Anden's Birthday Party

Each year I let the kids pick the theme for their birthday party.

They start debating ideas months in advance!

This year Anden immediately exclaimed,

"I want a FOOD FIGHT for my party!!"

I busted up laughing and explained a food fight can't be an entire party.

I offered a few counter suggestions

that were immediately shot down.

Really kid? 

You have to pick the only theme that doesn't have any ideas I can duplicate.

Or any commercial products available for purchase?!

Well I embraced his wild idea and rolled with it.

And we all couldn't be happier that I did!!

Introducing...
Anden's Food Fight Party!

The guest party bags contained:

Marshmallow Shooter Guns

Marshmallow Ammo

Slime Juice

Goggles (for the fight!)

Survivor Medal

When you live in Phoenix and have kids with August & September birthdays,

your only option is to have a water related party.

Because it is SO stinking hot and humid!

Well to our complete shock,

a HUGE storm rolled in Saturday at 3am.

The thunder was SO loud I was sure it broke my house windows!

It poured

and poured

and poured.

At 8am I was certain we were going to have a soggy food fight in the rain!

I figured if there was any party that could be pulled off in the rain,

this was the one!

The great thing though was that it was 75 degrees!!

UNHEARD OF

for late August!!

So we continued to set up and if it rained on us

then oh well.

This party was not going to be cancelled!!

Luck finally went our way and the rain pour turned to a light sprinkle!

The kids began arriving and were beyond giddy for the mess to begin!

While we awaited everyone's arrival,

they pounced on each other on the trampoline!

Ryan & the girls enjoyed the momentary boy free peace on the patio

while admiring Baby Mattie! 

Then we started our first game.

It was sprinkling still so we adjusted our plans a bit.

Donut Eating Contest

At the start of the game I informed the kids

that the winner would receive a PIE to throw 

at a person of their choice at the end of the party!

Needless to say the games suddenly became much more competitive!

It was a race to the finish for Noah and Mason!

Mason ended up victorious!

Marshmallow Shooting Contest

They were super excited to get their very own Marshmallow Guns!
So we lined them up and each took their turn to shoot the most into the targets!
(and to our luck the rain completely stopped by then!! No soggy marshmallows!)

And the winner was Eric!

Then an all out marshmallow war began!

Taylee capitalized on the chaos to sneak the extra donuts!

Then I look over and Ryan brought out the big guns.

Literally.

I guess one of the advantages of being the gun maker

is that he custom built his own.

The night that he and Anden were building the guns

I notice they are making weird stick things.

I inquired as to what they're doing.

Anden innocently replied,

"Oh we're just making high capacity magazines!"

lol WHAT?!

I guess they figured out how to make extra "rounds" of ammo.

A stick that holds an ENTIRE bag of marshmallows.

So in one blow of the gun,

his marshmallow shooter turned into a automatic machine gun shooter!

He was pelting kids right and left! lol

They immediately took cover and came out in force against him!

Apparently the ammo is too tempting to put in your mouth instead of your gun!

Probably not the best battle tactic.

Finally we called a truce on the marshmallow war.

and prepared for the

MAIN EVENT.

The girls help me set up the food tables.

The kids were divided into two teams.

Each team had bowls of:

Mashed Potatoes

Spaghetti Noodles

Chocolate Pudding

Corn

and the coveted

GREEN SLIME!

We explained the rules

(which of course didn't matter anyway)

and then let the Fight begin!!

Food Fight

I was the referee and would yell FREEZE periodically

and switch the rules on them.

"Now you can only get your own team"

"Now everyone against Ryan!"

"Now team against team"

It kept it exciting for them!!

If they needed a break,

they came to the patio with me.

Scott & Grace came to keep me company!

The kids (and Ryan!) were SUCH good sports and had a blast!!!

(video coming soon!!)

The Food Fight Survivors!!

Then we lined 'em up and hosed 'em off!

Taylee just pretending to be in the mix!

Poor thing had to sit and watch with her bum arm.

Once everyone was washed off,
the big water slide came on!!

Water Slide

Poor Taylee hung out by herself on the trampoline.
I felt SO bad!
Anyone that knows her knows she would be RIGHT in the middle of this messy fun day!
I'll admit that when there were just a few kids left,
I wrapped up her arm in a grocery bag and let her have at the slide!
She loved it!!

And while the kids were in slide heaven,

I was left with this!!

Finally we drug the kids off the slide for
Present Time

Cupcake Time

It would seem like the party should be done right?

Oh no!

There was no way theses kiddos were letting me forgot about

Pie Throwing Time

Mason won the first game.
So he got the first pie.
He picked Ryan as the recipient!

Next up was Eric.

Mason volunteered to be the recipient this time!

Then Birthday Boy got a turn!

Eric volunteered to taste the pie!

Good thing Anden didn't volunteer.

Seeing how he didn't approve of a tiny bit of whip cream getting on his hand! lol

Then the girls together threw one at Mason

And the rest of the boys threw one at Eric

Finally I had a few minutes before parents arrived.

So we hosed the pie riddled kids off yet again

and they were sparkling clean and innocent for pick up! :)

What a crazy fun party!!!

My friends all said I was nuts to host this kind of party.

But it wasn't bad at all!

I had to run the kids immediately after the party to a second party with the Harbecks.

(ya they're not spoiled at all right?!)

I was gone for maybe an hour.

I returned home to this.

Like I said.

Such easy clean up....

at least for me!! :)

Now to find a use for the leftover pot of slime sitting in the garage fridge!