A Civil War Birthday Party

For the past year or so Elijah has been really interested in studying and reading about the Civil War, so this year for his 8th birthday party he requested a Civil War birthday party. I was really excited about the idea but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull it off. I knew costumes would be essential so my sweet mother in law ordered some confederate and union hats for each child and my mom provided aprons and bonnets for the girls along with mustaches for the boys. Elijah wanted to have a yard battle between the north and the south. Each kid got their weapon of choice, the soldiers faced off on opposite sides of the yard and charged at each other. Some were wounded, but we were very fortunate to have good nurses on the battlefield to help those in need:) Then Matt organized some yard games of flag tag, water balloon toss, and a major water balloon fight. For snacks we provided some food to capture the spirit of the Civil War, such as hardtack, "goobers" (unshelled peanuts), and fruit leather (along with cheese, crackers, fruit and veggies- which would not have been on the menu for civil war soldiers). It was so funny because some how the name of hardtack was changed to "heart attack" and they were all asking for more "heart attack" bread:) Elijah requested chocolate eclair cake for his birthday, which was also changed to "I declare" cake:) It ended up being a day of great fun and what Elijah called "the best birthday ever"!