In the Army

Today (Saturday) was Matthew's 4th birthday party - his birthday is actually in a week or so, but this weekend worked out best for us to have a friend party. We invited everyone a few days before Scott got hurt, and I thought about canceling when I realized Scott wouldn't be able to help with anything, but we decided to go ahead with it anyway, and I think it worked out.
Matthew has been telling me for about six months (since Anna's birthday in August) that he wants an Army themed party, so that's what we did. We jokingly tried to get him to have an Air Force party instead, but he was pretty insistent on Army. :) I started out thinking I was going to make it so cute and creative, but limited by circumstance and energy level, I'm not sure I delivered on that. In any case, here are some pictures from our party. Thanks Michelle and Angie for all the cute ideas! And thanks to Scott and Mom Guptill for helping me to execute it. Here's Matthew posing by the flag. I was thinking of having all the kids pose here so I could send a nice picture as a thank you later, but the younger kids (Anna included) did not want to pose there. :)
Scott ran the recruiting table where he issued the kids helmets and dog tags. Originally I was going to have him dress up in his uniform to look very official, but since he has a huge cast on his leg and is very unshaven from being stuck in bed for over a week, I thought I wouldn't pursue that angle. He would have been the least convincing recruiting officer ever. :)

In lieu of a cake (and there were some cute looking tank cake ideas out there) I made these cupcakes with army men on top. I used the green and black spray paint food coloring to try and make it look camouflage-ish. It sort of worked. I thought it looked good.

For our first activity we went down to the basement to run the obstacle course. Scott's mom (who is visiting to help us right now) and I set it up the day before and I think it was a success. The kids went across our treadmills covered with blankets, climbed over the back of our couch and bounced over the futon mattress, through a few box tunnels, into a tent filled with balls, through more tunnels and under a folding card table with a blanket over it. It wasn't very high tech or complicated, but I think it was age appropriate and the kids seemed to love it! Here's Anna trying it out the day before.

Our next activity was "target practice" which was just throwing some camouflage colored Easter eggs and beanbags into some different boxes with targets taped on. I know, it sounds completely brainless, but the kids totally loved it! We gave them little hero medals for completing their training.

Next we went out to search for soldiers (Easter egg hunt style) in the backyard. Luckily it was warm enough for a quick visit outside. They searched for some Army men in the yard.

We also had the water table set up, and filled with beans and hidden Army men for the smaller kids to sift through. They liked that too. This was sort of a repeat of a hunt for gold nuggets activity we did at Anna's birthday last year, but it still worked.

Finally we took a few swings at the tank shaped pinata courtesy of Party City. I got a ton of camouflage stuff from there. Here's Anna giving it a go. I had to rip the pinata apart in the end, but we eventually got to that candy. Typical.

After our games (which all went by super quick for our short attention span crowd) we had some sandwiches and then cupcakes. Here is Matthew blowing out his candles. These four candles singed the poor Army man on his cupcake, but I think he's going to make it. It's sort of a Guptill family tradition that Matthew never eats his birthday cake. The reason being that it is so quickly followed by presents. Once the presents come out the cake is quickly forgotten. Same thing this year. :) He always likes getting sung to though and blowing out those candles.

And here is Matthew opening a present. You can see Scott in the background. He ventured downstairs for the party, which I appreciated since it isn't that easy or comfortable for him to get around. He even made it down to the basement to check out our obstacle course. :) I didn't get a lot of good pictures 'cause I was running around doing party stuff and kept forgetting to take pictures, but we all had a good time, and I think the kids had fun. We'll probably have a little family party for him in a week or so, but today turned out well, and I think I'm getting slightly less anxious about throwing friend birthday parties...slightly.