army strong.

I've been reneging on my 'no birthday party'  idea lately.  With a baby due any day, I didn't want Diego's special day to be overshadowed in any way.

It started innocently enough...I asked him if he wanted a birthday party, and he said yes.  We discussed what kind....at first it was batman, and I started pinning away ideas on pinterest.

But somehow, he started talking about tanks.  And we had these HUGE cardboard pieces leftover from our IKEA trip, so I asked, just for fun, 'cause I'm weird like that....do you want me to make you a tank out of cardboard?  "Yes!"

So I started cutting away and was surprised at how well it turned out...and immediately, it looked like a great box for a piñata.  Which naturally led to....how about an army birthday?!  "Yeah!!"  After all,  Diego has always had that boy fascination with guns, things that go kaboom, and any other un-politically correct toy that boys love.

I stopped pinning batman and started pinning army.

INVITATIONS:
There are so many cute invitations out there.  We went with the "I don't know what you've been told...Diego's turning four years old" cadence.  Which got me to singing "We are Bravo company...." from my four week stint in the army.  The kids sushed me any chance they could, and would not allow me to sing it at the party.  Probably for the best.



DECORATIONS
Decorating for this party was so EASY and mostly FREE!  I took Diego up to the recruiter's office and told them we were having an army birthday....might they have anything we could use?  Whoa!  He gave me posters and stickers and water bottles and flags and lanyards....plus I picked up some brochures and used them to decorate the fridge.



We had also happened by the library earlier in the week and stumbled across some great military kids books.  My favorite was Alpha Bravo Charlie, which teaches the military alphabet.  I actually read it to the kids after they were wired up on cake.



I hit Goodwill early on in the planning and guess what I found?  An army shirt, size 4, and at another Goodwill, army pants, size 4.  It was meant to be.



Here's that tank piñata!  The front actually opened up and I was able to stuff it with the goodies and tape it shut.



ACTIVITIES:
Being 9 months pregnant, I did NOT want to focus on food...so instead I planned lots of games to keep the kids occupied.

When the kids arrived, they each got a camouflage strip of fabric to tie around their heads and a dog tag to decorate how they wanted.  The dog tags were a cut up cereal box covered in shiny silver tape...all things I had on hand, of course.  Plus I covered the table with craft paper and set out crayons for them to write a message to Diego.... just to pass a little time.



Here's the grenade launch....throw the stuffed grenades (from Christmas) through the holes to blow up the tank.



And no party is complete without..."Pin the Tail on the....." or in this case, Pin the Medal on the Soldier.  And I love making photo props for parties.   I made the face so it could be lifted up, and each child took their picture as the soldier.



There was an 'obsta-course', Diego's favorite part,  which involved sliding, crawling, tumbling, jumping, leaping over snake pits and shooting.

The 'rescue mission', which I thought would be total flop was the game we played the longest.  Several kids went and hid in the house, and the rest had to locate them, wrap up their injury with toilet paper and bring them back to base.  There a picture of Diego being dragged back to base camp.

The black balloons were land mines.  The kids had to cross the room withOUT stepping on or touching one...with the added fun that I was throwing balloons at them.  After we did that a few times, I had them become mine detonation experts and pop all the balloons.



Green army men.....0.97 cents at Walmart for a bag of 20....and a great game of MIA Soldiers.  While the kids were distracted playing something, some helpful moms hid the army men in the big room.  The kids had to 'leave no man behind' and find them all.





Sharp shooting was the last game.  Juan Pablo sawed 18 marshmallow shooters out of PVC pipe, washed and sanitized them in the dishwasher, and bagged the kit up for each child to put together.  Those things do shoot!  And double as a musical instrument while the kids are waiting their turn.  I decided not to let them shoot each other, since it ended up being an inside party, and instead we taped balloons to doors and let them shoot the balloons.



Some little sneakers ate all the ammo.



And lastly, hand to hand combat...the pinata.  We used a pool noodle to hit it, and I couldn't believe it actually started breaking.  Juan Pablo helped it along after everyone had gotten to hit, and there was a mad dash by the kids.  Everything in there was free from the recruiters, except the bag of smarties I threw in and some .97 cent water grenade balloons from Walmart.  (I don't usually shop at Walmart, but they came through this time!)



Diego loved his cake.  I went with store bought so I wouldn't have to worry about my usual cake flops.  And there were a few easy snacks set out, as well.... goldfish, carrots and chocolate covered strawberries (which were gone as soon as I took off the plastic wrap.)  Most people probably didn't even know they were there!







GOODIE BAGS
The goodie bags were labeled with the kids' military alphabet names...ie Diego was Delta Mike.  All that was in there was extra ammo (marshmallows) and a printout of the military alphabet.  With the piñata goodies and the marshmallow shooters, those kids were army strong!



Diego opened his presents in a whir.  He squealed with delight at most of them....there was one, though, that really bothered him for some reason...a camo make-up kit.  He actually told the mom, "I don't want this."  (The honesty of four year olds.)  It must be his dislike of getting messy...but we'll hold onto it in case he changes his mind.


Watching his anticipation grow as the party came together, and then as friends started to arrive, was so fun.  It was a very happy birthday indeed for this wonderful, first day of spring boy.