I was walking through the dollar spot (one of my many weaknesses) of Target the other day and saw some adorable camping-related activities and decorations. I SO wish these had been available last summer when my son’s oldest birthday party had a camping theme. They were cute and cheap and would have saved me time in DIY-ing some of the décor and activities at his party. I think a camping theme is such a cute, and still sweet theme, that is appropriately “boyish”. Given that my son’s birthday is in July, we brought our camping inside and had a cute semi-old-fashioned party at home.
I LOVE birthday parties (and have created a monster in my oldest because he loves semi-elaborately planned parties too) and themed parties are obviously the best 😉 So, last year we built his party around a camping theme and had party games ready to occupy all of the 5 year old (mainly boys) that were invited. As everyone arrived, we had them get a bag of make-your-own trail mix and take it to our “campsite”. We had several play tents set up in our game room (after we moved some furniture to the garage) and the kids loved exploring the tents as they munched on their treats. For our first activity, we had the cutest search game where we used some of our many (MANY) animal and bug figures that we already had in our toys and my husband and I hid them around the room. We taped them to pictures, put them under the couch legs, camoflauged them on shelves, etc. and had the kids split into teams for a race of who could find their critters the fastest. Everyone had a bingo card of sorts so they had to find specific creatures and everyone LOVED this game!
Next, we gave all of the kiddos a paper bag for a scavenger hunt; the pre-printed Target bags would have been perfect for this – and the hunt is already done for you! For our scavenger hunt, we made clues that would lead the children to different places in our house and yard (easy answers that anyone would know – like a washing machine, fireplace, refrigerator etc.) and we split the kids into two groups so my husband and I could divide and conquer. Each clue brought the kids to a place where we’d hidden camping-related prizes. I found cute key chain flashlights, compass rings, etc that were cheap/easy from Oriental Trading, Target, Dollar Tree, etc. so that by the end of the hunt, each child had a few give-aways that they could take home in their bag as their party favor. I don’t love just handing out party favors at the end of the party, so I thought this would be a good way to combine an activity with all the junk the littles want to take home anyway 😉 The last clue lead them to a tree where we’d hidden a tent-shaped piñata (which I found online at Target and was a huge hit) so they could add some sweet treats to their bags.
Then, we came inside to cool off and had old-school pin the tail on the donkey..but it was a raccoon to fit the theme…and it cracked us up. None of the kids had played it before…and they looked at us like we were crazy when we explained how to play…but they ended up loving this as well – proving oldies are goodies for a reason!
Finally, we had cake and opened presents. I understand that parties are getting too big and too crazy these days to fit everything in. And, I LOVE that the whole class is invited to most parties with our little ones and that it usually doesn’t allow the time to open gifts. But, I also feel like children are missing out on that opportunity to learn graciousness and politeness in gift receiving. Plus, I know my boys always want to see their friend open the present we bring to parties and rarely get to. So, I kept it old school and made my kiddo sit on the fireplace to open his gifts. I think everyone enjoyed this too and it gave us an opportunity to calm down as all of the parents came back to retrieve their littles.
I loved this party – I felt like the kids had so much fun – and it felt like it might be the last chance that I’d have to plan a party for my oldest that I could have at our house, with a smaller group of children, and that I could have full control over (control freak, I know). More importantly, it’s just a sweet moment in time to celebrate these little ones and I hope that birthday celebrations give my kiddos a peek into how much I love them. And hopefully everyone else had fun too!
Even though it was fun, that many 5 year-olds with multiple activities…it’ll wear you out 😉
