camping birthday party: behind the scenes

I was happy to have an excuse to try some new craft projects and do some screen printing. I was out of photo emulsion and didn't want to buy more (screen printing can be an expensive hobby!) so I decided to DIY it and made my own screen with an embroidery hoop and sheer curtain material. I drew the bear on the screen and then painted Mod Podge everywhere that I didn't want to print. The Mod Podge blocks the ink from getting through the material. And that's it! Once the screen is made, printing is the fun part. Anybody want a bear printed on something? I still have the screen...

I found a guy on Craigslist who had cut down some trees and was giving the wood away for free. Ben stopped by and picked up some nice stumps to use for our fire pit seating and a few extra to carve up for decoration and my cake stands. If your party prep involves a chain saw, you're off to a good start.

Cutting fabric with my Silhouette. Still amazed by this crazy machine.

The fire pit turned out to be a super easy project. I think Ben built it in about 30 minutes. Most of the effort was in hauling the bricks from the car to the backyard.

Frosting and assembling the cakes took much longer than I thought. I really don't know much about building/decorating cakes. I snapped a few photos while I was doing it in case something went terribly wrong later (like dropping them while carrying them outside).

camping birthday party: the festivities!

We ended up with about 40 people at the party. We thought it would be fun to invite Elsa's friends and their families and get some good use out of our fire pit. The weather could not have been better. Delightful temperatures and few mosquitoes. And our first firefly sighting of the season! We're looking forward to more s'more parties this summer.

Amelia hid about 150 plastic bugs (and some wrapped gummy bugs) around the yard for the kids to find and collect in their jars. We're still finding them.

We bought several bags of the jumbo size marshmallows and had the kids divide into two teams. Each side started with the same amount of marshmallows and threw them at the other team for a designated period of time and the team with the cleanest side won. This was Elsa's favorite part. I think we should have played a second round with the adults. It was quite fun to throw marshmallows. The younger kids were eager to stuff their faces with the puffy projectiles.

This might have been one of the happiest days of Oliver's life. He spent the evening wandering freely, picking up whatever food he could find. And there was plenty. Lots of half-eaten hot dogs left lying around. And cake. And marshmallows. He was a complete mess by the end of the night. A happy mess. And surprisingly didn't show signs of sickness the next day. We even found him eating a bagel towards the end of the night. And we didn't even have bagels at the party.

I love how excited all of the kids get during the gift opening.

S'mores!

Ben attempted a peanut butter cup s'more with cookie butter. Extreme. 

Pure awesomeness.

 

Elsa was not happy that there were four candles in the cake since her actual birthday wasn't for two more days.

 

 

 

I did a lively reading of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and had the kids go on a hunt around the yard. The bear (Ben) was hiding behind the fence and chased all of the kids. They loved it. 

The wall of adults amuses me:

 

I'm glad my friend Jessica captured this amusing moment. When I asked Ben to get me some utensils to cut the cake, he returned with a butter knife and wooden spatula. And wondered why I was laughing.

After everyone had been sufficiently loaded with sugar, the kids had fun hanging out in the tent and watching Elsa's movie selection, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

A big shout-out to my friend Jessica who took several of these photos while I was busy going on bear hunts and playing hostess.