Can you dig it?

My youngest little one just turned 2!!!

A few words to describe my sweet boy; loving, rambunctious, crazy curls, inquisitive, stubborn, smart, silly, busy, independent, cuddly, adorable, tough, gentle, and ONE BIG MESS!

One big mess that I absolutely LOVE that is!

Meet Mr. M:

M loves ALL things that go, make noise, and look really tough. (Even though he sleeps with a baby Carroll doll, one day he will kill me for saying that. Ha!)

We decided on a construction theme for his 2nd birthday!

Here is a peak at how it all turned out...

The Invitations:

Once again I found exactly what I was looking for at Etsy.

This time I discovered Jane at BugLuv. All of her invites are printable and customizable. After purchasing and approving your design she will email you a printable pdf file that you can easily print on card stock at home or at your local photo lab.

I loved this particular invitation not only for the creative layout of the card but mostly for the green and orange color combination. On my search for construction invitations I found a ton of them in the typical yellow and black color combo. This invitation from bugluv stuck out to me as unique, with a more sophisticated color palette (well, as sophisticated as a 2 year old's birthday party goes.)

Want to purchase this adorable invitation? Click here.

The Decorations:

The tables had grass green table covers overlaid with a "construction road" table runner that was super easy to make.

Here's how:

Items needed: 1 black plastic table cover, 1 yellow plastic table cover (or several yellow pieces of paper), double sided tape.

Directions: Cut black plastic table cover into long strips at the desired width of road . (1 large rectangular black table cover makes four long roads).Cut out small (2"x4") yellow rectangles to act as divider lines in road. Attach yellow pieces to the black plastic with double stick tape every 6-8 inches. I loved how this turned out!

Orange construction cones made perfect balloon weights. Additional cones were placed among the tables.

I also scattered small construction trucks (found at Target in their summer section) on the tables.

Construction party hats were a great alternative to traditional party hats. They also made cute table decor. Find the party hats here.

Caution tape bordered the gift table. Find the yellow and black caution tape here.

One of M's construction dump truck ride-on toys served as a perfect place to stash the party favors.

The Cupcakes:

Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream frosting. (Dirt sprinkled on top, of course!)

For the cake I did not use a special recipe (a quick shout out to my dear friend: Thank you, Betty Crocker!), but rather a fun trick. YES! That is an actual Oreo cookie in the middle of the cupcake. It's super easy, here is how to do it: Fill cupcake liner about 1/4 of the way with batter, place a whole Oreo cookie on top, then cover the Oreo with batter until the cupcake liner is about 3/4 of the way full. Bake to your specific recipe's directions. Voila! The Oreo becomes cake like in the center. Yum!

Now, for the frosting: This chocolate buttercream has one very unique ingredient, Ovaltine! That's right, rich chocolate Ovaltine. It was delish! I discovered this tasty recipe on one of my favorite blogs; Joy the Baker. For the recipe click here.

And if the cupcakes weren't decadent enough ....Once frosted I dipped them into Oreo cookie crumbles to imitate dirt.

The adorable cupcake toppers that coordinated with the party invitations were once again created by Jane at BugLuv via Etsy. Want the cupcake topper printables? click here

The Party Favors:

Instead of a regular favor bags, I decided to bundle all of the party favors in to canvas tool belts from Home Depot. Find them here.

I figured the tool belt was a fun favor in itself. The kids could use them for all types of things. (i.e. to carry crayons or markers while doodling on their easels, as a collection pouch while going on nature walks, dress up, etc. )

What was inside the tool belts?