A Boot Camp Birthday
Whew! Thomas’ 8th birthday party wore me out. He requested an army party, so I managed to get my act together and put together something entertaining for Thomas today. Michael helped a lot with the set up!
When the boys got here, we gave them their dog tags, assigned them to alpha and bravo teams, and painted the faces of those who were interested in camouflage makeup.
Then Chris lined them up and put them through some ceremonial drills.
Then they went on a road march. That speck is actually boys.
Of course, we can’t do a party without the obstacle course. It has become a tradition.
They had to swing across
Walk across a low balance beam and high scaffold then army crawl under the “barbed string”
Through the “jungle”, beat up the “bad guy”, and then up the ladder
Down the slide and under the deck to safety. (or in this case, silliness)
We let the boys all have a dry run before we set out the “mines” (water balloons)
After blindfolding them and having them help each other through a minefield, we turned them loose on each other with about 150 water balloons and squirt guns. Our cameras aren’t waterproof so there aren’t any pictures of that. Needless to say, the boys had much fun and got plenty wet and dirty in the process.
I let them play “carry the wounded soldier” for a little bit to help them unwind before being asked to be civilized long enough for cake and cheese puffs. (Thomas requested the cheese puffs.)
I’m going to go a bit on a tangent for a moment and share about the cake. Thomas requested that I make the batter camouflage, so I mixed it up in 4 different colors and plopped it into the cake pan. Here’s what the cake looked like when it was mostly done, but before I added the detail work.
And after (Michael said “wow” enough times to make me feel good about all the time I put into it.)
The guests seemed to get a big kick out of it (even though the cheese puffs tried to steal the scene)
Thomas blew the candles out and the cake was history.
There was a quick exchange of gifts before the boys got busy with their water guns again. They picked up goodie bags and their certificate promoting them from recruit to private on the way out the door. They all left wet and worn out. Most of them complained that they had to go home, so I’m assuming they were having fun. I got a kick out of all the water wars. Too bad I missed getting those pictures though.
Tags: birthday, cakes, party, Pictures, Thomas
Kid stuff, Pictures, Special events | Melissa | 
May 1, 2010 6:33 pm
By Michael, May 1, 2010 @ 6:45 pm
It really was an awesome looking cake!
By Sarah Adams, May 1, 2010 @ 6:57 pm
Looks like a great party…and WOW, what an awesome cake!
By By: Sue McLarty, May 2, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
WOW! Melissa amd Michael that was an awesome idea for a boys party. Melissa, you have got sooo much talent…to be able to create a cake that looked so realistic! I know Thomas and his friends had blast!