Lincoln's Army Birthday Party - Part 1! {Boy Birthday Party Ideas}

We had a *blast* celebrating our son Lincoln's 8th birthday last month! Lincoln has always looked up to our armed forces and dreamt of being a soldier. So this year, we decided to celebrate his birthday with an army theme...

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I made a burlap banner to greet the party guests, I mean soldiers, when they arrived.

 Next, the new recruits visited the "Fatigues" station, where they picked out their camo t-shirt, 

helmet, and backpack to put all of their party loot rations and training supplies. ;)

(Now that's putting my French vintage drying rack to good use. Lol.)

The soldiers also had the option of painting their faces...

Can you even see our cute birthday boy with all that camouflage? 

(The paratroopers were hot-glued to twine and strung to paper lanterns.)

The boys also got to pick out a fun patriotic emoji dog tag. I'm sure the vintage bread board they're hanging on is not lost on you, my friends. And running low on frames? Just tape a sign to an old book... And the customizable army printables I used were my favorite! They tied the whole party together.

Next, at the "Equipment Assembly" station, they decorated their marshmallow shooters with duct tape.

And then the fun part... testing those marshmallow shooters out!

The "Obstacle Course" was next...

There are so many great ideas for this online. We used Dollar Tree noodles held in place with bamboo skewers for the belly crawl. Then a left over piece of faux shiplap was the balance board. I envisioned tires - but my husband thought they'd be too hard to get rid of - so we used Dollar Tree hula hoops.

The soldiers loved this and completed the course a few times each... They won army men erasers as prizes.

And out at the "Mess Hall" the soldiers dined on pizza (not pictured because, well a mountain of pizza boxes...not super cute), grape grenades, carrot torpedoes, camo cupcakes, top secret water and lemonade.

We found the large, "hangable" camo tarp here.

I looked at a lot of army paper goods and these plates and napkins, with the stars, from Oriental Trading were my favorite!

The army printable package was incredible, and included the food and water bottle labels.

I found instructions for how to make camouflage cupcakes online... really easy and fun!

We couldn't believe what great manners these new recruits had!

They were soon off and running...

We broke the battalion down into three groups, and armed them with nerf guns and buckets of nerf bullets. They had three chances to hit at least two targets to win a prize (though they were allowed to keep playing until then won ;). Prizes were parachuters, bags of army men, and patriotic emoji pins (in case you were wondering). 

 Okay, I can't wait to show you what we did next! But this post is getting L-O-N-G, and you should get a prize if you're still reading. So Part 2 is coming soon. Stay tuned. You don't want to miss it!

Xo

Sources:

Paper Plates and Napkins - Oriental Trading

Army Men Erasers - Oriental Trading

Patriotic Emoji Dog Tags and Pins - Oriental Trading

Army Printables - Tania's Design Studio

Marshmallow Shooters - Backwood Toys
Camo Backdrop - Outerdo

Pool Noodles - Dollar Tree

Hula Hoops - Dollar Tree

Camo Shirts - Walmart

Camo Helmets - Dollar Tree

Camo Backpacks - Oriental Trading

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