I don't know but I've been told...my oldest just turned five years old. My youngest is turning 3, so we celebrated with an Army themed Camo Birthday Party for the two of them. The troops all came in camo and we played army games, served army treats, and passed out army party favors as well. I worked hard to come up with some unique army themed games in addition to the some of the traditional must haves.
We put signs throughout the yard leading the troops in the right direction to the enlistment office, mess hall, military barracks, and target practice.
Near the enlistment office was the classic army poster.
At the Enlistment Office the recruits were given dog tags which I used a metal engraver to put their names on. (You can buy one for $10)
I found these awesome tags at a garage sale. They were from a liquor advertisement. Lol. I just covered up the advertisement with some camo duck tape. It left the perfect metal surface to engrave each child's name on.
We also took their recruitment photos in front of the flag. I used the pictures on our thank you cards.
These were some of our party favors. They said Mission Complete. Thanks for Dropping By!
Each favor contained a water grenade splasher and some plastic army men.
After several years of birthday parties, I quickly realized no one shows up on time. I had a craft arranged for the little ones that showed up on time. We built little army tanks out of 2x4's and let them paint their own tanks with sponges.
You can see the original post
here with the instructions.
One of our first group activities was the grenade hunt. We told the kids there were grenades in the field, and they needed to find and disarm them as soon as possible. (Nothing like a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt) They held candy inside of course.
I love the chaos. The camo eggs were actually quite challenging to find at times.
We moved on to the Search and Rescue. I buried 8 plastic army men in tubs of sand. On your mark, get set...go. The kids had to search and rescue their men as quickly as possible. Who knew they would love digging in the sand so much!
For target practice I had this cool toy that shot out green balls when you jumped on it. A definite crowd pleaser.
Off to the obstacle course, where the kids slid down the pole...
Jumped across the trampoline...
Crawled under the camo tarp...
And then grabbed the sandbag and pulled it to the finish line.
Each child was given a gold medal for their hard work!
The last game was tug of war. After the kids played against each other, my husband played against all of them.
Crash!?! Ha ha!
Now off to the Mess Hall to recharge and refuel.
I was lucky enough to find these camo buckets at the dollar store in the Easter section. For $1 each they were perfect for having lunch made up in advance.
I wrapped some water bottles in camo duck tape to match the theme.
I also bought a cute candy mold on ebay and made some chocolate army tanks. I think the adults loved them even more then the kids.
I decided for the easy cake option and made cupcakes instead. A few green sprinkles and an army men topped them off. Yes...a few people tried to eat the army men thinking they were chocolate too. Ha! Ha!
Our last minute addition was this army pinata I made out of a brown paper sack. It worked even better then I expected. I will share this tutorial another day.
The pinata held up through two rounds of the kids before it finally broke!
Remember, my pirate ship from last year...
I just painted over it with camo and turned it into an army boat. (Well worth storing it in the storage building for a year!)
Watch out for the elite force pictured above. That is us! My boys had another great birthday party! Thanks for stopping by.
