After we almost melted in the humidity at the previous year’s backyard pirate party (see pirate party post), we decided to change venues.  My son thought a pool party with an army theme would be great.  It worked out well until the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in.  This year, we are definitely planning an indoor event!

The Invitations: I returned to Fine Stationery for an army style invitation.  I ordered blank cards and printed from my home printer.  The wording for these invitations included things like, “Attention Troops” and “You’ve been drafted for (name’s) birthday party” and “Report to (location)”. We used military time (14:00) for the party start time and printed everything with Stencil font.

The Food: Our local grocery store did not have an army birthday cake, but they can do camouflage colors on the icing.  They also were able to create a rocky landscape with candy rocks and trees. We added plastic army men, army tank candles from Party City, and an American flag toothpick.  Each guest received a canteen filled with lemonade that I ordered from Oriental Trading.

The Games: We threw handfuls of plastic army men into the shallow end of the pool for a search and rescue activity.  Kids also had a cannonball/jumping contest off the diving board.  For prizes, each child earned a “dog tag” with their award written on the back. We came up with awards like biggest splash, best dive, best flip, best twist, etc. The dog tags came from Oriental Trading, but Party City had a big selection of army themed favors too.

The Party Favors: Guests took home the canteen, the plastic army men, and a squirt gun.