plastic piece. We know from experience! But you can also find smaller kits of this in the dollar section of Michaels. 
