When coming up with a theme for our son Brooks’ 2nd birthday, we didn’t have to look much further than the curb on trash day. This boy was OBSESSED with trash. Not just trash trucks. Trash. So instead of forcing another theme down his itty bitty throat, we decided to get trashed and just go with it!Inspired heavily by Pink Peppermint Paper’s party, I designed invites using a recycling truck from iStockPhoto and added “BBL Waste Management” to it. The license plate said “TWO.” We mailed them in brown paper lunch sacks and stuffed them with torn up newspaper. The invites themselves were backed with newspaper as well. Wording:
We’re talking trash for Brooks’ 2nd birthday!
So dump everything and head over to our collection site for a stinking fun time, games and junk food….
at our dump….
litter us know if you can make it… Over the course of a couple months, I – like Brooks – became obsessed with trash. I would get excited if I found a nice water bottle in the street or a tin can near a dumpster. We collected loads of recyclables, bubble wrap, boxes, and newspaper, punched holes through them and strung them up with fishing line on our mantle and from the overhang over our porch.We said we were serving junk food. And yep. It was juuuuuunk! There was not one healthy thing for a human to consume at the party but I had to keep with the theme. So we broke out the Oreo’s, Cheez-it’s, licorice, pigs in a blanket, and yes… even Cheese Whiz! Yuck! We served them in foil pie tins or mini trash cans on a really expensive newspaper tablecloth. I swear, this was the cheapest party we ever had! No cost decorations! Awesome. (Excuse the next couple pics – Camera went on the fritz!)In the center of the table we ‘grew’ trash flowers which were made out of coca-cola boxes on sticks with a smashed soda can as the center. The best thing about using trash as decor was that we just kept the beer & water boxes out to use as juice storage for the kids. From the rafters above the table we hung more trash from fishing line.I made patches (using iron-on transfer paper) for our family of trash collectors and sewed them onto our ‘uniforms.’ Brooks’ jumpsuit was from an Army surplus website. Brett had his from his days in the Navy. And I lucked out because onesies for ladies happened to be di moda at the time. I saw that sucker in a surf shop and I honestly think that’s why we finally went with this theme. I could picture myself as a trash girl and the boys all came along for the ride.When we were all dressed up and ready for the party to start, I noticed that we were missing something. Dirt… Grime.. Grease! Soooo… as a crazy woman might do, I ran my fingers over our car’s tires and covered all of our faces in tire grease. Too much, you think? Naaaah. It really brought out our eyes.We played the best party game EVER. Seriously. I had no idea what a hit this would be. We got a big galvanized trash can, gave each kid a trash picker upper (or kitchen tongs for the smaller kiddos) and dumped crumpled up newspaper, boxes, and bottles all over our backyard. This game literally did not end until Brooks went to sleep. They played in trash the whole day.I found these trash picker-uppers on some random shop online (sorry… can’t remember which!) It was a bit tough to find inexpensive ones but tenacity paid off. I think they were about $1.50 a piece as opposed to $8-$10 everywhere else I looked.One big bomb of an idea? The art center. I guess 2 year olds just aren’t into sitting still and coloring silently. Silly me. Oh well. We still have about 300 of these coloring sheets in case your kiddo is also named Brooks and has BBL initials. I’ll be happy to send them your way!For favors, each kid got to take their trash gripper home along with a bean sprout in a peat pot (which we grew about a week earlier)…… and a trash truck cookie that my mom made. (She’s insane in this department btw. Expect some posts on her cookies one day soon!)Would you like some water after all that junk food?Oh but wait! There’s mooooooore junk to consume! The cake! So as you’ll see as this blog develops, I am not big in the food department. The menu is usually fast, easy, and is even sometimes edible. It’s just not my forte. I accept that as my weakness and feel that if I can dazzle you with a fun party, you might not pay attention to the rumblings in your tummy. (Honestly… who serves Cheez Whiz to two-year-olds? Call social services on me now!) For the next round of junk, I present to you Brooks’ cake…Super simple but it does the trick. In the dump truck there was cut up cake, mixed with pudding and Oreo crumbles (Suuuuuuuper healthy!) And for the rest of the kidlets? Dirt cupcakes! Watch out for worms!I just turned big boxes (thank you diapers.com!) upside down and put the cupcakes on top. That with styrofoam peanuts, bubble wrap and more newspaper tablecloths… voila! A totally trash-tastic table.Oops! We have some really wiggly pieces of trash here! Who threw those guys away?Signing off now with some very trashy guests. My mom who donned a trash bag for the occasion (who knew trash bags could be so glam!), my brother-in-law who work a trash bag kilt, my niece who had a trashy ribbon..  and my Uncle Dave. Well… he thought it was a different kind of trash party (you can’t really see the spider web tattoos on his neck, his pony tail, or that his jorts – jean-shorts – are longer in the front than they are in the back.) You get the idea. Go Dave!I will say that there was much more assembling and gathering and time spent on this party than most other ones I throw but as far as costs? Trash is cheap! And we like us some cheap trash around here!I think this boy spent the next month telling us all about his trash party. Trash… you know? The stuff dreams are made of.
To purchase printable files to recreate this party, visit my Etsy shop here.