A Hunting We Will Go...

I had a request for ideas for a hunting-themed birthday party, so I will share what I have come up with. First of all, I have to tell you that in my searching, I learned something new. Did you realize that hunting and camo are popular themes for weddings? I kid you not. I know you are all going to run out to get that camo wedding dress!

But I digress...

HUNTING THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY (warning: You may not want to invite animal lovers to this one!)

Invitations: Use Camo and or orange paper. You say something like "It will be a blast!" or "We will have a bang-up time!" Instruct guests to wear camouflage (after all, if it is a surprise party, they won't want to be seen, right?).

Decorations: Use lots of camo prints. There are some authentic looking patterns and party supplies here (Just ignore the vulgar t-shirts at the bottom of the page). You could also attach empty casings to serving trays or other party decor with a hot glue gun. I am told that the hot glue will come right off of stoneware and lots of other surfaces when you are finished (test first, to be safe). I like these shot gun shell lights. My husband says you could make them yourself with a drill and Christmas Lights. You could also do balloons in greens and orange.

Fun Stuff: This will depend on your age groups and what resources you might already have on hand, but there are a lot of fun games and activities you could do.

Antler ring toss: If you already have some taxidermy, you could have a ring toss game and see who can toss the rings around the antlers.

Target practice: I am tempted to buy two of these for my little guy and his dad to play with. You could set up an assortment of stuffed animals (perhaps assigning point values to each) and have a contest to see who can knock down the most animals with their marshmallow shooters.

Pinata: I looked on-line and couldn't find regular deer pinatas, but did find reindeer pinatas

Take off the Christmas bows, and he becomes a perfect target for a hunter. You could do the traditional whacking with a stick, or if you have access to something like an air-soft gun, you could "gun-down" the pinata instead.

Treasure HUNT:

Treasure hunts are a tradition in my family, no matter what the party theme, but with a hunting party, I think the guest of honor should definitely have to hunt for his gifts. I would hide each gift somewhere different and put a clue to each hiding place in a balloon. In order to get his clues he would have to pop the balloon. Again, this might depend on what weapons are available to you. A blowgun would be perfect. A bow and arrow might work. Or he could just throw darts from a distance to pop the balloons.

FOOD: The obvious choice would be some sort of meat on the grill. You could also serve trail mix, jerky, pretzels or any kinds of food that would go in the backpack on a real hunting trip. For drinks, you could use large plastic ammo boxes as ice chests for canned or bottled drinks.

My best idea for a cake is to make a jelly roll or other cake that is shaped like a cylinder. Then you could frost it like a shot-gun shell.

You:

This would be a good excuse to add some fun camo to your wardrobe, like these cute shoes from Sketchers. Unless, of course, you have another gift in mind for your man, and want to check-out the garters and other attire on the wedding websites for after the guest have gone home. :-)