Sports Birthday Party

We had my son's 6th birthday party this last weekend. He kept saying that he wanted to have his party at one of those Bounce house places (where all the kids run around and jump on the inflatables). I wasn't too thrilled with the idea because how in the world was I supposed to put all my decorative little touches on everything??

I convinced him to have the party in our back yard again (we did this cool army party last year and the kids still talk about it). He agreed, but only after I said I was going to paint our entire backyard like a football field! Score! I got my way... :)

Here's a shot of 50 yard line of the field.... (the K is for our last initial).

The snack table was loaded up with all kind of ballpark goodies. Cupcakes that I decorated like basketballs, soccerballs, footballs and baseballs. Oreo truffles decorated like footballs (these were good and went fast!), tons of hot dogs wrapped in foil (ballpark style), bags of chips, popcorn, peanuts, twizzlers, chocolates and bubblegum and sunflower seeds.

{The two tier metal bucket was a find from Hobby Lobby and I found the cool popcorn buckets at the Dollar Tree! Love them!}

The kids did some relay races (spin on the bat &, carry the ping pong ball on a spoon down the field and back), some bean bag tosses, throwing contests, stick the ball on the target which was left over from last years army party (played like pin the tail on the donkey), a homerun derby and we had a pinata for the kids to swing at! We had several other games on our list, but actually ran out of time.

The invites were made in Photoshop and just printed on white cardstock. I used papers and elements from this Game On Digital Scrapbooking Kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I actually used the balls from this kit also for the target game and also for labels for all the food etc.

  It was such a fun and easy party to put together! Perfect for all those sports fanatics!

A&J

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

Boys Construction Party

Cute idea for boys construction or dump truck party. I purchased this large metal Tonka truck at Toys R Us and filled the back with brownie bites. Some were covered in sugar, some in powdered sugar and some just plain. Best part about it was that the birthday boy could have the truck to play with afterwards. It turned out great!

Small smash cake for the birthday boy was made to match. It had fondant construction cones on top with a big "2".

You can cover water bottles in coordinating paper to match.

The invite was found at Hobby Lobby and printed out. The back of the truck dumps out to show the party info.

A&J

Lowe's Birthday Party

Not many people know this, but you can take your kiddos to you local Lowe's or Home Depot for monthly workshops and some of them will actually do birthday parties. We had a birthday party at Lowe's this year and it was a hit!

The kids all received an apron to wear, hammer, goggles and a kit of their choice with all of the items and instructions inside to build it. And best of all, it was all free!

Invitation was created in Photoshop and printed out on cardstock to mail.
My boys aren't big fans of cake, so we came up with a few alternatives. The cake bites were a new thing I had tried to make (I'll post something on them later). Basically cake, covered in chocolate and on a stick. The toolbox was something my husband whipped out with some scrap pieces of wood and I painted it with some old red paint from the garage. It's filled with some brownie bites that I just picked up from the local grocery store (Albertsons bakery).

The kids showing off their projects.

For party favors, I bought these packages of Crayola paint pens for the kids to take home and paint their wooden project they had just made.

Update: Added a few more pics of the party....

A&J