Who doesn't love s'mores?!!
When I asked Adrian what he wanted to do for his fourth birthday, I was not prepared for the answer I got. He said to me "Mommy, I want to go camping!". Camping? Where the heck did that answer come from?!. Then I remembered he had recently watched an episode of Doc McStuffins where they went camping. So that was it, that's what he wanted and that's what we were stuck doing. And I say stuck because I am in no way an outdoors person, but I want to make my little boy happy so sometimes you just have to make sacrifices ;). Well after his last party I had made up my mind, no more parties. After all the time and money spent, just to have people cancel last minute, I told my self for his next birthday all of that money and energy will go into something we can so as a family and something he can really enjoy. So I set out to find the perfect place for our camping expedition. I found a local state park where we could camp right by the lake. I even took a drive there to check out the spot and it was perfect. But I should have known something would go wrong. The weather was calling for over night rain. The last thing I would want is to be out in a tent in the woods with 2 little kids getting rained on, and not to mention the bugs it would bring out!! EEEK No thanks. I love you Adrian but our back yard for a couple of hours sounded just fine to me :) So I had four days and a back yard camp out to plan. I didn't want to be in over my head so after searching online for some ideas and inspiration I decided on just creating a s'mores bar the boys would enjoy. And the search began! Lately I have been challenging my self to re use items from home or previous parties to show that something amazing can be created by keeping the costs low, and this was definitely the case with this set up.
First on the agenda was the s'mores banner. For Dominick's Cookies and Milk party I had a custom banner which I ordered from Etsy, and I had been wondering what I would do with it after his party. Well I decided to take it apart and use the letter blocks, flipped over, on this banner. I also had a burlap runner from his party and I knew it would work great as a banner. After I cut out the banner shapes I wanted, I glued the paper squares to each one and created each letter using twigs. I have had a pack of left over bandanas from Adrians last birthday party and I knew they would come in handy for this camping theme so I cut out some strips and used them to adorn the banner. So the banner cost me, zero!
After I finished the first banner, I set out on the next one. Camp Adrian! For this one I used the second runner I had left over from Dominick's party. I got some brown construction paper which I cut out and glued onto the burlap runner, and once again used twigs for the letters. For the little teepee design I used smaller twigs and some fabric from old t-shirts. So for this banner the only thing I purchased was the construction paper used which cost me a dollar!
After the banners were all done, I set out on a quest at my favorite place, well besides Dollar Tree, my local antique shop! There I found the green fabric that I used on the table for $1.60.
I also came across the set of wooden bowls that I used for the toppings and those cost me $6.00 for the set of 4 and the pine cone candle which was only $1! ( and I can re-use it for the holidays, it smells divine)
Next stop, of course, was Dollar Tree! Where I found the small baskets with brown fabric and they worked out perfect for the actual s'mores ingredients. I also got a couple of bags of moss to spread around the table to give it that outdoors feel.
My husband came across this old Coca Cola wooden crate a couple of years ago and when I saw it tucked away in out garage I knew it would match my color scheme and be perfect to hold the cupcakes in a jar I had been planning on making. The cute wooden spoons came from Sweet Party Shop. Oh and of course the signs for the food came from my back yard :) tree bark and wood chips with a little touch of bandana and a lot of help from my glue gun!
I found this great idea on Pinterest for camp fire cones and I decided to try it out! The kids werent that much into them, but I loved the gooey chocolaty goodness.
I loved the way these wooden bowls looked!
Camp Adrian!
I got these mason jars for Adrians last birthday and I used them in this party to hang from the tree by the s'mores bar.
They looked amazing all lit up at night.
My little camper!
The birthday boy and his cousin enjoying their hot dogs in their tent.
So after 4 days of burning my fingers with my glue gun, this is what I came up with and it all cost me just under $50 dollars. My husband is loving my thrifty party ideas, and so is his wallet :)
No comments:
Post a Comment