Army Camouflage Party Invite

Here is the invitation we gave to Christian's friends...

I had Costco print them as a 4x6 photo so they were super cheap :)

My first post and an Army Camouflage Party

I have been told over and over again that I should start a blog, and over and over again I have said I don't have enough time. And it's true, I don't have enough time!! That being said, my oldest guy turned 8 this last week and we had his birthday party this weekend. It turned out so great I just couldn't hold back sharing...so here it is....my blog. :)

His party turned out so great!! I was so worried the week before because I had dreams that the party was a disaster. lol. Then, the day before I was trying to get stuff done and nothing was working! I was going to hem up his costume for the party and my sewing machine broke (boo hoo, I still haven't figured out what's wrong with it). So then I decided to bake the cake only to find that all of my cake pans were missing (did I ever find them? Nope, still missing). Then I decided I would mow the lawn. I pulled the lawn mower out and the engine is frozen...the pull cord won't pull. Nice... I threw my hands up in the air and said, Why??!

Then a thought popped into my mind. "Fawn, it isn't as important as you think." Hmm. Yeah, you're right, it's not as important as I thought it was. Move on.
I put the little ones down to nap and I set out to set up the obstacle course. Boy, was that hard work by myself! I almost got stung by a scorpion while I was getting blocks for the balance beam. Yikes! I was filthy and sweaty when I finished but it looked GOOD!

When the little ones woke up we ran to Hobby Lobby and picked up some cake pans and I got cooking. Figured out later that it was a good thing that the lawn mower didn't work. If it had I would have spent my whole afternoon mowing my backyard. Instead I got the whole obstacle course put together. That night the hubs the sick. He was throwing up and tossing and turning. I knew I was not going to be getting any help from him the next day.

So, all in all, it was a good thing that things went wrong the day before so I would be better prepared for no help from the hubs the day of. I do have to say, though, our babysitter, Miranda, came over later in the afternoon to help me an I could not have done it without her!! My mom also came by and stayed to help. AWESOME!!

Alright, enough rambling. Here are the pictures of the party. Enjoy!!

The Food Table and Backdrop. I made the banner out of burlap. I made stencils from a font I found on dafont.com and painted the letters on. I had chocolate dipped pretzels and marshmallows. Got the ideas from here and here. (I have most of these ideas on one of my boards on pinterest. here is a link) The carmel popcorn I made from my grandma's recipe. Best carmel popcorn EVER!!! I also made homemade lemonade and put it in a gallon apple juice container that I painted army green. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of it. I really looked like an army canteen.

Here is the table all set up waiting for the boys to arrive. Each place had a helmet (oriental trading) and a dog tag (walmart) and a word search found here and a crayon. As the boys arrived I had them sit at the table and do the word search while they waited for everybody else to get there.

 The tank cake was fun to make!

I made the wraps for the water bottles with the same font as the banner. They say Happy Birthday Christian.

 Army crawl for the obstacle course.

 Tire run.

 The obstacle course started with the boys climbing up the jungle gym and sliding down the pole.

 Then they had to climb the ladder and slide down the slide.

 Next was the balance beam.

 Then the tire run. Some of them fell pretty good, but they were all good sports about it :)

 After that was the army crawl.

Then they had to weave in and out of the bars. At the end they did a forward roll over the finish line. They went through the course three or four times. It was great. Got them nice and tuckered out. lol

When the obstacle course was over I had them get a snack from the table and have a drink while I set up for the next game. Tactical Maneuvers.

 In this game there were two teams. One from each team was blindfolded and had to "maneuver" their way across a field filled with "landmines" (water balloons). Their teammates had to tell them which way to walk so they wouldn't step on a landmine.

 When everybody was across the field safely they had real war. lol

After that game was over I, again, had them get a drink and a snack while I set up the for next game, Wounded Soldier.

 I told the boys some were injured during the land mine game and they had the save the wounded soldier. Each team had to wind a whole roll of toilet paper around their wounded soldier then lay them down on the towel and carry them across the field. That's the birthday boy getting all fixed up.

 Uh oh, the other team dropped their wounded soldier!

Next, it was time to sing happy birthday and have some yummy cake.

 It was a little windy so the candle were kind of hard to light. Look how hard I am concentrating! and look how worried all the boys are! ha ha

 Blow, Chris, blow!

 Look! I even did the inside of the cake camouflage!

 This is what it looked like right when it was done baking. Doesn't it look cool? See Elvis anyone? or maybe the Easter Bunny?

 We got some awesome pictures of Chris's best friend doing some crazy things! This is just one of them. lol

 Next was the pinata. We found this one at Party City.

 There is the birthday boy all ready to go. :)

 We couldn't find a good stick to use so we ended up having them use my bokken (wooden sword). Look at him swing that thing!!

 They are all waiting so patiently. The hubs even made an appearance.

 Next was presents. I love the look on his face. ha ha ha

 As a thank you to all of his friends for coming we gave everybody a marshmallow gun to take home with them. They got them right after presents and had fun shooting each other while they were waiting for their moms to pick them up.

Apparently they go farther the higher up you are! ha ha That and you can ambush people as they are walking by. Always take the high ground, right?

Overall, the best birthday party I think I've thrown. There was fun had by all!

Feel free to leave me a comment! I would love to hear what you think of the party!