We cheated and celebrated Elliott’s birthday a little early this year {her actual birthday is May 29th} with a small sleepover {deep in the woods}!

She and I decided to do a girly campout by taking it up a notch and embracing all the joys of camping, but with all the benefits of home. I thought it’d be fun to get a huge tent and sleep out in the backyard, but after seeing a snake in the park at Holden’s soccer party the other afternoon and knowing that we have nocturnal critters that scamper around the backyard changed my mind real quick. We just went with the good ‘ol bring your sleeping bag, pillow and favorite stuffed animal and crash in the living room option.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, planning my kids’ parties is labor of love. I always have a theme in mind literally 12+ months in advance and pick up things here and there and stash them away until party time. I hit all the Target after holiday clearance sales and keep my eyes peeled for things at Dollar Tree and stuff throughout the year that fit with the theme.

For the invites, I just used some darling blank notecards that I got on clearance at Target for under $4. I spotted the camping stickers well over a year ago at the 99cent store anticipating a campout party in our future.

I’m loving the big chalkboard that I painted lately ~ it’s so fun to change up the message…this time it welcomed all glampers.

I was offered to take home a manzanita centerpiece with dangly crystals from our friends, Francis & Melissa’s, wedding about a month ago. I repurposed it in a little tin bucket and hung a couple hot pink paper lanterns in the corner of our great room.

After Easter I found some Spring-y decor marked down 75% at Target. I grabbed the last tablecloth and sort of worked off that color scheme. Oh and it didn’t hurt that we had her first holy communion party last weekend…I left up the balloons and hoops which coordinated well, I thought.

{cafeteria trays are from Target and collapsible camo water bottles are from 99cents Only…..and are BPA free!}

{banner is Spritz from Target and I added torn bandanas from Wal-mart}

I found matching jammies at Justice on super clearance and bagged them up in brown paper gift bags with glittered initials ~ just use a stencil or freehand your letter with a pencil, outline letter with school glue, fill in letter with small drops of glue, smooth around with a q-tip to cover the whole letter and then douse in glitter. Let sit for 10 minutes, shake off excess glitter and lay flat until completely dry. Gramma Kathy picked up the zebra peace sign tags ~ every second graders favorite combo. Thanks again, Mom!

{Moose Creek sign $1 @ Goodwill. Forest animal friends wrapping paper for photo booth back drop 90% off after Christmas at World Market}

I searched our three local Goodwill stores for some afghans for a granny chic vibe. It took a few months to settle on three that I really liked and that the price was right…

{to “disinfect” thrift store finds like these, just machine wash in warm water using your favorite detergent, add a little extra fabric softener than you normally would in your Downey ball, hang dry or dry in dryer and then spray with antibacterial Febreeze}

For the cake, I decided to do a DIY ice cream cake. I found the ice cream in a square box {at Wal-mart}, not a carton, and just tore open the box and cut layers of ice cream to stick in between the two layers of cake. I just baked the cake in a 9X13, cooled it, cut it in half before adding the layer of ice cream. I cheated and used Betty Crocker frosting ~ the smaller container covered this cake perfectly. Keep frozen, but let sit out 15-20 minutes before cutting and serving.

I sent Jay and Holden off to the movies and dinner and invited the mamas to come over and hang out for a bit. We ate chili and cornbread and the girls had biscuit pizzas, mac n cheese and Elliott’s favorite, cucumbers and ranch.

{cupcake liners and picks from Sur la Table}

{Goodie Bags are my fave ~ journals: free @ REI, mini notebooks: Target, branch pencils: TJMaxx, critter hair pins: Justice}

*****

We went to the pool for a couple hours secretly trying to get them tired out!

The girls got all showered and in their jammies at the pool…

{lots of screaming and peace signs}

After dinner my friend Hollie set up her projector and they watched a movie in the backyard…

…followed by ice cream cake…

Then a few photo booth antics before hitting the sack…

They were all tucked in their sleeping bags by 11:00pm watching something on the Disney channel…then at a surprising 4:45am they were all up chatting with the lights on! I went down and started a pot of coffee and cleaned up the kitchen. By 6:00am most of them were asleep again only to be awoken by the smell of donuts and icing & sprinkles waiting to go atop.

{Hello Kitty was on her best behavior}

I had a big thing to attend at church yesterday, so the campers were packed up and ready to return to civilization around 8:30…

*****

Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED, but obviously it was well worth it!

EIGHT is a big year….halfway to a driver’s license! Yikes. How can that be.

There was lots of swimming, squealing, Justin Bieber-ing, running, jumping and laughing.

I think it was perfect.

Thanks for sticking around through this long post and all the details. I love reading party posts on other blogs and learning about how they all come together.

I use this blog as a sort of digital scrapbook for down the road so we can look back and remember all the milestones, birthdays, celebrations and day-to-day goings on.

As always, I thank you for your readership and for following along!

XO