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For his birthday, I gave him a “Military” themed party. We invited 20 of his friends–BEFORE we realized that his daddy would be off fighting fire! Thanks to TONS of help from my wonderful Aunt Bridget (who was not only present for Captain’s birth, but always comes to my aid when I am in desperate need of help!) , we had an almost perfect day. (It just couldn’t be perfect without daddy… We miss him SO MUCH!)
Not all the boys were able to come, but if you count our family, we had 19 children and 12 adults!
When the boys arrived, dressed in their fatigues, they signed in for “boot camp,” and were given their personalized dog tags and helmets.
I had tables set up with a large variety of Military Coloring Pages for the boys to color while we waited for everyone to arrive.
Once my brother Brian the “Drill Sergeant” had arrived, it was time to get the games started, so we began with Basic Training.
I set up an obstacle course using our play set.
The objective was to climb the rock wall, come through the fort, down the ladder, over the balance beam, across and back on the monkey bars, run through 2 tire, crawl under the twine barbwire, climb the rope ladder, go down the slide, and hit the target on a nearby tree with a ball.
We had one boy (pictured below) who made it through the course in only 36 SECONDS!!!! Can you believe that? Amazing!!
After Basic Training, it was time for Air Force Academy. The boys all made their own paper airplanes and we had a flight competition to see whose would fly the farthest. (For most of the competitions, we broke the boys into groups by age–younger boys and older boys.)
Next it was time for Sergeant Says. The “Sergeant” had a little too much fun with this game.
Even Twinkle Toes joined in the fun.
After the games (we never did get to all the ones I had planned. Why do I ALWAYS over plan??), supplied with tons of cardboard, I had them break into two teams to build their forts for the upcoming water balloon fight Battle, while we served up dinner.
I was keeping these boys BUSY!
After dinner they had their battle. I really enjoyed *watching* from the sidelines, and snapping a few photos!
At the request of Captain, I made a “Tank” Cake. Capitan loved, Loved, LOVED it! I must say that I was pretty excited with how it turned out as well! What do you think? Do you like it? Does it look like a tank?
Anyhow, after the boys ate their German Chocolate and White German and American Tank cake with Triple Chocolate Ice Cream, it was time for Captain to open his gifts.
He was completely spoiled. (Good thing he knows that these birthday parties are not a yearly event!! Usually it is just our family.)
(Yes! My Auntie made me wear camo…and I am looking pretty tired by this point!)
I am in desperate need of some sleep after this weekend, but before I go, I want to send a Big HUGE thank you to Aunt Bridget for all the help!!!! You are AWESOME!!! Thank you Brian, JoAnn, Mary and everyone else who helped me keep up with it all during the party! I SO appreciated the help! And thank you to all of Captains friends for helping to make his day such a special one!
I’ll bet you are tired. That’s the kind of party that you’s already be tired from planning let alone execution! What a rgeat memory for Captain and his friends. The cake does look awesome!
God Bless your son’s whole year!
That looked awesome! The cake turned out great!!! You had some terrific ideas to keep the boys busy, good job planning. I bet you are sooo tired today 😉 Everyone looked so happy, bet hubby is proud of you but wished he could have been there…Thank God for pictures!!
Oh, this was excellant!!!!! We might have to do this one sometime for fun!!! (not a birthday, we did that with Star Wars once)
You did such a great job, the cake is great!!! We thought the tread on the wheels was Ande’s mints, we were trying to guess what it was made of before reading it! Did you make that up? Wow!!!
The games were so fun!! I love the flags, the enlist table, the drill seargent, the EVERYTHING!!! The cardboard thing, now that is SO cool!!!! All those boys will be talking about this party for a long time!!!!
Ok, now if you send this to Faith and family, tell me how….!
Great job and happy birthday Captain!!
I hope your dear hubby is home soon!!!
Over planning is good, there are not any dull moments, right? The hard part is not getting to what you worked hard on!
You look great as a soldier too!
I love that you dressed up for the party.
Birthday party boot camp activities!! Pure genius!! I am sure your party guests slept well that night.
Happy Birthday to Captain!
Wow! What a neat party. Because their uncle is in the military, our own children also love anything with a military theme. You must be proud to have put on a party like this! Happy birthday to Captain!
even before i clicked on your blog i thought to myself: okay, what wonderful idea is she going to have today :o) and of course you had one! [what is with you!! – if you had one kid, i’d understand, but no, you’re just Tons-of-Love-Super-MOM!!]
I love the cake idea. where did you get that idea?
oh, sorry…i was so busy wallowing in self pity [lol] that i forgot to say: HAPPY HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN!!
WOW!!! What a great time everyone had, especially the B-day boy. Great job Jess!!! A.B. p.s. I’d do anything for that kid,just dont tell him that 🙂
I know you would Aunt B! You’d even leave a comment on a post!!!!!!! 😉
Thank you again!
YES! I am EXHAUSTED, and I can’t believe how SORE I am today! I seriously feel like I just went through boot camp myself! I could barely get out of bed this morning. It must have been all the running up and down the hill and in and out of the house, ALL day!
Thank you all for your sweet comments on the cake! To get inspired, I looked at a number of different tank shaped cakes online, and combined my favorite things from each. The Pirouette Cookie as the cannon was my idea. I love those cookies! (Though, if you ever make this and use one, wrap the end with foil to prevent the moisture from making it fall over. I had to replace it in the morning before the party.) Most of the cakes I saw used black licorice for the tread, but do kids even like black licorice?? I don’t! Chocolate is so much better, don’t you think??
Super fun…
I feel like I’ve had my workout for today!
Oh and Shelly, you are too funny! This one totally wiped me out… It’s going to take me awhile to recover. So, don’t get your hopes up for tomorrow! :o)
Great job Jessica! Pulling off big events like this can be grueling. Hope you’re enjoying some rest today.
Happy Birthday Captain! 🙂
What an absolutely awesome party!! I know a few little boys around here who would love to duplicate that day of fun!! Blessings to your little man…
Wow! What a great party, you inspired me for our next birthday party (we have four boys!). Have you thought about sending your pictures to Faith and Family magazine for their themed party page? Hope you got some rest after all the work you did. Blessings to you,
Mary from Vocation of Motherhood
The party was so much fun..the kids looked like they were haveing the best time ever! (your a pro- party giver jessica!) =) I loved being their to help out with a few things. (I can't beleive how fast the kids are all growing up!!) (eight whole years since I first became an aunt… crazy!) Love you!! God Bless!
<3 mary