Clean and Scentsible

Camping Party

Happy Friday!!  It has been extremely busy around here this week so there was not a lot of time {and by that I mean NO time!} for crafting.  Hopefully I will be able to get to my calendar this weekend!
Since I don’t have anything new and fabulous to show you, I thought I would finally get around to posting up some pictures of Matthew’s camping party.  This was done way back in December and for those of you who have December babies, you know that this is not a great time to be planning a birthday party!  I had so many ideas for this party but with all of the Christmas rush, I did not get to do everything that I had originally planned.  In the end though, the kids had a great time and Matthew was a happy birthday boy!Here are the invitations to Camp Matthew. 

I was running around like crazy before the party and had about 2 minutes to take pictures.  This is what I managed to capture before chaos was upon us!

We set the camp up in the basement and brought in a picnic table.  Each of the kids got a canteen and plastic container.  I added their names with vinyl cut from my Silhouette.  The container was used later for our trail mix bar.

I am not known for my baking skills, but I do try to make my kids’ birthday cakes.  Here’s my campfire cake attempt {idea from Family Fun}.
For the treats, we had a trail mix bar.  I had some Chex mix already in the plastic containers {from above} and the kids added the extras.
You can’t have a camping party without smores!  We set up a little smore bar which the kids loved {as indicated by messy, chocolate covered faces!}.  We had some “lazy man smores” as well that I didn’t get a picture of {basically just chocolate dipped marshmellows covered in crushed graham crackers on a stick}.

I made these hobo sacks {which I found out are actually called bindles} for the goodie bags.  They contained a circular water canteen, a flashlight, a DIY smore package, a few glow sticks, and a sticky bug {Matthew’s pick!}.  They were given right at the end of the party to avoid any unfortunate incidents with eyes getting poked out!

Here is the table partially set up.  I was planning on coming back once everything was finished but things got a little crazy!
We made a couple of these pup tents {tutorial from Under the Table and Dreaming} and put up a real tent as well.  There were sleeping bags and pillows out for the kids to set up camp. 

Dave made a fire pit from crumpled newspaper wrapped in duct tape.  When the kids started getting a little crazy, we turned the lights out and had a story around the campfire with a flashlight.  Amazingly enough, the kids actually ALL sat and listened!If you are looking for activities to do during your camping party, here is what we ended up doing:

  • A scavenger hunt for various outdoor objects and camping supplies.  We did this in two teams down in the basement.  The lights were turned out and the kids used flashlights to track down their materials.
  • Camping crafts.  We ended up doing three crafts: a camping themed door sign, sun catcher tags for the kids’ backpacks and little birdfeeders {recipe can be found here}  The first two crafts were just ordered from the Oriental Trading Company and were pretty easy for the kids to do on their own.  I used muffin tins to create our birdfeeders and added a ribbon to hang them.  We did these at the beginning of the party so they had time to harden in the fridge.
  • A camping version of musical chairs done on sleeping bags.  
  • Story time by the fire {my favorite part!}  It was cute to see the kids get their sleeping bags all set up!
  • Crazy Bugs Game.  We had a bunch of plastic bugs in our tent (the real one, not the pup tents} and filled up the tent with balloons.  The kids had to go in 2 at a time and find 5 bugs.  We did this relay style and it was quite entertaining to watch!

If you have any questions, just let me know.  It was a fun themed party and would be even better if you could do it during the summer with the kids outside!

And here is my crazy, seven year old camper!


Have a great weekend! I have linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, The CSI Project, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Sun Scholars, The Shabby Chic Cottage, House of Hepworths, Along for the Ride, Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest, Tidy Mom, Paisley Passions, Katie’s Nesting Spot, Delightful Order, Somewhat Simple, Tip Junkie, Today’s Creative Blog, Shanty 2 Chic, Polly Want a Crafter, Marvelously Messy, Craft-O-Maniac, CRAFT, The DIY Showoff, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Kim’s Kandy Kreations, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello.

Subscribe

Comments

  2. This is SO STINKIN’ CUTE!!! Love this! NOw I want my daughter to have a camping party for her bday this summer…although I know she never will. LOL Great job!
    Deanna @ shadytreediary.blogspot.com

    Reply

  12. Wow, this is very impressive and creative! I love it! My soon-to-be four year old wants a basketball party. Don’t think I will be able to be that creative!

    Reply

  13. Such a cute party! We had a camping party yesterday for my twins and our goodie bags were the same as yours! Our invitations were similar too. Very cute … I’m sure your party was lots of fun!

    Reply

  16. I just loved this party idea! This is great, even for a just because party in the winter! Love the log cake! That looked fantastic! Great job! – Karen

    Reply

  26. That’s awesome! My oldest has a January birthday and I never know what to do for his birthday. Now, I have an idea for next year! Where was this post back in December?! LOL! Thanks so much for the ideas and the inspiration. I think we might have to have a camping party just for fun!

    Reply

  28. I LOVE, love, LOVE this! I have two boys, so this would be perfect. In fact, I featured your post on my Friday Favorites tonight. Thank you for sharing all these great ideas for a fun party!

    Reply

  35. WOW! I wish my son was young again, because this is brilliant! Adorable and creative!!! Really really nice job!

    Reply

  37. Thanks so much for sharing this at For the Kids Friday! I’ll be posting the next link party tomorrow night. I hope to have you stop by and share again this week!

    :)rachel at SunScholars.blogspot.com

    Reply

  38. Hi Jenn! This is Dana from D’Lea Designs. I love your camping themed birthday party. I used it for my son’s party this week and he loved it! I also wrote a blog post about our party and linked back here. It will post tomorrow. I hope you don’t mind. Let me know if you do. Thanks again for the inspiration!

    Reply

  41. Hi there! I’m having a camping party for my son in 2 weeks and and love your bonfire cake. I went to the link you posted and noticed that they used pound cakes, but I like the look of yours more. Did you do a DIY cake roll or purchase them at the store?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Latest from Instagram

[instagram-feed num=9 cols=9 showheader=false showbutton=false showfollow=false]