Camping Party

Last night Bailey had four of her buddies over for a "Summer S'more Fun" playdate!

Theme: Camping.

Totally fun!!!! I definitely recommend a camping theme to anyone! This was definitely one of the most fun parties I have hosted. FULL of fun games for the kids, super easy and cheap to execute as most of your decorations/activities are centered around nature which is FREE (if you just take a walk through the forest.)

Here are about a billion pictures for your enjoyment. ;)

First up, the dessert/trail mix buffet which included marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, almonds, veggie sticks, cherrios, graham squares, and m&ms. (oh, and a few desserts such as cupcakes and two different types of s'more pops)

Big props to Amanda of Amanda's Parties To Go who created the printable collection for this party. She is amazing!!!!! Go to her site to purchase this great collection!













































Is your mouth watering yet???

Gonna take this time to show off the cupcakes....one by one. :)

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The dinner table...

Don't you love the little tree stump chairs?! I found those the morning of the party! I drove past a big yard of cut trees, they were selling firewood and I saw all the random stumps on the ground. The lightbulb went off in my head and I pulled over. I got them for a dollar a piece!

I made tents for the girls out of 4 pieces of 5ft PVC pipe, 2 yards of fabric and some duct tape. Easy easy and inexpensive.

Each tent was marked with the girls' names.

First activity of the night was a scavenger hunt. The girls had to hunt for 6 things. Since they're 4 and 5 years old I made a picture scavenger hunt. Each item they searched for had a purpose for later on in the party. Items included an unfinished wood birdhouse (to paint), a s'more kit, a rock and feathers (to make a pet rock), a stick and a butterfly (we later made a cool butterfly wand).

Check out the adorable satchels my mom made for each girl to collect their goodies from the scavenger hunt.

After the hunt girls painted their birdhouses while I got dinner ready.
(here is the cool butterfly wand I was talking about)DINNERTIME!!!!
One of my favorite things about hosting a party is mealtime. I LOVE listening to the conversations and silly things the girls say to each other! 4 and 5 year olds have the best mealtime discussions!!













These fruit kabobs were a BIG hit!! Bailey has already informed me this morning that she wants her fruit on a stick all the time. (GREAT! What have I done!?!?)























After dinner the girls had to capture bugs!!!
(no, I was not able to get them to catch real ones...these bugs were plastic)


I put plastic bugs from the dollar store (7/$1) on the floor of our tent and then covered them with balls and balloons. The girls had to scramble to find 5 bugs each.


The timing of this little shindig was perfect. Our butterflies from our butterfly garden just hatched and it was time to release them to the wild! There was 5 butterflies, 5 girls...each girl got to hold one and release it.



Can you believe it? I was brave enough to do a fire.


This is where the s'more kit the girls had to find earlier in their scavenger hunt came into play. We roasted marshmallows, which basically mean't the girls put the marshmallows on a stick and then inserted them into the ashes....creating a useless/unedible marshmallow. lol

4 and 5 year olds are not very good at roasting marshmallows. And I was a nervous wreck with them around the fire. No pictures here.

Time to put the fire out!!!


(that didn't last long)

By this time, I'm tired, there is a huge mess to start cleaning up...its time to sit the girls down to watch a movie!!!





Calling all campers to the trail mix bar!!!!













They loved filling up their tin cans with their own concoction of different snacks.
It was such a hot day so I decided to put the tent inside so that the girls could comfortably watch a movie. It was so cute seeing all of them cuddled up together, eating their trail mix and watching their movie from inside the tent.


I strung lights from the ceiling for stars. The girls LOVED this! They were so excited when they first arrived and saw the tent and stars. This isn't a great picture, but it really did look neat.

The girls were sent home with all their goodies from the scavengar hunt and bug game, as well as their tents and a tree shaped cake pop.