Teen Luna Park Birthday Party

I know I only just finished the post on the military party, and my eldest son's doesnt want a party at home but wants to go to Luna Park Sydney for his 15th birthday. 

Everyone that knows me, knows I cant do things by halves, and although I am doing a drop off, pick up party I have a plan (hehehehehehehe) 

So here is what the invite looks like Just as before I am happy to post a generic one if its something you might want for your own personal use just comment below.

 My idea is because I wont be there to follow them around with a camera, I am going to send them on a photo scavenger hunt so I can at least get a few happy snaps. 

CALL of Duty Military Party

Ok Here is the party as promised. I have to say thank you to firstly Hubby cause I went a little crazy with stuff and spent alot of time on this. My sister in law for getting me a whole lot of lollies and toys. My friend for helping with the prep and of course pinterest.

I previously posted the invitation I made am happy to post a Generic one if you are interested just comment below and I will post it for you.

 Thats my boy all geared up for his birthday wearing the Dog Tags I made earlier, found here. He had a ball.

When they arrived they had to enlist at the front door. We took them through marching drills and got them use to saying "SIR YES SIR"

  During enlistment they received their Army issued gear. I found these cute toilet bags for $1 each at Jasmines Warehouse left overs from the Charlies Angels merchandise and just covered the logo with some left over camo material I had. The bags were filled with a few goodies, army men, bombs, lollies balloons pencils.

 Here are the Dog tags I have mention these a few times and the binoculars are from Kmart then they moved onto receiving their rations for the day. 

Bottle water, snack sizes chippies, Nutrigrain in snack bags and fruit bars. These were given to soldiers to snack on until the mess hall opened. 

 Here is the backyard before the kids came out. My poor chickens didnt know what they were in for. but we had the tyres, balance beam, commando crawl and then it was 10 star jumps, push ups & sit ups

We painted the target to do a paratrooper competition, using plastic parachute men. The one who landed closes to the middle won. Then we had a Grenade Launch, my eldest son thought it would be fun to put his head in the middle as the kids threw water bombs at the target. We also had a shooting range (not pictured) using a nerf gun and velcro bullets(having 4 sons we are not in short supply) We had a Velcro target left over from the Carnival Party the year before. 

We also played:

Save a mate - Each team had to make it through the obstacle course to their injured mate wrap their wound (leg or head) and carry them back to base using a towel. 

Capture the Flag - two different coloured army men hidden around the yard 15 each team. The team that found all their men first, then had to steal the flag of the other team and make it back to base. 

The kids loved it, well they were all around 7yrs old, but even my older boys joined in. 

  
After a few of the games they stopped for a break, I let them have a few minutes to get a drink and then I sent out a siren and yelled raid, we threw out 25 balloons each team and they had to stop what they were doing and pop the balloons, first team to pop all 25 won. 

 Note to self never let your son take the photos as most of them will end up blurry, these were all we could salvage I am not sure if you can see, but I made mini care packages as prizes for the individual games.

I am a little disappointing I don't have a better picture of the care packages but here is how they were put together

All in all it was a great day, and as long as Nathaniel loved it thats all that mattered

Here are some of the troops towards the end of the party, the others were busy eating and playing.

M.I.A

I know I know I have been M.I.A lately and things have been a little deserted. But I promise I have been a busy little bee. My calling in Young Women, keeping me on my toes, I have also been called as the Faith in God for girls Activities leader, so its been heads down bums up. I have so much to update. Nathaniel had an O for Awesome birthday party. Here is a sneak peak because I cant seem to find the rest of my photo's hehehe... I am hoping they didnt get deleted.

Here he is dressed and ready for action, with his tank backdrop that daddy painted just for him :)

 He was late to his own birthday, we sent him to Nan's house so he would be surprised when he got here so all his friends were here and then (sounds of crickets churping) No Nathaniel.

More photos to come I promise. 



I also have to update you all on our school packs. It was such a great experience. I only hope the young women I serve got as much out of it as I did. We packed 60 school packs  10 were incomplete but we all done well. 50 was our goal and we did it (yay) I cant wait for the girls to see photos of the kids who will receive the packs. I dont think they will every truly understand the good that have done. (But thats the point, isnt it) Service truly builds testimonies.

Some of the girls happlily packing away

 

 Oh and lets not forget my Vinnies finds, I had to run a few errands today and while I was out I thought I would make the most of it and stop at a Vinnies store here and there. 

just ignore all the other backgrounds stuff thats what I get for asking hubby to take pictures at this time of night

 

So what do you think? I absolutely love them, I am thinking I will re-paint them after doing a quick search online for a DIY and I think I've got it. Pretty cool huh........I spent a whole $7 which once upon a time i would have thought was way too expensive but gone are the days when I could have got the lot for $2. Oh and I found this absolutely beautiful Coral teapot, but it had a chip in the spout so they wouldnt sell it to me. When I asked what they would do with it, they said throw it in the bin. I asked the lovely lady behind the counter if I could follow her to the bin (i know stalker material) but she gracefully declined. I was a little sad and kicking myself for telling her it was chipped (trying to get my price down). But Ces't la vie I live to thrift another day!!!! 

Stay tuned for the reveal of my old but new items.

DIY Dog Tags

Thanks to the sister in law for giving me a fab idea for military dog tags for my sons birthday all you need is:

Key Tags

Silver Spray paint

cheap chain (the one they use for roller blinds)

and it turn's these

 

 into standard issue military dog tags

All that is left to do is customize their names during intake when they arrive. I cant wait to see how it all turns out. 

Call of Duty Military Party

Lately I have discovered the love I have for planning and organising birthday parties and events. Over the years I have helped organised Birthdays, Weddings, Dances, Festivals, sporting activities, youth activities, school holiday activities and the list goes on and on.........

My latest project is my son's birthday. We dont normally have a big birthday for your 7th, its usually their 1st, 5th, 8th, 12th, 16th. In December last year we had a carnival party for two of my children who turned five and eight and the kids absolutely loved it and still talk about it.  

Nathaniel my 7 year old, cannot recall having a 5th birthday and so I have decided I would throw him a 7th birthday, but what to do,I had to think of a theme. The theme needed to fit the following:

Cheap
Easy to organise
Something he loved
Fit into 3 hours in the afternoon
did I mention Cheap?


My sister in law had a Mexican Fiesta earlier in the year and I was trying a little too hard to be frugal and wanted to reuse her decorations. He loves Tacos and so my plan was to get him excited about having a fiesta, eating Tacos, having a pinata and dressing up. When I suggested it to him I could tell he wasn't really into it but I talked him around, and so I searched the pinterest and the internet to find ideas for his Mexican Fiesta 7th Birthday Party. 

About a week later I was talking with Hubby about the party and both of us not really feeling it, and knowing that our son wasn't interested and then it hit me. He loves playing the XBOX, and his favorite game is Call of Duty. I had a light bulb moment. Yes what seven year old boy wouldn't want a military party.

I searched my other love PINTERST and found lots of cool ideas. Here is the invitation I used for the party 

 I wanted it to sound authentic and pretty happy with the results. stay tuned for the Care Packages, DIY Dog Tags and more..........