A Construction Party at the Seattle Children’s Museum

It is really easy to plan an After Hours Party at the Seattle Children’s Museum and if you don’t live in Seattle you might want to check out if you have something similar at your local kids’ museum.  It is a fairly inexpensive rental, you get the museum to yourself and you don’t have to worry about a swarm of energetic 5-year-olds potentially destroying things you really love in your home.  The guys liked their rockstar party here last year and they decided it would be here again.  They wanted a Bob the Builder theme and I don’t really like using packaged birthday supplies, so we went for more of a construction party theme with Bob the Builder elements.  I ordered the toys for the cake on Ebay and painted some wooden dolls in Bob the Builder attire.

We were coming back from San Francisco late the night before the party, so I had the guys help make the goody bags before we left.  They really liked packing all the goody bags and it helped make them feel like it was THEIR construction party.

I ordered some construction vehicle packages that I found for a pretty reasonable price using Savings.com (a trick I learned from Thrifty Northwest Mom!)  and little jars full of chocolate rocks and whoppers.  I was going to use washi tape to seal the jars, but it didn’t look quite right so I ended up using address labels that I ordered that said “Thank you for coming.  Dirt and Rocks are edible!”  The boys were very proud that they helped make their giveaways.  (This is a little like what the end result looked like-I forgot to take pictures!)

As usual my family helped a ton with the party.  My sis-in-law made an amazing Bob prop for pictures and she, my sis and I have become quite the party team over the past few years.

And because you only have half-an-hour to set up for the party, we went with simple decorations like construction hats, sunflowers, cones and yellow and black tape that could be put anywhere.  (I forgot it wasn’t my party and ordered some pink hats too!)

We ordered Mod Pizza from upstairs in the Seattle Center and supplemented it with some salads and fruit plates that we made.  I love that the amazing vendors upstairs at the Seattle Center Armory can easily deliver downstairs and Mod Pizza is always a hit with my kids.  It also comes in cute little individual boxes that look nice on a table too.

On the way to the party, we picked up a Molly Moon’s ice cream order that we we kept cold on dry-ice covered by cardboard (so it didn’t get too cold and freeze the ice cream solid) in a cooler.  The kids really seemed to like the sundae bar too!

I think even the grown-ups had a great time.  We have so many family members in Vancouver, we’re always thankful when they make the trek down.  Even my 88-year-old grandpa made the journey and I’m so thankful for Auntie S and Uncle B for bringing him down.

The guys had a fun party and it was really nice to come home to a clean house.  Of course, they want next year’s party there again.  They’ve already decided they want a Berenstain Bears theme……

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)