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Campout Party 6yr - Campfire of Lights

February 2005

paula in dunkerton, IA, USA

Our son, Mitchell, requested a Campout party for his 6th birthday, but a campout in Iowa in January is out of the question.  So, we set up the campsite in our basement. I made invitations (and later, the thank you cards) with Creative Keepsakes Creative Lettering Super Combo CD. We asked everyone to bring a flash light and a sleeping bag.

We drew several PINE TREES and hung them on the walls to surround the LAKE(which was a large piece of paper I painted blue and tossed on the floor). I made a SIGN "Lake Mitchell", secured it to the top of an empty wrapping paper tube and stuck it in a flower pot beside the lake.  Of course the TENT was set up right in the middle of the basement and above it we stuck glow-in-the-dark STARS in the shape of a few constellations for star gazing.  We made a CAMPFIRE by placing a bundle of Christmas tree lights on two heavy-duty paper plates, covering it with a sheet of yellow tissue and red cellophane and surrounding it with stones (which were balled up pieces of brown paper bags).  At the entrance to the basement, we hung a "Welcome to Camp (Family name here)" SIGN. 

When guests arrived, each one got a bag labeled (Child's name)'s  TRAIL MIX.  I had placed bowls of pretzel STICKS, GOLDFISH crackers, TURTLE grahams, raisins, nuts, cereals, gummi WORMS out and guests spooned whatever they wanted into their mix/bag.  After snacking on those, we headed to the campsite  with flashlights and bug jars (recycled peanut butter jars labeled with guests names) for a BUG HUNT. 

Once we caught the bugs we took them to the Lake for some FISHING (used a Little Tikes fishing game--winner was the one who caught the fish with the number 6, representing the birthday boy's age!).  Also had them use the numbers on the fish to take turns choosing their LOOT BAGS (which were actually fanny packs filled with glow-in-dark snake, camping stickers, Ritz Bits s'mores pack, flingin' frog, party blow-out, etc). 

We took the fish to the campfire where I read a GHOST STORY(nothing scary…Berenstain Bears "Ghost of the Forest" perfect for a campout).  The children were incredibly attentive and interacted so well with the story. After the story we bedded down (just pretending) in our sleeping bags, checking out the stars above.  Soon after we took the sleeping bags out of the tent for SLEEPING BAG RACES (like sack races, only more fun!). Then it was back into the tent for the GIFT OPENING. 

The last activity at the campsite was guessing how many MARSHMALLOW were in the jar--winner got the jarful of marshmallows. Then we headed upstairs for HOTDOGS, LEMONADE (drunk from water bottles--each guest takes theirs home), birthday CAKE and S'MORES of course. I think my son really enjoyed himself...he thanked me about a dozen times over the next couple days. One of the children at the party asked if she could have her next party at our house... I think it was a success:)

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