Campout Birthday

This week, I thought I would share a little more about how I found my way into decorating!  Since I can remember, I have always had an interest in crafts and creating.  For me that interest really took shape after I got married.  Specifically, when both of my babies began celebrating their birthdays. 

 Each year, I found myself preparing their parties months in advance, since that was the best way to get things on sale!!  The kids have had some wild and crazy parties, so I hope to share a few of them with you here and there :)

Today I want to share with you the birthday party that we had for our son's 9th birthday.  This was his birthday last year.  He wanted  a Camp Out themed party.  So we put our minds together and came up with some fun things!  He wanted a sleep over and since it was mid January, I didn't want any of the boys outside in summer tents in freezing cold weather. 

Hypothermia, frostbite?

 Not the kind of take home treats I was planning on giving out at this party ;) 

Ethan's favorite dessert is cheesecake, so I made a bunch of mini cheesecakes instead of cupcakes as his cake.  Apparently since I was a cake designer for 5 years, he is a bit caked out ;-)  I also made Chocolate Owl Pops and Chocolate covered Truffle Frogs!

A close up of the mini cheesecakes.  I just did the box mix of cheesecake and let them set in muffin pans.  Easy Peasy!

The owls where just Hershey's chocolate melted and molded into owl molds with lollipop sticks.  I added some raffia to the top of the lollipop sticks, wrapped a square cube of Styrofoam in wrapping paper and just popped the owls in.

I usually try to make Oreo truffles for each child's birthday.  I was lucky enough to find some frog molds.  I made my regular Oreo truffles filling.  Then I just used green chocolate discs that you can purchase at Michaels and I filled the molds with the green chocolate and flipped them over to leave just enough of a chocolate shell. In the freezer for a few minutes, then fill with Oreo truffle filling, one last coat of chocolate across the bottom and back in the freezer for a few minutes.  Viola, Oreo truffle froggies!

Who's Up For S'more? 

Here is the Smores Bar for Ethan and all his buds.  I already had the two little fondue/marshmallow roaster thingies.  I got technical right there ;-)  I picked them up at the thrift store for $6.95 ea. so they came in handy!

Different flavors of Graham Crackers.

To your left, on the chocolate tray is Oreo chocolate bars, milk chocolate bars, and peanut butter cups.  In the back, I put a few different flavors of marshmallows including chocolate swirl, regular, coconut, and strawberry. 

I wanted to give the kids a lot of options, so I came up with a Smore's Menu.   We had so much fun watching the kids try all of the different concoctions!

 

We also gave each of the boys a take home Smore's kit that I put together with two marshmallows on wooden skewers, some pieces of Hershey's chocolate, and 4 graham crackers (enough to make two Smores.

We set up their eating area in the morning room.  I threw some pine cones and acorns on top of some natural moss.   The corners of the napkins were folded on the edges so I could stand them up!  I was hoping they looked like tents in the end :)

In the morning, before all the boys left, we let each child put together their own treat bag for the road at the Candy Bar.  We had all sorts of goodies to pick from!

Sorry for the blurriness of the shot, but I couldn't leave out a little shot of the birthday boy blowing out his candles!