Slightly Odd Birthday Cake Decoration Request

My son turns four in two weeks. We've ordered a fruit-topped whip cream cake from Swedish and are eagerly looking forward to gorging ourselves. We have one small complication - my son has made a pretty specific decoration request for the cake and I am not quite sure how best to honor his request. Specifically, he has requested, "you know a small town with some different buildings and maybe a road and definitely a construction scene and I want it to be on the whole cake..." I can handle the construction scene no problem with some crushed oreos and some of his minature construction vehicles and may ask Swedish to do the road in marzipan, but I am at a bit of a loss about the town. I thought about going to a hobby shop to get the buildings but am concerned about the cost - what do they typically run? Are there other places we could go to get small plastic buildings on the cheap? Any thoughts or help on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks very much for any suggestions.
John

I don't know about pricing, but Hobbytown USA in Oak Park (also a favorite with Amata and son) has a selection of model train-type buildings and related paraphernalia. Check their site: http://www.chicagohobbiesandgames.com/

Hammond

In addition to Hammond's rec, you might try:

Tom Thumb Hobby & Crafts
(847) 869-9575
1026 Davis St
Evanston, IL

TomThumb Crafts

At Pearl, the other day, I noticed that they now carry miniature bldgs and such for model train hobbyists.

Pearl
225 W. Chicago
312.915.0200

E.M.

I don't know/remember what the prices were like at Hobbytown in Oak Park, but Antonius and I were recently at a store on Irving Park which was having a going out of business sale on everything, including model trains and accessories. I couldn't believe how expensive all the little bits of paraphrenalia were, even marked down. So I don't know if this is the route you want to go for your cake decoration.

How about a few "buildings" constructed out of Legos? (The big Lego size has some Bob the Builder sets, you could put Bob and friends on the cake, too.)

Another point to keep in mind is SHORT ATTENTION SPAN. In two weeks your son may not remember that he wanted buildings too!

(Our son had requested that I depict the entire solar system, including a comet, in frosting on his cake. Luckily he forgot about this idea by the time his birthday actually arrived.)

monopoly houses & hotels

Another place that everyone should know about for kids' parties is Constructive Playthings/US Toys in Skokie (5414 W. Lincoln, just east of Gross Point Road). It has a good selection of toys and games but it's also a teachers' supply store, so they are loaded with educational materials, supplies and books at reasonable prices. They also have lots of party goods as well, so if you want to plan a tiki party, this is the place (lots of very silly hats, as well, for a few dollars a piece.) But most important for your purposes is that they are also a carnival supply store, so they have aisles of really cheap little toys, mostly packaged by the dozen or the gross, so if you're having a party you can provide really great goodie bags for your little guests very inexpensively (and avoid the all-candy goodie bag, which I hate.) I can't say for sure that you would find little houses there but you well might, and at any rate I'm sure you'd come away with other stuff that your kid will love, and you don't have to spend much if you don't want to. And it's just a fun place to explore.

Have you tried Oriental Trading Company (www.orientaltrading.com)? I am putting together a party for my "about to be" 5 year old and find OTC to be a great resource for inexpensive but cute little things. I found a couple of possibilities for you;

In The Town

Easy Stick Blocks

FANTASTIC MAGNETIC FOAM BLOCKS

Having just returned from a school supply shopping excursion to Constructive Playthings (see above) I did see blocks very similar to the "In the Town" set also available from Oriental Trading. I think each block is about 2 inches long or so which may be too big for your purposes. They certainly have a lot of trucks, cars, etc. in the carnival supply aisles, also little people (like policemen) but I'm don't recall seeing any really small buildings. The game of "Life" has a nice set of small houses, as I recall; it's available there and lots of other places of course. Constructive Playthings also has an extensive collection of Playmobile sets at discount prices, by the way.

Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions. We'll be getting our delivery from Oriental trading this week, though they didn't have much in the cake topping category. I'll also be in Evanston this weekend so will check out Tom Thumb and also your posts gave me the idea of looking over at Toys Etcetera on Main. Also, thanks Amata for reminding me about the short attention span as I think we may have already distracted him with thoughts of a Monster Truck theme cake instead. We'll see how this all turns out.

Hope the Birthday Party goes well!