Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Camp Luke part 2

I’m back to report on the camper activities at Luke’s 5th birthday bash. As kids arrived, they explored the camp tents, played on the swing set, and sampled bug juice and trail mix at the canteen. General mayhem of course.

Next we tackled a campfire craft. Before the party, I cut circles of stiff cardboard and squares of tissue paper, gathered rocks, and purchased a box of those battery-powered votive candles. Then the kids selected rocks and we hot-glued them around the edge of the cardboard circle, and they scrunched the tissue paper around their candles which sat in the middle of the rock ring (something like this). The kids did a great job, and at night they make slightly realistic-looking campfire nightlights!

Then engines were sufficiently revved for our second challenge, archery. I told the kids that just in case they encountered one of the mischievous bears who live nearby, they should be ready to fire tranq darts with speed and accuracy.

After my professional demonstration, the kids lined up and took their shots with gusto.

At kid parties I try to alternate between high and low energy activities, so next up was a quieter event: storytime around the pretend campfire (actual campfires are banned in our neighborhood). But my book was missing! Those bears had taken it and replaced it with A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, which was perfect for our theme and the kids were enthralled. Such a fun story.

Then we tried to pass out the party favors but the bears played tricks again, hiding the treats and leaving a string of clues. I’ve never found scavenger hunts not to be a hit with a crowd of kids, and my experience planning hunts goes all the way back to when Uncle Jack and Uncle Sam were little boys!

The clues eventually led to a little hike through the arroyo which ended with the bucket of treats. I didn’t get a pic of those, but we just tied the treats up in red bandanas and lashed them onto long sticks hobo-style. Finally we topped them off with cute thank you tags from my printables set and they were ready for the campers.

After the hunt it was time to sing happy birthday and have dessert. I decided to forego a cake and served dirt worm cups instead, which were much easier for me to make and for the kids to eat while they were perched on chairs and stumps around the fire ring. Luke enjoyed helping make them and eating them too!

It was a happy little pow-wow for our nature-loving boy. We love you Luke and had such a great time celebrating with you and your friends!

{More pics here.}

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