Nerf Battle Party

It's been a while since I've shared some handmade party fun with you lovely readers.  Lately, I've been busy with Etsy shop orders, family obligations, trying to stay healthy and obsessing over the new creative planning trend (I'm so obsessed).  We won't get into all of that today, this post is all about my favorite little boy, my son, Adam and how we celebrated his 9th birthday with an epic Nerf Battle Party!

Here's a look at all the fun we had....to read about how we pulled it all together scroll down for all the details

PARTY ELEMENTS THAT INSPIRE: 

• Battle Gear Station
• Mini DIY Obstacle Course
• Simple Party Cake Topper
• Treats station with all the battle fixins
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Theme

If you've been a reader for a while, you know that I've planned some pretty fun celebrations for my kiddos.  We've hosted a Monster High spa party, a Sonic the Hedgehog party, and since both kids celebrate their birthdays in the same month, we even once had a dual Rock Star Party. Well, this year, we decided that we'd make this our last year to do big parties for a while.

April is always such a busy month for birthdays in our family and the following weeks just end up being a bit too crazy.  So, getting back to normal is always a challenge during that time of the year.....which is why I'm FINALLY able to sit down and share this party recap with you!

In the past most of my son's parties have been focused on some sort of video game character or a super hero.  Well, when he told me the theme he wanted this year, I was a bit shocked.  I was mostly shocked because he initially didn't even want a birthday party, opting instead to just have a quiet pizza dinner at home with his family.  Well, at some point, (notably after my daughter's birthday party) he changed his mind....and said he wanted a Nerf Battle party.

This whole theme threw me off because the boy barely plays with his Nerf guns.  So, I'm blaming You Tube for this new-found obsession as it seems that all roads point back to online videos.  My best guess is he came across a Nerf Battle video and the seed was planted.  Regardless of the theme's inception, I was all too happy to oblige.

Decor

After we set the date, I started planning all the details.  I knew automatically I would use lots of bright bold yellows, oranges and blues for the color scheme.  It was an absolute must that we had lots of darts, Nerf Guns of course and battle gear.  Once my basic ideas were in place, I began shopping for fun items that I could use to pull this shindig together.

I'm all about throwing theme parties, but I like to do it on a budget...and by budget, I mean, try and keep the cost very low.  So, I tend to shop my home, my party stash, the Dollar Tree and online deals for most of our parties.  I really tried to keep the decor as simple and affordable as I could so, there were plenty of DIY elements to this party.

Half of our yard was set up as an obstacle course using, inexpensive hula hoops, rope, wood planks (already owned and used in our yard as a garden border), repurposed wooden pallets constructed using rope to create a battle bunker and cardboard boxes spray painted camo style for our training area.

To add color to the whole yard, I originally wanted to use crepe streamers, but it was very windy the day of the party and the streamers wouldn't hold up. So, I used plastic table covers instead.  I cut cut them into wide strips and tied them just about everywhere that needed a pop of color.   It was great because they could be as long or short as I needed them to be.  In addition to the colorful plastic streamers, I also added lots of balloons onto things. I also added balloons around the yard for more color.

Normally, I would design my own printables for our parties but this time I did something a little different.  As I was looking for party ideas online, I came across the cutest Nerf themed party and it just happened to be for the son of two 'sweet' party friends, Heather and Jason of Hello my Sweet, hosted a Nerf themed party for their son a few years ago.  I loved their printables and was so happy to be able to use them for Adam's party.  They were so perfect and so different....and they saved me a good day and a half of designing, printing, cutting and assembling.  

Battle Gear Station

We created a Battle Gear Station for the kids to choose all their 'safety' gear.  The table set up was sort of the 'centerpiece' of our training course area.  I just used wooden crates that we already owned and filled them with Nerf darts, burlap and balloons to dress it up....then added the gear to the table....the printable sign pulled everything together and helped me determine what would be placed on the table.

My son and daughter were team captains and chose their team members.  My son's team was the blue team and my daughter's orange.   Each child was outfitted with team bands, safety goggles, dart belts and darts, along with their choice of Nerf Guns.

The teams color bands were just torn pieces of cotton fabric that the kids used to tie around their arms, necks and heads.  I used fabric quilting squares but bandannas would also work perfectly fine.  I found safety goggles from Dollar Tree....trust me....they're needed.  One of our brave soldiers kept taking his off and got shot in the eye area several times.  OUCH!

For the dart belts, I found a great idea on Pinterest using duct tape and stuck the darts around the kids' waists.  Honestly, this hack was about a 50/50 fail....for some of the kids, the duct tape belts worked great, for some, not so much. You may want to try velcro, elastics or a real Nerf dart tactical vest.  The Battle Gear station was also set up with Battle Juice (Blue Gatorade) to keep our little soldiers hydrated.

