Kathryn Shores Photography: Max's Fifth Birthday Construction Party

I tend to go a little MIA in the January/February months. It is a slow time for me business-wise (as few people want to have family portraits done when it is cold enough outside to freeze the snot inside your nose), and following the busy fall rush, I am in need of a little break to unwind and get things organized for the new year.

But February is rapidly coming to an end, so it's time to break the silence and get back to blogging. And what better way to do so than by celebrating my sweet baby boy's fifth birthday. FIFTH BIRTHDAY!?!?! Holy. Cow. Max has been requesting a "construction party" for his fifth birthday party roughly since the time his fourth birthday party ended. The good news: I had plenty of time to brainstorm. The bad news: he wanted a construction party in February in Illinois.

Since we definitely could not hold the party outside (where all good construction parties should be) and our house is a smidge too small to do the party there, we rented a large party space from our town's recreation department to be the build site. The plan? Let the kids go to town with "bricks" (cardboard boxes) and "paint" (art supplies of all different kinds, except (ironically) paint), and build a house. I was a little apprehensive as to whether the idea would be a flop or a triumph, but I need not have worried, because, as all parents know, cardboard boxes are really the world's most perfect toy.

We topped off the party with a riveting game of "pin the wrecking ball on the crane" and a bulldozer pinata. And after the candles were blown out and the cake was consumed? The kids headed straight back to the cardboard boxes to begin building, decorating, and demoing all over again. Party success.