While some of the changes have been hard to swallow, there have been some changes during these times of quarantine that have actually been very good for my own soul. 2020 will forever be the year that changed everything. This was quite the contrast from his first birthday party, which was baseball-themed and I spent way too much energy, stress and time on little details that ultimately did not matter much. I bought most of the decorations at the Dollar Tree and barely did anything homemade. We had a small gathering with family spread out throughout the day. Of course all of those plans in my head did not happen, but the result was actually much more enjoyable for us all. Before the pandemic, I had grand plans of throwing him a party at an indoor soccer facility and inviting lots of people and planning lots of things. I baked 3 yellow cakes in a regular size cake pan, wrapped them in plastic and foil and put them in the freezer.For Hudson’s 2nd birthday party, we celebrated just with family at our home.

My older son helped me a great deal with the cake and the birthday boy just ate a lot of the icing and, honestly, so did I! 🙂 Here is our garbage truck cake with directions in case you want to make one of your own! The cake is always such an important part of a party.

I made a stickers for the front of the bags and for the sidewalk chalk bags inside. I couldn’t find anything with garbage trucks on it! And, all the stores were out of their little garbage trucks or I would have put them in the bags. The contents of the goody bags were not garbage truck related, but not for lack of trying. I put a small bin of “trash” near the trucks and the kids could put the trash in the trucks and dump them back out. The third was two garbage trucks made from old boxes with backs that open.

I Drive a Garbage Truck by Sarah Bridges.

Smash, Mash, Crash: There Goes the Trash! by Barbara Odanaka.

I know when my son is at a party and things get to be a little much for him, he will find a quiet place to regroup before joining the party again. This was meant to be a quiet spot where kids could retreat from the group a bit if needed and also for those who just wanted to read or color. The first was a small table with books about garbage trucks, garbage truck coloring pages and some crayons. The picture is not the best, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. I also took the garbage truck image from the invite, printed it on iron-on transfer paper and put it on a t-shirt for my son to wear during the party. I created a road (yellow dashed lines) with a garbage truck made from poster board, garbage cans from paper and garbage and the words, “Happy Birthday, Tucker!” It is the perfect place for decorations and signs.

We have an island between our kitchen, hallway and living room. I created this invitation using Pages on my Mac. It also very low key– play, eat, open gifts and a few “stations” set up for children to do if they chose. So, it seemed logical that the theme for his party be garbage trucks! It was a very small (but very fun) group of kids with ages ranging from 6 months to almost 6 years old. He loves watching the garbage collectors when we are out and about and loves playing with garbage trucks at home. For the past few months he has been saying that he wants to be a “trash can guy” when he grows up. Today we celebrated my son’s 3rd birthday. A Trashy Celebration: A Garbage Truck Birthday

Garbage truck invitations