Army/Soldier Party: Yesterday we celebrated my son's 6th birthday. This year we decided on an "Army theme" and set our battle plan into motion. First, we sent out
GI Joe invitation (only military type invitations I could locate).
Party decorations consisted of 3 Army pup-tents and a camo screen. The kids loved playing in the pup tents and I set up the gift table and tables for the kids to eat on underneath the camo screen. The kids ate their meal in real Army mess kits. All the Army equipment (pup tents, camo screen and mess kits were borrowed from a local US Army Reserve Center.) I decorated a 1/2 sheet cake with black piping along the bottom, and tinted icing in two different shades of green, brown and black. I then thinned the icing so I could "paint" a camouflage design around the top of the cake leaving approximately a 10" x 6" white center where I wrote my birthday message. I then borrowed a few of my son's army toys (a helicopter and a couple of army men) and used for decorations. I used plain, white, paper table covers for all the tables and then added some camouflaged material (got from Wal-Mart) as a table runner. I again used some of my son's larger Army toys for centerpieces and table decorations. I served hot dogs, chips and dip, raw veggies and dip and a fruit tray and dip. My intentions were for the kids to have the hot dogs and chips and the veggies and fruit trays for the adults but the kids seemed to enjoy them just has much as the adults. Of course we had cake and ice cream for desert. When I sent out the invitations I included a short memo describing the day's events and informed all the parents we would be having a "water bomb" fight so the kids could dress accordingly. I also found a great piņata from birthday express in the shape of an army vehicle. I decorated my party area with black, brown, and green balloons and streamers. Treat bags were plan black paper bags and I filled them with treasures found at a local army surplus store. I included a picture to color of a soldier (found at a GI Joe site on the internet), an army ear-plug case (ear-plugs removed and replaced with candy), plastic army men, and a light/glow stick (this seemed to be the favorite especially after dark) and a set of army "dog-tags" (I didn't engrave the names of the dog tags just wrote the name with a marker). This was the best birthday party we have ever had and everyone including the adults seemed to really enjoy it.
