Cardboard Box Birthday Party

When my little boy told me last summer that he wanted to have a cardboard box birthday party I was initially stumped - what is a cardboard box party? Over time my creativity began to flow, and I became really enamored with the idea. A cardboard box party - why not!

We put out the word, and our friends and family happily cleaned all of the boxes out of their basements, businesses, and garages for our event. We even received a stack of colorful soap boxes that I was able to make a simple banner out of.

It was a bit of a pain to store everything until the big day, but when we pulled them all out it was spectacular to see the excitement on my little boy's face.
The great thing about this party theme was that is so open ended. The kids were thrilled to be turned loose with our big pile of boxes. They played inside them, knocked them down, climbed over them, sorted them, stacked them, wore them, and imagined them to be everything from trucks, to houses, to space ships. Even the babies got into the game.

When it looked as if they needed a bit more direction, I handed out markers and the kids happily colored all over the boxes. One little girl even convinced her parents to drag her box-art home with them - works for me. That's one less box I'll have to recycle.

The most organized activity of the day was an obstacle course. You can't really tell from this picture, but they had fun cheering for one another as they ran over, under, and through the boxes, ending with finding their name on a pop-rocket which they had to shoot into (what else?) a box.

Of course, there was lots of cake and plenty of presents - it wouldn't be a birthday without these two elements.

So now I have a 5 year old - And he wants me to make sure to let everyone know - that is a whole hand-full!

Happy Birthday my quickly growing, funny joking, rhythmic dancing, green wearing, sweet wonder of a boy!