It's been twice (half?) of Ashton's life since we last threw him a significant birthday party. That was the Lego party, if you'll recall. Insanity is what that was. So while building blocks were a central part of Ashton's life back then, nowadays it's Nerf and so that's what we went with.
We did it right before school started because no one is ever around on his actual birthday, ourselves included lol. And we did have to reschedule it once because of the weather but we had 100% turnout and he was sooo happy.
So here's what we did. The gym up the street has an indoor turf field and they do an event every so often called "nerf on the terf" which is just kids showing up and firing at each other in a controlled environment. Knowing that we didn't want to be inside, I asked if I could borrow their "infrastructure" and for 50 bucks, they said sure.
A couple truckloads later and our backyard was a Nerf war zone. I made giant darts as decorations from pool noodles and coffee cups, and we had customized water bottles, a pizza lunch, a referee (i.e. paid high school kid - I did not want to be the one calling kids out due to being shot) and even a balloon arch. The play was capture the flag style - two teams trying to infiltrate each others' lines to grab the preciously guarded flag. Even the dads were in at one point.
There was a lot of yelling. The voices were like, constant for basically 2 hours. "Get him!" "He's going for it!" "He was out!" "Move to the wall!" "Get back!" "Reload! RELOAD!" "Run for it!" "Duck!" "GET HIM!!" and so on. So apply that soundtrack to these pictures and you'll have been there.
The lone soldier, loading up
Alex and his bro Harry
Ashton and one of his besties Jae
This picture is blurry but somehow, it feels appropriate.
The armies as one!