Adam has a good amount of Nerf guns, but was worried about certain ones getting damaged during the party.  So, I purchased extra Nerf guns from the Goodwill.  They were all in very good shape and only ran me about $3-$5 a pop.

Activities

Before the main games, the kids had target practice.  This activity was very simple, paper cups were set up onto the camouflaged cardboard boxes and they took turns shooting the cups off the boxes.  We also printed out the targets that came with the printable set...for every shot that hit a specific number on the target, the kids could get that amount in extra darts.

We started the big battles after target practice with playing capture the flag where each team had to run across the yard to try and steal the other team's flag. The kids also played Bunker Battle.  For the Bunker Battle, I nabbed 3 wooden pallets from the loading dock at my job and hubby constructed a makeshift fort. We also added those plastic streamers to it for color.  The last game was Every Man for Himself, which was literally every man for himself....last man standing without getting shot with a dart was the winner.

The final activity was the obstacle course where the 'winner' of the obstacle was the one who completed it in the shortest time.  For the obstacle course, we used hula hoops, small cones and poly rope.  We used two types of hula hoops, the small ones for the first obstacle.  The kids had to step through the hoops to get to the next obstacle. The other hoops were the largest we had and those were cut those about 3 quarters of the way off.  We used them to created arches with for the Belly Crawl portion of the obstacle.The next obstacle was a rope challenge, set up so the kids had step through the ropes without stepping on them.  I just used poly rope and wooden dowels staked into the ground

Food

Before we got started with the games, I served Pizza and wings, along with Orange Gatorade.
A festive treats table was also set up with tasty snacks with fun names.....Battle Blasters (Doritos), Gatorade (Battle Juice), Poppers (Popcorn), Targets (peach flavored gummy rings - you can also use orange slices), Gun Powder (Pixie Sticks) and Pretzel Darts (chocolate dipped pretzels).

The birthday cake was from our Safeway grocery store.  I just had them make a Diner Cake (3 layer - top/bottom chocolate middle white) frosted it in the colors of the party.   I made my own toppers using my Cricut machine.

Favors

As luck would have it, my poor boy caught a little cold the night before the party, but didn't want to cancel the celebration.  After a long nap, he woke up just as the party got started, toughed it out for the first few hours of the bash, then sat out for the rest of the time.  He had just enough energy to get through everyone singing Happy Birthday and blow out his candles.  We sent everyone on their way with favor bags filled with a pack of extra darts, bubbles that were packaged to match the theme and sidewalk chalk.  They also were able to keep their battle gear goggles and team flags.

Shop the party

I hope that you were able to find ideas and inspiration for your own epic Nerf Battle party!  To shop the items or similar products for this party - use the links below.  You can find items for this party throughout this post or via the following links.

Nerf Printables:  Hello My Sweet

Battle Darts: http://amzn.to/2qnPU23

Safety goggles:bbhttp://shrsl.com/?i6eh

Tactical Vest: http://amzn.to/2s2nXKp

Hope you had a 'blast', buddy!

Even though he wasn't feeling 100%  I know he enjoyed it as best he could.....another one for the books!!!

LET'S GET SOCIAL!
Are you planning your own epic Nerf Battle using some ideas from this post?  Have questions on how to plan or setup an obstacle course?  I'd love to hear from you!!!
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(This post contains affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission when you purchase any from any of the linked items.  Money generated from such links are used to create and deliver content for this blog.)

Black Cat Halloween Gift Tag - 13 Days of Handmade Halloween 2016: Day 9

It's day nine of the 13 Days of Handmade Halloween and my pal, Sunny of  Sunny By Design is sharing an adorable Black Cat Halloween gift tag!  The kitten peeping over the cauldron is just adorable!

Thanks, Sunny for making these way too cute tags - your illustrations are so fun!

This project is part of our 13 Days of Handmade Halloween series.  Don't forget to follow along with the series on social media - just make sure to use the hashtag #13DOHH2016 to see all the other great projects from our Handmade Makers and share your projects too - we'd love to see what you create!  There will be a prize for my favorite Halloween creation!

LET'S GET SOCIAL! Find more celebrations and Halloween fun @cwbdparties on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

Keep up with what our host of makers are sharing this year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Trick or Treat Printables - 13 Days of Handmade Halloween 2016: Day 8

It's day eight of the 13 Days of Handmade Halloween and Maureen Walker of Party Alamo is sharing Trick or Treat printables for all your Halloween goodies!

Printables are always great to use for so many things, and these are especially fun! Thank you, Maureen for sharing your ideas!

This project is part of our 13 Days of Handmade Halloween series.  Don't forget to follow along with the series on social media - just make sure to use the hashtag #13DOHH2016 to see all the other great projects from our Handmade Makers and share your projects too - we'd love to see what you create!  There will be a prize for my favorite Halloween creation!

