Camp Levi

I am writing this post almost a year after it happened, but we had so much fun with this party, it was too good not to share.

My son, like my daughters, has a winter birthday in early February. Fun fact: he was actually due on my husband's birthday, but decided to arrive four days late!

For his fourth birthday, we decided to go camping! Except... it was the middle of winter. So we did the next best thing, we camped in our basement!

This was the first time that we had friends from school over to our birthday party, and it was so much fun! Kids got to decorate lanterns, paint wood necklaces, make trail mix, go on a bug hunt, eat marshmallows, go fishing, and even were able to camp out under the stars - in our basement of course!

Sometimes, creating the perfect birthday party theme is all about illusion. How can you make a party come to life, even if you are just in your own home? Would we have preferred to have rented a campsite for the day and had all our friends meet us there? Of course! But we couldn't... so we created the illusion that we were camping. And it was soooo much fun!

Party Type: Children's Birthday Party

Party Theme: Camping

Guests: 50

Activities: painting glass lanterns, decorating wooden necklaces, make-your-own trail mix, bug hunt, marshmallow game, fishing game, and tenting

Food: hot dogs and bug juice for the kids, snacks and appetizers for the adults

Dessert: campfire cake (made by my sister), smores

#childrensbirthdayparty #yorkpaparty #campingbirthday #birthdayparty #eventplanner #outdoors #februarybirthday

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When I decorate for a party, before I hit any stores, I first scour my house and find everything that might fit the theme. In the case of this party, I pulled decor from my Christmas boxes (pinecones and evergreens), our camping boxes, my son's bedroom (a woodland theme), and just my general house decor. Then, we just added a few purchased items from Oriental Trading and we were set to go!

I loved getting to incorporate the pheasant and turkey feathers in my decor :)

We did rent child-sized tables and chairs for this party. We needed a place for kids to paint, and eat!

The kids food table. They ate on pie tins (kept all the food in!). I got some green mason jar type glasses from Dollar Tree so kids would have something to put their bug juice in. Otherwise, food was simple. Vegetables in mini solo cups, rainbow trout, popcorn, and campfire flames.

We have an unfinished basement, so we decided to use it to set up one of our tents! Our son had no idea what my husband and I were working on... we ordered some camo netting material and hung it from the ceiling to get proper camouflage (and hide all of our junk!). We then set up Campsite #4... and the kids loved it!

We laid out sleeping bags, created a "fire" out of logs and tissue paper, and turned out all the lights! I used a star projector (that we owned) to project stars on a black fabric ceiling and then lit some of our camping lanterns around the basement!

My sons look of surprise when he came down the basement to see Mommy and Daddy's surprise!

When kids arrived, the first thing they did was paint a lantern to take down to our campsite. I saved (and my family members!) glass jars from spaghetti and other meals. I wrapped wire to make a handle, then kids had the opportunity to paint them with their favorite colors. We then popped a battery operated tea light in them to light them up!

Kids went on a bug hunt around the house. I bought a bulk package of small plastic bugs. I took pictures of each bug, and then gave each kid a list of bugs to find! It actually took them quite some time. And I never let me son know the games, so he had no idea where the bugs were any more than the other kids. Also, around P's neck you can see the wooden necklaces the kids made. Though I didn't capture any pictures of the creative process, the kids got to decorate a wood charm (salvaged from our Christmas tree trunk!). My dad made some custom metal nametags with each kids name on it as well.

We played a fishing game where kids got to "fish" for paper fish and get a prize listed on the back. We also played a marshmallow game, where kids had to eat a marshmallow hanging off a string without using their hands! It was the cutest thing ever.

I convinced my sister to make a cake for her nephew, and we are so glad she did! A campfire cake - chocolate cake with handmade sugar glass flames and biscuit "logs."

Favor bags were fun to make! I made custom tags for the bags and filled them with all sorts of camping goodies.

Kids got some camping mints, a mini flashlight, a camping sticker "scene," a tic tac toe game, and some pop rocks!

I actually made the tic tac toe game out of a canvas bag I found at Oriental Trading, some black river rocks, and some permanent markers! Something we ended up throwing in our camping box to have with us when we go camping!

Almost a year ago! Now I'm in the process of planning a birthday party for a FIVE year old! Shed a mama tear...