My oldest son is wilderness all the way. He loves nature and loves to use it to build and create things. It was fitting that he would ask for a survival campout for his birthday this year. As I have said in previous posts, campouts are very popular at our house. It’s super fun and easy. However, that does depend on who is camping and who s glamping. Seeing what people unload from their cars for one night amazes me. The mattresses these days are insane. I am jealous because these children never have to know the pain of that one rock or root your tent was placed on, and you can’t get away from it. Nothing like a rock or stick poking you in the back all night. Even better, I laugh because kiddos have no idea the arguments that occurred while putting up tents in our childhood, those damn poles. Now all they have to do is pop a button, and viola, the tent is up, with outlet areas, ROOMs, places to hang your i-pads, and so forth.
Okay, so let me get back to this Survival Party. I will admit he had me stumped at first, which is not normal for us when it comes to party planning. I told him to let me think about it and see if I could come up with something. Well, well, well, once the gears started turning, we pulled off an entertaining and easy Survival Campout party. We came up with a few fun activities, and the food, oh, how yummy it was.
Activities:
- Build Your Bow and Arrow– My son chose this activity because he has been making bows out of branches and strings for the last few years. When we went to the county fair, we saw a different way in which they were using PVC pipes. We took a picture, figured they were easy enough to make and went with that plan. Well, if I could post the faces of the Dad’s confusion, you might laugh. Even better, the 11-year-olds figured out how to make them before the Dads did. In the end, they were easy to make and fun to use.
- Glow in the Dark Scavenger Hunt– We purchased the thicker glow sticks. We hid these around the yard and in the woods. We counted as we put them out, which is very important. These boys got very competitive. Some glow sticks didn’t work in the batch, so do yourself a favor and count as you put them out. I don’t care about the age you give a group competition; they are on it. They set out to find the glow sticks, and they didn’t stop until they found all 28 (30 packs, two duds).
- Haunted Path– We made a haunted path through the woods in our backyard. We used Halloween decorations, some we purchased and some we borrowed. We placed a Bluetooth speaker in the middle of the path set to play haunted music. To set the mood one step further, we collected lanterns, put their setting on strobe throughout the path, and placed a fog machine at the beginning of the trail. The last touch was the best; we asked all the dads who had joined us to go out to the path and hide throughout the course to jump out at the kiddos. The dads jumped at this opportunity and got into it, some even lying on the ground, ready to pounce on their kiddos. When I released the boys into the path, they must have gone down it 30 times. It was a success! Ahhh, the sound of screams and laughter, no better sound. As they were going through, I should have notified my neighbors this was occurring tonight; luckily, no police were called.
Food!
- Build Your Own Nacho bar– When first planning this party, I contemplated freeze-dried food. Then I got sensible. Would serving that to the boys have been funny, but they wouldn’t have eaten them, and I still would have had to feed them. I began to think about what they could cook on the fire…. Hot dogs did that…..Popcorn has done that a million times… NACHOS!! What kiddo doesn’t like nachos? I know, I know, I am sure there are a few out there, but pretty much any child eats chips. We filled the table with protein toppings and other items to put on their nachos. We used metal to-go containers for them to build their nachos in and then put foil over the top. They placed their foil-wrapped nachos on the fire grid, and within minutes, they had melted cheese and delicious nachos. These were both kid and Dad approved!
- S’MORE Birthday Board: Instead of a birthday cake, we decided to stick to the camp-out survival theme. We went with S’MORES. But not the ordinary s’mores, of course. We had to up our game. We created a fun survival/Halloween s’more board. It had candy, marshmallows and cookies, and all that goodness. We lit a candle in the middle and sang Happy Birthday. After that it was a free for all. Some just made a plate of goodies while other created some delicious s’mores.
In the end, this party which started as a 10-year-old dream and complexed this momma turned out to be so much fun to plan and participate in! I hope you enjoyed our story! Let us know if you use any of our ideas and what else you may have added to your Survival Party!
