20986

Army Party (4-9yr) Tug o' War

February 2010

Christina in Brunswick Ohio USA

Honorable Mention

My son absolutely loves anything that has to do with soldiers and really wanted an army themed birthday party. To start with I got Army invitations at the store and sent them out. Each saying  You've been deployed to the bootcamp of Grumbling " followed by the time date and to wear military gear and expect to get filthy.

The party was located at his aunts house.We set up two very large tents one being the Barracks and the other the Mess Hall. I was dressed as the drill instructor and greeted the kids as they arrived I sat at a table with a camo table cloth. As they arrived they came to the table where they were welcomed to Camp Grumbling and asked to write their info in a Armystrong notebook I got from the local recruiting station. The kids had to write their I.D.- name Homebase- addrese and Contact info- phone numberto be used later for the thank you cards. After that I painted each of their faces with camo face paint and sent them to the Barracks to construct the American Flag ( I got the craft kit from the local art store).

After all of the "soldiers" had arrived we lined up and saluted the drill captian (me) and did role call. All the children had to scream sir yes sir. After that we went to the barracks and made our dog tags out of craft stuff and stickers. After that we did some calestetics AKA exercises to warm up. After that I read all the rules of bootcamp ex. Your time here will be hard This will be challanging You will get dirty and you will have cake and ice cream all followed by yes sir. After that we had to practice our target practice for battle. I made bombs out of styrofom balls that I painted black and glued thick string to as the wick. The kids then basically took turns playing corn hole with the bombs.When they were done with that it was time to practice teamwork.

The kids were divided into two teams and then played tug o' war over a small pool placed in mud. The kids thought that this was great and ended up playing until everyone got dirty and wet. They were then awarded for great teamwork with USA medals. We then we received a special message from headquarters that enemy soldiers had been spotted within our territory. The kids all grabed their gear that they had brought as well as the bombs and ran off to find the enemy troops. The enemies were little toy soldiers that were hidden around the woods.

After that we did role call again to ensure that all of our troops were acounted for and then another special message from headquarters came informing us that two of our troops had been injured by the enemy. Two of the older boys had agreed earlier to disappear in the woods while the younger kids weren't looking. In light of our missing solders the kids were divided into two teams and sent with sleds and bandages (toilet paper) to retreive our lost men. This turned out really great the kids wrapped every inch of paper on the missing men and dragged them back to camp. Every soldier was awarded for their courage with a purple heart sticker.

Now that all the kids had proven that they were patriotic (making flags) strong enough (exercise) brave enough (finding the enemys)could practice teamwork (tug o' war)and never left any soldier behind (finding the missing men) they were all ready to be deployed to war. A water balloon war that is. The backyard was decorated with camo nets and lots of random log piles with buckets of balloons behind each. And off to war they went. After all that fun the troops lined up again and were dimissed to the mess hall were they snacked on cake and icecream.

We then opened gifts one of which had come from the army recruiters. I called and told them about the party a month in advance and had asked if they had any items that they were willing to donate. They were really great about it and gave him a shirt hat flashlight mug dufflebag and pens and notebooks. He was so excited to have gotten a gift from real soldiers.After all that we went and each guest and my son posed for individual pictures in front of the flag. They all were to stand at attention and salute for the photos. All the kids had a great time and a year later I still get refured to as the mom who dressed up like a drill sergeant with camo makeup and all. A couple weeks after the party I sent out the thank yous. I bought them at the store and placed the photo of that child and my son inside each. All the kids at this party were between 4 and 9 years old and all had a really great time. Hope this helps!!!"

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