LET'S GET SOCIAL! Find more celebrations and Halloween fun @cwbdparties on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

Keep up with what our host of makers are sharing this year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Celebrating Easter with Family

I was compensated by Evite for my time in developing this post. All opinions are my own.

I am normally a paper invitation kind of gal.  However, I do use Evite for our smaller events when we're entertaining at home or having a meetup for dinner or even lunch with friends.  This way, I can easily keep track of who will be coming.  Evite also makes it easier for anyone who is always on the go, you can RSVP lickity-split and add the date to your calendar.  It really makes life simpler.  I also love that there is an option to also send greetings and even tangible gifts to your loved ones, as well. So, I'll be sure to use Evite this year to send a little online love to those who won't be able to visit with us this Easter holiday.

I was asked by Evite recently to share how I celebrate the holiday with my family.  Evite has a wide variety of  online Easter greetings available on their site to choose from. I chose a beautiful watercolor Easter basket design and used it as inspiration for how I will be celebrating with my family.

In our home, Easter is that one holiday that starts up the family gatherings after winter's passed and spring brings out the happiness of new life and color.  I love entertaining for friends and hosting parties for others, but there is nothing more special than to pull out my favorite dishes, silverware and serving plates and gather my loved ones around a holiday table.  Besides, I don't really need that much of a reason to decorate for a holiday or special event, so, anytime we can get family and friends over to entertain and have a good time, we're game!

Each year we usually start our Easter day with either Sunrise or Early Morning service.  We prefer to get our fill of the Lord early in the day so we can have the afternoon for lots of good eating and fun activities for the kids.  This year, I know we'll be going to church early and I thought it would be a great idea for us to come home to a lovely brunch. You can use the ideas I am sharing for inspiration to create your own holiday family memories.

For simple brunch food, I wanted to include dishes that my family loves.  Every Easter, we usually have a huge Ham and big old pot of Green Beans.  This year, I wanted to scale down how much food we made.  I got lucky while I was out shopping for our Easter dinner when I found the cutest baby ham at Target!  I didn't even know ham could be so adorable. It was super easy to roast up in the oven.  Normally my husband cooks the green beans the old fashioned southern way, boiled down in salt pork, and it tastes great. However, since I've recently changed my way of eating and sneaking my lighter cuisine into my family's diet, I wanted to try something new.  So, this time I sauteed the green beans in Sesame oil and added garlic, mushrooms and radishes to them and topped them with slivered almonds.  They're super yummy.

Brunch always needs breakfast food.  For a spin on a deli style breakfast sandwich, I made egg salad toasties topped with bacon.  These are very easy to make, just add a basic egg salad, to toasted bread cut into small squares and top them with chopped bacon.  My kids love egg salad and bacon....wins all around.  They also love French Toast in the morning.  I did something different this time and used a loaf of blueberry bread instead of basic white bread and it really was delicious.  You can also use French Bread or Brioche. 

An Easter Brunch would not be complete with out a brunch punch. Brunch Punch can be your favorite fruit juice with seltzer and a few frozen berries!  It's a delicious spin on a Bellini or Mimosa.  Serve cupcakes for dessert....because....CUPCAKES!

Everything for my table decor came from my party stash....except for the large plates, bowls and napkins (I created those bunny ears using this tutorial).  I normally use white plates for my place settings, but I again wanted to draw some color into this tablescape using the inspiration from the Evite greeting.  Also, I designed my Easter Basket centerpiece using the main design from the card.  I simply filled a wooden basket with old newspaper, a bit of floral moss and water color decorated Easter Eggs!  The rest of the accessories on the table were pulled from my Easter and spring decor. 

We don't usually do a separate kids table for Easter, but I don't want the table to look like it's for grown ups only.  I know the kids love bunnies, chocolates and Easter Eggs, so, adding those elements to the table were a must. 

Easter is usually never as fancy a holiday for us as Christmas or Easter is.  Since I wasn't making a lot of food, there was space to add small platters of the dishes I prepared for our meal!  This gives us more time to pass the plate around and chat without having to get up and down for seconds!

Here's a tip for adding flowers to your table decor.  I love using small jars and egg cups and simply adding cut flowers to them.   Small mason and canning jars are a great way to make clusters of flowers around your table.  I use mini carnations all the time and fill glass jars with them for our holiday parties. 

Evite gets the fun started but you can always create great memories with your family and loved ones. Every Easter weekend, we dye a few eggs and set them out for the Easter Bunny to take with him when he drops of the kids' baskets.  We always end our Easter with a fun Egg Hunt for the kids in the family.  It's always such a delight to see them running around and gathering all their treats.  I need to find some other fun games and activities that we can do. I'm thinking now that the kids are a bit bigger, sac races are about to become a Sibert Family Tradition.  Do you have any fun Easter traditions that you do with your family?.  I'd love to hear from you - leave a comment below.