Birthdays are a big deal in our home. I mean, one minute you didn’t exist, then 9 months later here you are, in this great big world. Every day, every year that follows is such a gift! I have always thought that is a pretty big concept worthy of over-the-top celebration. When I became a mom, I just knew that I would go all out on birthdays for my kids!
We’ve thrown some pretty fun parties for my son and daughter over the past several years- a Wizard of Oz theme complete with a visit from Dorothy, a Pelican’s Snoball party with Moonwalk Car rides in the parking lot, a hotel sleepover with indoor swimming and free continental breakfast, the list goes on and on. So, when my firstborn requested a Nerf themed party for his 9th birthday, I couldn’t wait to bring it to life.
A quick Google/Pinterest search gave me plenty of ideas on how to play up the Nerf theme. When I showed my son some of the pictures and shared some of my own ideas, he responded, “This party is going to be awesome!” As we began the planning, I was surprised by how affordable and simple it was going to be to pull this party together. Walmart carries a few “Nerf style” foam-dart shooters (labeled X-Shot and Adventure Force) ranging $1-3 each. We bought 15 of these shooters to share with his guests, which also doubled as party favors- simple! We also picked up a box of 200 foam darts for $10. This proved to be plenty of darts to go around.
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Though we selected Nerf knock-offs for the party favors, my son really wanted to be sure everyone knew it was a "Nerf" party. I made this theme more prominent by implementing the classic Nerf colors, blue, orange and black, through all of the decorations.
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Our next task was to create a “Nerf Battlefield” in our backyard. I asked a nearby appliance store to save some large appliance boxes for us and a friend donated some boxes to the cause too. We found some blue, orange and black paint in our paint stash at home and splashed the boxes with reckless, graffiti-style strokes. We placed the boxes throughout our backyard (using tent and yard-sign stakes to keep them in place) to create a Nerf Battlefield full of barricades, obstacles and targets. We bought a few orange sports cones from The Dollar Tree and used objects lying around our garage to add to the battlefield- tarps, inflatable pool rings, a paint easel, etc. This whole battlefield setup cost us next to nothing!
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You’ve probably noticed by now that though we like to go big on parties, we also try to do so on a budget. When it came to deciding on a birthday cake, I turned to a hack that I’ve used over the past few years. Rather than spending a ton of money on a themed-cake or baking one my own, I ordered a simple sheet cake from the Walmart Bakery with blue and orange frosting. Once home, I used straws to stick Nerf foam darts throughout the cake- 9 darts for the 9 year old. Voila! Nerf cake- check!
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Now it was time to party! We had encouraged the kids to bring their own Nerf shooters from home if they had them, but we also handed out the party favor shooters right away. Initially, I wasn’t sure how long the “battle” would last, particularly because we were enduring a record-breaking heatwave here in Raleigh, NC. Those kids played a solid 3 hours! In fact, it was a challenge to get them to take breaks for pizza, cake and opening gifts. They absolutely loved running around the battlefield with their shooters, especially when a few dads got in on the action (I’m honestly not sure who had more fun, the kids or the dads). It was such a joy watching everyone have a great time. This epic party will go down as one of our favorite parties to date!
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