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

16 comments:

  1. Fun party! My little guy wants an Army party in the fall when he turns 5! Great ideas.

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  2. What an awesome boy party!!! I love it...especially the "search and rescue."

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  3. Just found your blog..........So Cute! Love the Army Party, How clever you guys are.

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  4. That's so cool! Do you remember where you found the scrapbooking kit for the invitation?

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  5. Colleen - I was able to find the scrapbooking kit here:

    http://www.e-scapeandscrap.net/boutique/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1467

    I found several camo kits in my search, but this one seemed to be just exactly what I was looking for!

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  6. Love this party. The basic training course is awesome!

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  7. juliabtalley@gmail.comSunday, April 15, 2012 1:01:00 PM

    I love your party! You did a fantastic job. :) I wanted to ask you what type of paintball gun you used, and where your husband located the army paintballs? I'm doing an army party for my soon-to-be 8 year old, and LOVE the paintball idea...I just have no idea what type of gun to purchase (there are so many out there!). If you could offer any suggestions, it would be wonderful. Thanks so much!

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  8. @juliabtalley
    I'm sorry, I am not quite sure what type of paintball gun we had. It was actually one that was just borrowed from a neighbor. We had gone to a local paintball facility to get the CO2 tanks for the gun and the guys at the place actually just gave us a bucket of the army paintballs. I know that sporting goods stores sell the paintballs, but if you want the army ones you might just check your local paintball facility. I would think they would have the best selection on different ones. We'd love to see how your party turns out!

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  9. Hi! I just ran across this blog and am looking for a fun Birthday idea for my son! He loves Camo! I tried the link for the mini scrapbooking kit, but it didn't work. Do you happen to remember the name, or where I could find it?

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  10. Hi, I love your ideas for the army party. I'm having a army party for my son next weekend. I was wondering you could tell me how you built the camo wall?

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  11. The camo wall was literally just two sheets of plywood angled together at the top /\ and 2x4 pieces of wood screwed on at the bottom of each side for support.

    I've also updated the scrapbooking kit link in the post. Hope this helps!

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  12. Hi! I bought & downloaded the file for the invite. Can you explain how to build/layer it? I can't seem to figure it out. Thanks so much!!!

    Ashley Gunther
    agun42@aol.com

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  13. Hi, I really love the notepad piece of paper, and the photo frame you used in the invites, could you tell me where you found them? Thanks

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  14. Urban Daisies,
    For the camo wall- did the kids climb up the wall? how? I LOVE your ideas. My son wants a training camp party this year and I am so following your fab party!!

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  15. Hi, do u have any detail pic or steps on how to make the camo wall? Thought to make one for my son's birthday party on next month.he was so excited to read ur blog when I show it to him. Looking forward to hear fr u. Thanks.

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