Nerf Wars birthday party: The inspiration

Jake really wanted to have a Nerf themed birthday party and for the first time, I couldn't just jump on a party supply website and order everything I needed because well, they don't have a line of Nerf party supplies. So I did my research and got some great inspiration from blogs like The Blackberry Vine, Michelle Paige and Just Deanna. Of course, it all starts with the invitation. 

I then stocked up on paper goods in yellow, orange and black. Sure it could be seen as Halloween-ish, but it is the most traditional of Nerf colors. I then used the Stencil font in Word and went to town making signs and made sure that all our guests would be well-equipped for battle - as they arrived they were issued a Nerf gun if they did not bring one, a label if they brought their own, protective eyewear, fresh new bullets and a bandanna to signify which team they would be on for the big showdown.

To warm up, I created three separate exercises for the guests to test their accuracy - a traditional target and tin cans and army men to try and knock down. 

To make sure that no one went hungry and in keeping with the theme, the food served was carrot darts, cheese bullets, orange bombs and (not shown) target pizza:

And of course no birthday party would be complete without cake, or in our case cupcakes! Once again my good friend Rose rocked my request and we were able to assemble this:

Outside, these two forts made out of washer and dryer boxes I procured from a local appliance store with an entrance and window cut out and doctored up with a ton of black and green spray paint served as the bases for the two opposing teams. In between were a few sawhorses and other obstacles to serve as "cover". The kids basically participated in 3 rounds of capture the flag with the rules being that if you were hit  from the shoulders down, you had to go back and touch your base before continuing the game. If you accidentally hit someone above the shoulder, you had to go back and touch your base before continuing the game. Whoever made it back to their base with the other team's flag while still being in possession of their own flag, won the round.

Favors for the guests consisted of the eyewear and bandanna used in battle along with a water bottle and mini dart gun with fresh bullets:

So with all this preparation, the real question is, how did the party go? Well for that you will have to wait for the next post.