Camping Themed Birthday Party

When I stared planning this party there weren't any camping birthday parties online for inspiration, but the past month they have been popping up all over the place!  Funny how that happens.  I had found some great inspiration that I gathered on my Camping Party Pinterest board.  Here is how my party turned out!

I will have a tutorial coming up on how I made these fun signs.

The "post" is cut from a strip of the background I used below which I got from Shindigz.com (along with several other party supplies that I will show you!).  Shindigz was my main supplier for this party, they have party supplies for all different themes and events at really great prices.  Their customer service was also excellent when I had a minor issue with a defective product.

The background image is corrugated paper  and there was more than double this amount on the roll, such a great deal and it made a huge impact in the decor.   The grass shown is also from Shindigz and was so much better than I had even anticipated!  I read in the reviews before I purchased it (what a great feature to be able to do when shopping online!) that it looked best when crinkled before unfolding so I roughed it up before spreading it out.  There was so much in the package that I have enough left over for another party.  I will defiantly order this grass again if needed, it was so easy to work with.

The cake and cupcake stands my husband whipped together from the woodpile.  I love how they turned out!

I actually planned the cake around the cake knife I found on Shindigz. Looking at the picture now I wish I would have put it out by the cake at the beginning, I showed it off when we were cutting the cake and it was a big hit.  Here is the pic from their site-

I picked up some jelly jars with plastic lids at a garage sale.  Since the party was for a 4 year old I wanted to have cups that wouldn't spill easily for the kids.  A regular hole punch went right through the plastic lid and they worked perfect!  Adults got full size jars with the fun straws.  (I found the best deal for these straws is through Amazon.com) You know you can't find a party on a blog now without these straws!  I ordered them in gray too so that they can go with what ever party theme I choose next!  My twins are December babies so I will start planning that soon (always planning something!).  Galoshes had the idea of a Candy Land theme which I'm loving (boy girl twin parties can be so difficult to theme).  So look forward to that!  Shindigz has all kinds of fun stuff I know will work great!

The camper above is also an upcoming tutorial, I just LOVE how it turned out!

One thing that made my party unique (and that I didn't get enough photos of!!!) was the kid's room.  I wanted to put a night time spin on the camping theme but also wanted people to be able to see to eat and have the party during the daytime.  So I rented a space with two separate rooms that were connected and made one into a "campsite" complete with a tee pee, campfire, and we projected a movie for the kids.

The campfire was built up using a table torch meant for luau parties.  I think it worked great and it looked amazing with the lights off.  Very child safe.   This was the item that was defective when it first arrived.  I do want to mention that half of the reviews for this item mentioned that this may be common in this product, but those who had received a working one raved about it.  I made sure to order it with enough time that I would be able to get a replacement if needed.  When it arrived I tested it out and did in fact have a defective one.  Shindigz however had excellent customer service and sent me out a replacement right away.  I was very happy with their service. 

Notice the green balloons on the floor?  I completely forgot to get a picture with the lights off, renting a place left decorating down to the wire and I was kicking myself for not allowing myself more time for pictures) BUT the balloons had these LED lights in them from Shindigz that made the whole room glow! Possibly the coolest thing ever!  You just twist them on, stick them in the balloon, then blow it up.  They are light enough that you can use them with helium too, but I was happy just to have them rolling around the floor.  But be warned, if the kids get rowdy with them they can sting a bit to get hit with and if popped the kids will want to keep the lights.  I was lucky enough to get most of my lights back so that I can reuse them.

For favors I made a s'mores trail mix with golden grams,  mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  Put a nice size portion in a cello bag and tied with some ripped fabric strips. Remember the marshmallow fluff lip balm?  It was a total hit!

I printed out little labels with a camper and tree for the balms that thanked guests for coming.  Then I put them in a jar on the favor table.  I think it was a nice touch as the birthday boy is still young and most of the guests were adult family.  But who doesn't love lip balm!

Already full of chocolate from s'mores, a very excited little boy turns four!

Also from Shindigz I ordered the chocolate colored table cloths you see above which are paper and disposable despite some of the confusing reviews calling them cloth, but they are very nice quality and have a plastic liner, I didn't have any tearing issues and they looked great! I also picked up small chocolate colored square dessert plates for the cake.

I received so many wonderful compliments during the party and would like to thank Shindigz for helping me pull it off!   Stay tuned for the tutorials on some of the party details coming up!