Monday, April 12, 2010

Army Birthday Party

I LOVED this party!
We had an Army party for my son's 5th birthday this weekend.
It turned out great and all the kiddos had a blast (even the girls)!

First off, I made this 5x7 invite in Photoshop with a mini digital scrapbooking kit I found online here.

A shot of the basic training course.
We built a wall out of two sheets of plywood and some 2x4's (I got rid of some old paint from the garage by painting the wall camo). The balances beams were just 4x4's on a few 2x4's on each end. The tires we borrowed from a local tire store. They let us use some old tires and we just took them back the next day. For the ropes, we got a pack of these wooden stakes. My husband drilled a hole in each one and we strung some rope through all of them.

Everyone got personalized (with a sharpe) dog tags to wear and some black face paint when they arrived.

I ordered the dog tags, plastic camo hats and the camo party favors from Oriental Trading.
Prize box....



Birthday rations included: Camo cupcakes, beef sticks, whoppers, and homemade survival mix (chex, marshmallows, pretzels, peanuts, and black & green m&m's)

Used an old washtub for drinks...

These 7x10 drawstring bags were perfect for party favors! I order them from Oriental Trading as well and stuck a water gun and some other goodies in there.

The cupcakes were camo colored.
I used chocolate and yellow cake mix. Mixed per directions, and in half of the yellow mix I added green and black food coloring to make the army green color. I added spoonfulls of each color into camo cupcake liners. Simple and cheap!

First activity was a "Search and Rescue Mission"
The kids had to find a few hundred of the little plastic army men I had hid before the party.


They were all so great at rescuing their men they received a little fun pack of Lifesavers candy!

Next up, basic training course....




Then they all launched their Parachute men...


Built little wooden airplanes to fly...

And everyone got to shoot the paintball gun at the target.


Look at these cool paintballs my husband found for them to use!

We even had some creative gift wrapping....

And just after the party, these planes flew over...
Coincidental, of course but totally cool!!

Add 2 more = 5!

This was such a fun party to put together. My husband enjoys building little projects, so this was perfect for him to jump in and help. All in all it wasn't that expensive as we had lots of the scrap wood and items already. And camo is easy to find anywhere!

We'd love to hear about your birthday party ideas!

A&J

Thursday, April 1, 2010

April Fools Day Pranks

April Fools Day has to be one of my most favorite days.  I love playing little tricks for my kids because they talk about it all year.  Even my oldest has been asking me, "when is that day where we play tricks on everyone."  She's a prankster in the making I can already tell...

Fake Cupcakes
Had to try this myself.  These were a huge hit.  Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Of  course I had to add sprinkles because my girls have never had a cupcake without them.  Totally fooled the girls and got some great video of some funny faces!!!
Disclaimer for the next prank....I'm really not mean, I promise. 
Because my girls always announce when they've got to go, I was able to capture this one on video as well.  Priceless.  Might have to send this one in to funniest home videos.

A&J

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