A few weeks ago, I showed you the invitation for my daughter's indoor camping party. Here they are again before they were sent out. The envelope was closed with a special "Camp Bella" sticker and we tied green twine around it. We added a name tag and delivered them personally to her friends. In the end, we had 13 kids who were invited and all accepted!
It was great that we had the party indoors since we woke up that April morning to snow! Most of it had melted away by the time the guests arrived, but it was still very cold outside.
The guests were greeted with signs leading them to Camp Bella, where they were instructed to pick up a camper's kit filled with a package of S'mores and a hot chocolate cone. I used fabric that I had left over from curtains that I made and sewed a drawstring backpack for the kit. I then printed out a design on iron-on transfer paper to add the design to the backpack. The kids later used the backpack to hold the items that they found on their scavenger hunt (more on that later).
The "campground" was our living room which I emptied out and placed four tents that I made. I then cut out stars and taped them onto string which I hung from the ceiling over the tents.
Next to the tents was the food table. We had typical camping food like hot dogs, chips, trail mix and fruit kabobs. And of course, there was cake!
The scavenger hunt was so much fun. The kids were put in teams of two and had fun figuring out the clues together. The clues were all different. Some were pictures of places around the house, a couple were clues with a code that they had to decipher, and some were straightforward clues such as "Look under the entrance table". The kids found things like flashlights, plastic bugs, bug catchers, pencils, and a camping survival kit with hand sanitizer and bandaids. The team that found everything first and got all of the clues right won some glow-in-the-dark bracelets.
After the scavenger hunt, the kids ate and then settled down and watched a movie.
After the movie, the kids moved to our dining room which was the Camp Bella craft area. We made rain sticks and glow in the dark jars.
At the end, we went out on our balcony and made s'mores on a small portable camping grill we had. The kids enjoyed roasting the marshmallows. Many of them didn't know what s'mores were and they loved it. I reminded them that they had a s'mores kit in their packs that they could make with their parents at home.
Three of the girls were invited to spend the night. They all wanted to sleep in the same tent instead of each one having their own. So, we brought out our four person pop-up tent and they all slept in there for the night.
It was such a fun party and the kids had so much fun. My daughter said the best part was the scavenger hunt and having her friends spend the night. I'm so happy she had a great time. After all, that's why I make such an effort for her. Love you Bella!
