Camping Birthday Party

      What boy does not love camping?? and what boy would not like to camp with some of his closest friends and for his birthday? I can believe I now have a 9 year old. Where has the time gone? For his birthday party this year his sister and himself decided they wanted a water slide party. Both of their birthdays are in May, the 10t and the 25th. Last year we did one huge birthday and rented a large water slide for the kids and celebrated in between their birthdays. This year my husband and I were going to do one big birthday but like at the beach or bowling.  I went to Pittsburgh also in the middle of their birthdays so doing one party was out of the question. My husband and I then began thinking of something that we could do that would be wonderful and BIG for them but not costly. We decided to camp.

Camping can be pricey if you allow it to be. It doesn't matter if you are camping in your backyard, camping at a campground, on the beach, or out in the woods. Sleeping in a tent outside or inside is considered camping. I say inside because some little boys may want a camping party and I would say for ages 4 and under camping inside is probably your best way to go because the younger they are the less they really get into the "outdoors" part of camping and just think its cool they get to sleep in a tent.. or if you do a day party with no sleep over all the kids could hang out or eat their cake in the tents. 

     We had cake and presents with all our family and friends at 5:00p.m. We decided not to do food for everyone because we wanted to cook with the kids on the fire. After presents and cake everyone left and the boys that were staying gathered their things and played while my husband and I got everything loaded. We camped down on our property on Perdido Bay. We set up 2 tents and a screened Porch area for us all to hang out and sleep. We allowed 3 boys to stay with my son for a total of 4. When you have sleepovers I always think its best to have only your closest friends sleep over it makes it easier because you know the children staying and their parents.

     We cooked hot dogs for dinner and had chips, snacks, candy, beef jerky... all the junk the boys could want, even soda... and That is NOT something that my children are allowed to drink. However, I figured for the party it would be fun and he would think it was "cool" he had soda. We bought the store brand for the kids soda and all of my sons favorite snacks. Also keep in mind the dollar store for snacks and candy's. They have a huge variety. The boys ate, ate, ate, and ate some more to the point my husband and I had to stop them from eating. I just knew they were going to have tummy aches and they had a birthday party to go to the next day, which were a set of brothers birthday that were at our party (So it was a weekend full of birthday parties).

The boys fished, played flat light tag, sat by the fire and talked, swam, played board games in the tent, told ghost stories ( My husband and I got to scare them a couple of times), and all whined down playing their DSs and relaxing. It was a wonderful night for the boys. They all stayed up till about 2:30a.m. ( I know that's a little extreme) but they were having a great time and enjoying a little bit of freedom. It was such a fun night and party. I think this was one of my husband and I favorite. Some of the boys said it was a Epic party and the other said no i think legendary. I'm glad my son had a wonderful birthday and everyone enjoyed camping.

     We did a breakfast of Pop tarts. You could cook if you wanted to go all out but it really is easier to hand the boys pop tarts. I bought two varieties. Served Juice with it and the boys fished and swam that morning while waiting on their 10:00 a.m. pick up.

If you don't already have camping gear, and don't want to spend the money to buy gear because its not something you will use, look around for rental camping gear, or even see if you can borrow a friend of family members. Also can look for cabin rentals that may be available at local parks near you.