My son, Sam, loves all things military, but back in February of 2002, it was not very p.c., so we had a hard finding anything related to army soldiers for his birthday party.
My husband had been in the Army, so we had a few supplies at our house, but an army surplus store could fill all the needs. For invitations, I got camouflage paper from an office suppy store and wrote "MEMORANDUM FOR DISTRIBUTION: SAM'S SIXTH BIRTHDAY PARTY. YOU ARE HEREBY REQUESTED TO REPORT FOR DUTY ON FEBRUARY 20 FROM 1300 TO 1500 HRS AT (OUR ADDRESS) FOR BIRTHDAY PARTY TRAINING". I noted that they should come in "uniform" or play clothes that could get dirty and requested that all "weapons" be left at home. When the boys arrived, we had cardboard picture frames for them to decorate with markers, stickers from the Army/Marine recruiting office and flag stickers. We also had coloring sheets of soldiers and tanks for them to work on while we did up their faces. One by one, we cammo'd their faces with brown, black and green face paint. (We used Halloween-type face paint because the military stuff is too hard to get off.) After each child was camouflaged, he got an army helmet (Oriental Trading Company) and stood in front of an American flag that we had hung vertically from our mantel. We then took his picture with his best "Army face". One of the parents took the film up to the one hour photo lab to be developed during the party. Next, my husband, dressed in his BDU's, took the boys outside to do "P.T." They had to do push-ups, sit-ups, run in place, and an obsticle course. We took dowel rods and made a path then strung twine around them in a zigzag pattern so the boys could do the "low-belly crawl". They had to go across monkey bars and run through "tires" that we drew on the drive-way. When they were finished, they each got a dogtag with their name on it (Oriental Trading Company). With some of their energy expended, we went inside and played "Guess What's in the Duffel Bag." We had things that might be in a soldier's bag like sunglasses, gloves, dogtags, socks, a boot, a belt, etc. Each boy put his hand in and, without looking, guessed what he was holding. He then pulled it out to see if he was correct. If he was, the item went in the center of the group, and he got a piece of candy. If not, it went back in the bag. Next it was time for chow. I had purchased 2 1/2 yards of waterproof camouflage fabric for a tablecloth. We used green napkins, plates, cups, and plastic ware. We had green kool-aid, hotdogs, and chips. I made Sam a cake that looked like a battlefield, using plastic soldiers for decoration. I arranged toothpicks to look like a pike obsticle and took florist wire and wound it up to look like concertina wire. Crushed chocolate cookies made a road between the opposing forces. All of the boys thought it was the coolest cake they had seen, and it was the easiest one I ever made! For goodie bags, I got regular cotton camouflage material, and sewed small sacks and added a twine draw-string. We filled them with plastic soldiers (Dollar Tree), a camouflage pencil, and, best of all, MRE food. You can buy food from MRE's at a surplus store. Each sack had crackers, cheese spread, drink mix, and candy. One of the parents picked up the pictures during "chow", and at the end of the party, each child got his picture back and put it in his frame. (It was hard to tell the kids apart with their faces painted!) Finally, each child got a "rank" patch of Private First Class (army supply store) as he left the party. We all had a wonderful time, and it has been hard to live up to this party since all the kids wonder what fun things we'll do at Sam's next birthday!
