Sometimes a party absolutely positively HAS to be outside, in a wide open space, for kids to run and run and run! Now if you are in planning mode for an upcoming birthday, let me suggest something wild, something rowdy, something OUTSIDE! Our set of foolproof Backyard Battle Birthday decorations can encompass anything (EVERYTHING) from some serious foam-dart-combat to a ridiculous barrage of water balloons!
More often than not, I throw my kids birthday parties at home, but every once in a while it HAS to be done at the park. I’ve had some experience with our local parks, like for our Baseball party and our Snow Princess Party, and I’m here to tell you, a party at the park does have its perks. Now, back to this Backyard Battle Birthday party at the park, unless you live on some acres, you’ll need to take your party down the road to have some room to spread out.
Grunge-alicious Dessert Table
Let’s dive into this dessert table. First, even if your guest list consists mostly of pre-teen boys, you can still have a dessert table – just change it up to match your theme. Underneath it all, was the most cost effective tablecloth, ever. That is a painters drop cloth, with some mesh netting layered on top. I did embellish with red and black paint drops and drips and a few strategically placed spots where I “stamped” the paint on with a piece of metal mesh.
The graphics I designed have the feeling of metal and mesh and grunge – I even included some crusty looking screws for added interest. I chose bold dark colors to match a bold party theme I imagined could be used for an action packed event. Anything I could embellish with paper, I did! Toppers, labels, hang tags, popcorn boxes, pennant banner, even the backdrop sign
I wanted to have different levels on my dessert table, so I placed varying sized cake stands on whatever wood and metal “risers” I could find in my house. And on those cake stands? SUCH a variety of mini desserts, no kid could possibly be disappointed. We served:
- coconut cream cupcakes
- lemon cupcakes
- brownies
- apple pies
Need more inspiring outdoor party ideas? Check out our Happy Camper party and Bug Party Decorations!
You will want to prepare your party guests by describing on the (included) invitation exactly what to expect with regard to the dart wars activity. I let friends know in writing that we would have extra Nerf guns available to borrow, and that we would provide the projectiles. Having said this, I did NOT want to run out of darts, so you know I bought a BULK pack of 300 for everyone to enjoy!
Our local park was a great spot to set up our party, there was enough wide open space to battle it out with teams, but it kind of needed a few extra themed barriers for the kids to hide or reload behind. The inflatable “bunkers” that look like 50 gallon drums of hazardous waste that we used are longer available, but I’ve noticed a HUGE amount of new bunker sets have come on the market (I’m so sad they didn’t have these when we had our party!). In addition to the inflatables, we also used plain old cardboard boxes, and cardboard sheets. I don’t have great photos of the cardboard because they kind of melted in the rain which I will talk about later, but bunkers can be made out of anything you have laying around, or just use the TREES if you are in a PARK.
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And finally, before I go, I would like to show you a little behind the scenes of what happens in real life when you have a party at the park. Sometimes, it rains. And sometimes you have to put all the desserts and snacks and goodies under the table and have all the party guests go sit in cars for 20 minutes while it POURS and SOAKS everything that thank goodness doesn’t really matter if it gets wet (mostly because you got all your pretty party pics). In all the years of having birthday parties for my kids we have never had a rainstorm, ever. This was a first and it just happened to coincide with an event that absolutely had to be outside, and was already mid party when we had to take a break. Thankfully, when it was all over, we went right back to it – and laughed, and dripped a little.
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Our Backyard Battle Party Decorations printable kit includes:
Invitation that fits an A7 envelope (editable)
2” round cupcake toppers (editable)
Party Favor bag Toppers
Party Food Labels (editable)
Jar Labels (editable)
Straw / Cake pop topper
Water bottle labels
Popcorn Box (editable)
4×6” Sign (editable)
Pennant Banner (editable)
Front Door Sign (editable)
Full Sheet of Patterned paper
Buy it now, or Pin it for later!
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