Happy, Happy, Happy

Our youngest turned nine last week.  He is all boy, loves to be outside, has learned to shoot airsoft and arrows, and has a thing for Duck Dynasty.  Of course, after he said that's the kind of birthday party he wanted, I looked...and looked...only to learn there's not a lot of DD party ideas out there.  So here are mine...

Main Decorations...simple, simple, simple

I used a friend's home/acreage for the party place...HUGE front yard out in the country...and repurposed the garage door for "party central."  

Plain brown plastic table cloth, Camo "HBDay" banner, resin antlers (on sale at craft store, will be used as coat rack in son's room), Duck Dynasty game (found at local craft store), 2 Duck Dynasty posters (saved to put in son's room), plain brown paper bag gift sacks with name tags in camo letters, camo paper goods, and camo cupcakes. I found a hunting/fishing magazine at the grocery store with DD on the cover...and a 50% off frame at the craft store so the Robertson's could be at the table.

I used the Duck Dynasty posters (Wal-Mart find) to have the boys pose next to...after we camouflaged their faces.  I found a tube each of brown, dark green, and black face paint (hooray that it's fall...Halloween things are out) and dabbed and blended.  

I used craft fur to create big, scraggly beards.  Basically shaped the rectangle into a "beard shape," and cut a mouth hole (mustache), put holes on the top two sides, and strung yarn through.  

The kids LOVED the beards, but they were itchy!!!  They sported them just long enough to say favorite quotes from the show, and also for me to get photos...top right child is wearing an official, store-bought DD beard.  LOL, it was hairy/wavy and mine were more bunny-esque! Birthday boy wanted to be Uncle Si, so he grabbed the white one. HA! This photo will replace the one of Phil and Willie Robertson in the frame.  It will be part of our son's new room decor.

MENU: Hot dogs warmed/roasted over a fire pit, chips, lemonade capri sun's, and water bottles.  Simple, simple, simple.  After a few more games, kids roasted marshmallows and made smore's.

FUN AND GAMES:I had planned about 20 activities and games...we only used half of my ideas, so I'd say that's a sign of a fabulous party! :)  

1) Football -- Robertson's LOVE their football, right?  Nerf ball purchased at dollar store-around $3.  The third graders took the ball and ran...literally...and I have NO IDEA what rules they played by.  During this time I was setting up the table. Time?  About 45 minutes, maybe more.

2) Barbasol Whiffle Ball -- using cheap shaving cream and dollar store whiffle bat and ball (MUST have balls with holes in them), fill the ball with shaving cream.  Line up the kids to bat, and pitch the filled ball...you'll never see kids try harder to make contact with a ball!  We opted to not play an actual ball game, but rather took turns batting (and pitching) (and filling). Time? About :30-45 playing, then they spent another 15 minutes smearing shaving cream on one another.  

3) Potato Plop--Object: get the potato into the 5 gal bucket. Only rule: can not use their hands!!  I found camp 5 gallon buckets at the local farm/feed store somewhere around $4 each.  Bag of small, round, red potatoes cost around $3 at the grocery store.  Originally, I had the potato on a folding chair (camping style), and one child attempting at a time but that proved too difficult.  The chair wasn't flat enough and the potato got stuck, and the kids were getting a tad antsy.

As a pinch hit, I gave each child a potato, and had all 7 sit on the front steps of the house.  This game was a bigger hit than I imagined!  Kids with the potatoes near their ankles were jumping and doing skateboarding moves to land the spuds in the bucket...while others with the potatoes in the thigh region squatted and (forgive me, but they were totally boys in describing this) "pooped" the potato into the bucket.

4) Glow stick Tag--glow sticks purchased at dollar store, $1 each.  Each child had a glow stick (huge one foot type) and one person was "it." The boundaries were determined and the game began...soon I saw ingenuity.  Knowing they were being located by the glowing stick, some tried to "hide" their glow stick in their shirt, only to learn it glowed through.  Then I saw kids in camo lying down in the grass ON TOP OF the glow stick.  Genius! Couldn't be found.  HAHA.

I found oak tree camouflage duck blind covers at the farm/feed store ($3-4) & attached them with provided zip ties to lower branches of a large tree to offer "cover" they used for #5 and #6 games.

5) Water Gun Fight -- another dollar store purchase (end of summer sale!)-- these screwed onto a water bottle, so I wasn't having to refill.  Each child got one 12 oz water bottle...and it lasted the entire water fight!

6) Silly String Fight -- dollar store purchase, again.  We had to remove the plastic seal, then the caps, and then the squirting began.  Each child had 2 cans.  Total silly string time? 15 minutes...but it was totally worth it!  I heard one boy tell my son, "We are allowed to spray this stuff?  Your mom is the coolest!"

7) Pin the beard on Uncle Si -- using Wmart poster, sticky tac or tape, and paper "beards," this is a spin-off of pin the tail on the donkey.

8) Water Haul -- using an 8oz plastic cup (one per player) and two 5 gal buckets (per team), this relay game is a wet, sloshy bit of fun.  Teams are lined up by the empty bucket, about 20-30 yards from the half-full bucket of water.  In turn, each child takes their cup and runs to the water bucket, fills his/her cup, and returns to dump the water into the team's bucket.  First team to empty the water bucket (furthest away that was originally the full one) is the winner.

9) Glow in the Dark Tattoos -- dollar store find, a pkg of 20+ was no more than $2.  I used scissors to cut the sheet of tattoos apart (the down-side to inexpensive tats).  Big sister was the tat artist.  We learned warm water might have been more effective than the wet-wipes we used.

10) Duct Ducks -- duct tape sculpting-each child gets a roll of silver duct tape (dollar tree brand, $1 each) is instructed to create a duck decoy.  You could award prizes for best looking, fastest, most realistic, most abstract, etc.