7186

Camping Party 6yr - Bug Nets & Camp Stories

Sept. 2003

Terry in Parker, CO, usa

Honorable Mention

For my sons 6th birthday we had a Camping Party. 

I made the invitations on the computer using a "starry night" font and had a picture clip of a tent on the front, they turned out really cute. 

We set up a huge tent in the backyard and this is where the party was.  When all of the guests arrived we split them into two groups and had a nature hunt.  Each group had a list of things to find.  I used my sons name and each group had to find something that starts with a B, something that starts with an R etc Each group had one adult and they went around the block (in the opposite direction) and the first group to spell out Brayden was the winner.

The next game was sleeping bag races(just like a potato sack race) They were in two lines and hopped in the sleeping bags about 20 yards and back.  We played musical "camping"  chairs.  I bought a campfire song tape at a party goods store and we used that for music and the kids ran around all of the camping chairs that we had. 

Then my husband and I had a potato wrapped in aluminum foil and had it sitting in a "COLD" barbeque.  We pretended it was hot and played "hot potato"  to the same music.  This was a big hit with 6 year olds and we played it about 3 times.

I printed a picture of a big canoe and printed girl and boy fisherman.  I had their names printed on the fisherman shirts and laminated them.  They used these to play Put the Fisherman in the canoe(just like pin the tail on the donkey). 

Another game they played was a snake race.  Two teams, each person on the team would hold  the person in front of them at the waist and they would run around the yard like a snake and eventually the last person will fall off and then he becomes the leader. 

The last game was a bug hunt.  I purchased several bags of plastic bugs and bug catcher nets from a party goods store.  I spread all of the bugs all over the grass and gave each child a net (I had made little luggage tags with a little camper on one side and their name and address on the other and attached these to the nets.  This way nobody would get confused as to which net was theirs.) they ran around gathering and catching as many bugs as they could. 

For the food We barbecued hot dogs and had baked beans.  I served them in aluminum pie tins and they had green bug juice. (Green juice with some of the plastic bugs that I saved and threw in the clear pitcher). 

I made a cake that looked like a fish and was decorated with sweedish fish.  I got the recipe off of the sweedish fish website.  The cake turned out really neat. 

We then all went into the tent for a ghost story.  I found a ghost story on the internet that as you read you needed the kids to feel stuff that was in covered boxes.  For example The witch was making a potion and added some animal eyeballs, would you like to feel the eyeballs then the kids would stick their hands in a  shoe box with peeled grapes that I had covered up and only their fingers would fit in the box.  I wasn't sure if this was going to be too scarey for the 6 years olds, but it wasn't.  They absolutely loved it and sat so quiet listening to this story.  At the end of the story they had a blast trying to figure out what was really in the boxes. 

After the story, we stayed in the tent and opened presents.  Then we went out of the tent and roasted marshmallows.  My husband has a tiny barbeque that he started and we had some long sticks that we helped the kids put marshmallows on.  

The goody bags were the bug nets.  I had taken those back from the kids and filled them with flash lights, compasses, band-aids, and I found bubble gum in the shape of hot dogs and bologne.  They also got little gummy hamburgers.  They were also allowed to keep the bugs that they found in the bug hunt and the luggage tags that I made could be attached to backpacks for school.  My son picked 2 friends to sleepover. They all slept outside in the tent with my husband.  The party was a lot of fun.

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