Find out how to camp in your own backyard. You don't have to go to the mountains to have a great camp out.
Camping out with the kids can be a blast if you have all the right ingredients; like your very own back yard! Just think, you no longer have to worry about rattlesnakes, poison ivy, or wild coyotes. And the best part about it all, is that mom gets to sleep in a nice warm bed. Or is the best part that the clean up is all outside and not in the house?
Children love camp outs as it allows them the opportunity to have more than five friends sleep over at a time. The best camp outs are the ones with five tents set up and fifteen to twenty children are all running amuck.
So how does one go about planning a camp out in the city?
1. Prepare Flyers instead of sending out the traditional party invitations. Decorate the flyers with tons of trees and hills. Don't forget to remind everyone to bring their warmest pajamas, a flash light, a sleeping bag and a pillow, as they will be sleeping outside.
2. Set tents up in the back yard. If you don't have tents, don't hesitate to borrow a few from the parents of the kids that will be attending the party. The parents get a kick out of this idea and love to send the tents.
3. Bring out a round barbecue grill or a wood burning grill that is specifically designed for this type of thing (often found at places like Home Depot). You will need this to keep warm, roast marshmallows and tell spooky stories around it
4. If the party starts around supper time, you can roast hot dogs over an open flame. If you decide to start the party later, say seven thirty in the evening, you can stick to snacks and roasting marshmallows.
5. No camp out would be complete without snacks. The best kind of snacks are chips, crackers, and smores because they don't go stale fast.
6. As for drinks, water bottles would be great as the kids will be running around and need to replenish their bodies. If you give them soda or punch, they will end up with a sugar rush and become more hyper and harder to get settled down towards the end of the evening.
7. Make a huge batch of hot chocolate and keep it warm on the stove, or hanging in a kettle above the wood burning grill. After everyone is ready to settle down, bring out the hot cocoa and prepare to tell your ghost stories.
8. Make crafts using objects from nature. A great craft would be to take a miniature wooden fence, and hot glue ( or Elmer's glue) twigs, leaves, and flower petals onto the fence. Once dried, hot glue two hooks on the back of the fence.
9. A scavenger hunt around the neighborhood would be a great way to get some of that energy out of th kids. You could also have relay races around the tents and play charades in front of the campfire.
10. In the morning, before everyone leaves, serve donuts and milk.
