A Nerf Gun Birthday Party

Our Alfie turned six at the weekend - so it's been a crazy couple of days for us.

Despite our insistence that this year the kids wouldn't have big parties and instead they could each choose a friend to take swimming or to the movies or something, we somehow found ourselves hosting 9 boys for a Nerf Gun party at our house on Saturday....followed by 6 girls for a One Direction / jewellery making party on Sunday (???)

We had given countless hours of thought as to how to control nine over-excited 5 and 6 year old boys at Alfie's party, and the party planning that went into this two hour event was quite something!

First of all, as they entered the house, they had to put down their Nerf guns and read the Rules on the wall. There were only two rules:

1. No shooting inside (thank goodness the weather gods were on our side, I have no idea what we would have done if it had been raining!) 

2. No shooting people. 

Amazingly, almost everyone followed the rules - apart from just two occasions. Not bad boys! 

Since Alfie's party guests were basically his entire soccer team, the Black Ninjas, we started the afternoon off with a big game of soccer. 

Next it was time for Nerf Games. We divided into two teams, and played a range of (outside!) games including seeing how many tin cans you could knock off the wall, seeing if you could shoot your bullets through an old car tyre, and shooting a target drawn in chalk on the wall. 

Some of them were good shots, but let's just say it's now three days later and I'm still finding bullets stuck in the trees, in the flower beds and under the table! 

Towards the end of the games, the boys were ravenous. There had been several desperate requests for food but Jake had ignored them and insisted that they continue with the games (taking his role of Sargeant Major quite seriously, ha ha!)

But finally they got to eat!

Next it was birthday cake time, and this continued with the Nerf gun theme!

And present time...

Before we finally sent them all home with a Nerf-themed party bag, temporarily flopped onto the couch with a glass of wine, and then set about preparing for Molly's party the following day!