Monday, March 17, 2008

It Was A Construction Theme Party

A little boy in Panorama's class had a birthday party over the weekend with a construction theme. The morning of the party, I rushing around trying to prepare my office/guestroom for a visiting relative and also digging for some non-pink, non-princess wrapping paper. While rooting through the 40 tons of obsolete subdivision plans under my desk, I had a brainstorm.

I always like keeping a few rolls of old plans around for coloring. It is particularly fun to trace a toddler's whole body on the back of a Arch D sheet. The first time I took a boxful of dead plans to my cousin's house for her little kids, they approached me shyly and asked if they were allowed to color on the printed side. I was pretty amazed- the kids really like coloring in the neighborhood plats, profiles and even the Erosion Control Details. I like that I they are getting just a little bit familiar with my work, not to mention that instead of buying big sheets of new paper, they were reusing some paper that would be recycled. Win-win-win-fun.

So the brainstorm. Panorama colored a subdivision utility plan, and we wrapped the gift. I made Mr. Probert go out to the shed where I keep a few rolls of survey tape and some lath. I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the lath, but the survey tape made a heck of a bow.

Coloring...

The Finished Gift

Mr. Probert said that I was a big dork and that nobody would "get it" except me. He said the other moms would just think I am too cheap to buy wrapping paper and that I have horrible taste in ribbon. He was right, but it was fun anyway.

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4 Comments:

Christopher Fugitt said...

Toddler outlines on big paper rule.

Howard said...

I think it was a great idea.

Anonymous said...

you may have seen it already, but since I know you love this stuff... check out http://www.theconstructiongame.com/tcg/const.asp

by the way, i aspire to the day when my daughter colors her first subdivision (we're still on circles and toddler outlines)

Anonymous said...

James' wife thinks this is ABSOLUTELY GENIUS! Especially since we have a few of those around ourselves.