Army Birthday

Last Wednesday we celebrated Carson's birthday with 16 of his closest friends.  Our guests were greeted at the door as they arrived at "Fort Carson".

 They were then asked to sign in as "new recruits" and write their name on a dog tag.

The recruits were told to report immediately to their first lesson at Fort Carson: Flight School.  At Flight School, Jeff helped them make paper airplanes, then they were directed to the backyard to get some flight practice.

After Flight School, it was time for their first lesson in becoming a good soldier.  The new recruits were told that 50 men from their unit were MIA, and needed to be recovered from the front yard before the enemy captured them.  In the end only 49 of the 50 plastic soldiers were recovered, but we counted it as a success.

Then it was onto Target Practice: a version of pin-the-tail-on-donkey that included trying to correctly place a tank in the middle of a target.

Next it was time for them to learn how to care for and transport a wounded soldier. We had the two smallest boys at the party lay down on beach towels, while their teams raced to see who could bandage them up the fastest (wrap a roll of toilet paper around them) and then safely transport them back (on the beach towel) to the base camp.

After all their training it was time for some relaxation and cake before it was time for the "war" (aka water fight) to begin.  My SIL made Carson this awesome cake.

The ammo for the war...

Here are some of the kids who came to Carson's party.  We will never invite that many again...it was a little crazy.  Since our yard has no shade, the kids opted to open presents under the trampoline.

After two hours of fun, the Drill Sergeants were glad it was time for all of the soldiers to head home!  Carson had so much fun and was totally spoiled.