Cal was the Grand Poobah of his fantastic marching band party. His mom, Tracey, gives us the scoop: Every fall we go to the Honk! festival in Somerville, MA. It's a celebration of joyful noise, street band style. My youngest loves it and along with OK Go's This Too Shall Pass marching band video, inspired him to ask for a marching band birthday party this year.

We made drum major shirts for my 2 kids using a stencil I found online. I also added some gold and red ribbon around the arm for that formal look. We made marching batons from sticks found in our yard. I tacked red, white and blue ribbons and bells to the end of the stick for the kids to twirl and march with. Each kid got to take one home.

We also made our own drums and other instruments using scrounge items: tubes, corks, chop sticks, tin foil, duct tape. I ordered a red felt drum major hat online and we hot glued some ribbon on it to "fancy it up". My youngest also watches too much Food Network Challenge and so he asked for a "tall tall white cake". His vision was beyond my skill but I gave a try. It was made more complicated by needing to bake an egg free cake. Those eggs really give cake it's structure! I used a vintage tin drum found on Etsy as a "layer" to try and achieve that height. It was not the most stable but it was yummy and made my kiddo happy. Who needs perfection?!

This looks like perfection to us! Thanks Tracey! Readers, see more of Cal's party at Paper Dolls for Boys.