Camping themed birthday party for the kiddos

May 21, 2016

Camping themed birthday party for the kiddos

Since the kids' birthdays are so close together and since they still will allow me to do a joint birthday party this year I decided on a "camping" theme since that's gender neutral and they both would enjoy the activities. I made NO digital files for this party. The first time that I haven't done my own design work and invites. I just bought some digital files from Anders Ruff and had them printed at Staples.

The main backdrop:

It was VERY hard for Libby to stay away from the treats! I chose the least expensive printing option for the backdrop and unfortunately it came out very light. If you look at the digital file it was much brighter so if the color is really important to you I'd say be ready to splurge on printing.

I had these topper made by this etsy shop:

Gummy worm bait station:

I was very proud of my campfire cake:

The flames were made from melted butterscotch and cinnamon hard candies. I used the directions found HERE:

Make your own trail mix station:

I bought these brown treat bags and used these stickers from my digital kit from Anders Ruff for the Trailmix station.

I borrowed my parents' canoe to use as a photo prop station where the kiddos could prevent to paddle and fish.

For all of my planning and activities this is what the kids did most of the time. They just ran around and played with all the sports equipment I put out.

Another craft that I had was for the kiddos to make their own necklaces. I got them from Oriental Trading HERE:

Libby just adores her Parrain Steffan

I found a video on Facebook for how to make these little hand pies using mason jar lids. It looked super cute and easy and it was BUT also super time consuming. It look 2 hours to make 2 plates of pies.

These are just the presents from my sister and my mom. Once the kids we invited came over it looked like Christmas.

I searched for camping printables online and printed out a couple images for this frame about our outdoor fireplace. You can find the links to them HERE on my pinterest camping board.

Michael set up a tent and we put sleeping bags and camping stuff inside. That night Ezra had a little mini sleep over with my brother and his friend JJ.

Luckily the house next door which is being built had a bunch of pallets out front so I grabbed a couple to use a backdrops for my tables outside.

My favor bags had some tic/tac/toe bags, flashlights, and smores snack bags. (free printable bag label found there as well)

Scavenger hunt time!

One of the activities I planned was for the kids to have a craft station to make their own "log cabins" with popsicle sticks. This is a sample cabin I made.

I used this recipe to make my "bug punch" which is absolutely delicious.

These are the water bottle labels that were included in the camping digital kit. I just covered them with clear packing tape to try and protect the ink since they were on ice.

I found a couple little fishing games from Tuesday Morning and bought a baby swimming pool to play with them in. I thought that only the little kids would want to play it but it was a huge hit with kids of all ages - even adults.