Half Birthday Parties Rock!

Every year I vow that I’m going to throw half birthday parties for Andrew and Haley, because 1) they share a birthday and 2) it falls in December!!  Really – who can throw two birthday parties in December?  Usually what happens is we frantically invite two or three friends to join us at the pool in early December because I never got my stuff together.  This year, as part of my “summer fun” calendar I planned a surprise half birthday party for the kiddos and actually sent out invitations so I wouldn’t be tempted to “forget about it”.  I also made it a surprise because I have a kid that tends to sabotage fun things by being outrageously bad so that I have to cancel said fun things.

So – where to go to get fun birthday ideas?  Why www.familyfun.go.com of course (thanks for asking!).  The magazines are always fun to read, but the website has oodles of party ideas, cake ideas, craft ideas, game ideas, activities … if it involves kids you’ll find fun stuff here.  Anyhow, I browsed outdoor party ideas and saw one for a Backyard Camp-out Party.  I loved this idea and I thought it work for boys and girls (because I was only throwing ONE party, not TWO).

So … decorations – set up the family tent.  Put the fire pit out in front with camp chairs set up around it.  Good to go!

From Half Birthday Party 2011

Next – what about invitations? I looked around a lot for this one, and finally found one I liked, to purchase. But didn’t want to purchase, so made my own in Publisher.  I found a cute clipart of a bonfire and wrote all the info on the front.  Popped those in the mail so I wouldn’t back out due to a busy schedule!!

Next – food!  The party outline suggested hot dogs, which we went with.  Because we were going to have a cake, we decided we just have a few marshmallows for the kids to roast, but skip the whole ‘smores production.  But what kind of cake??  Again FamilyFun came to the rescue.  The Campfire Cake looked perfect – and it didn’t require baking – just assembling – which was perfect for keeping the secret when my kids were home with me ALL DAY.

From Half Birthday Party 2011

I think it turned out pretty awesome!!

We thought Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag sounded like it could be a fun activity.  I think the kids did have fun – though some of them had a hard time shaking and rolling and squeezing long enough to freeze up their ice cream!  They all said it tasted yummy! and most everyone got wet, which just made it more fun!

From Half Birthday Party 2011

From Half Birthday Party 2011

So that took care of the edibles. But what to do?? Back to FamilyFun for camping craft ideas. We finally settled on Rock Necklaces and Camping Notebooks.  We made the rock necklaces more fun by melting crayons onto the rocks to make them colorful (the idea is found here) and tweaked the notebook with a leaf print on the front.

From Half Birthday Party 2011

From Half Birthday Party 2011

The rock necklaces were definitely the favorite and the kids had a blast hanging out in the tent and “working” on them!! The leaf prints were trickier than they looked and even inserting the twig through the rubber band had most kids scratching their heads – guess that one would have been better for middle-schoolers??

Aside from crafts the kids played capture the flag and, once it got dark, flashlight tag.  There was lots of running and yelling and laughing going on.  Having a combined party meant there were plenty of kids to make things exciting.

Overall, I’d say it was a success – I even got a big hug and thank you from Haley who said it was, “the best surprise party ever!”  Andrew wanted to know if he was going to have his “real” party in December.  Leave it to him …