Zachary's Campout Party

No one ever accused me of being on time.  Ever.  Not my forte.  My poor husband and in laws have had to learn how to deal with my lateness.  It's bad.  So here I am, six months later, posting about Zachary's seventh birthday party.  Which was in July.  At least I'm getting to it, which is more than I can say for anything that happened last year.

Zachary reeeeaaaaallllly wanted a sleepover party, so, since his birthday is in the summer, we decided that a campout would be perfect!  I loved sleeping in the tent in the backyard when I was a kid, and I knew he would too.  It was a super easy party to plan and execute and was inexpensive, too.  And the bonus was that my husband Jason and one of our friends, Bryan, did most of the heavy lifting!  Yes!  Totally my kind of party!

We started off with the invitations.  Every year for birthday party invitations, I've done a picture of the birthday kid doing something related in some way to the theme of the party.  But for this party, Zachary decided he wanted the invitations to look like a tent.  We found some ideas online.  Here is a link to the Pinterest board where we found much of our inspiration:

http://pinterest.com/mellowlane/campout-party/

I'm not sure if you can just click on that to go to the site.  I'm still a computer moron.  Sigh.  It's on my ever-growing list of things to learn/do.

We started out with our wording, and went with green and brown, which seems perfect for a campout.  Unfortunately Zachary is color blind and couldn't really even tell that we had two different colors.  Oh well.  So I decided on the wording and then printed them out in kind of a triangle shape, to show through the tent flap.  I printed two invitations to a page on white card stock and cut them in half.  (But in the getting-it-right phase, I just used regular printer paper.)  Then I rounded them off and cut a brown piece of brown construction paper to match.  Then I attempted to cut and fold back the "flaps" of the "tent."  This took several tries and a lot of experimentation back and forth between the printer and the "tent."  Here is what it looked like:

That's my paper cutter underneath there.  It's been with me since grad school.  We're tight.  And yes, I'm in my pajamas there.  It was probably about two in the afternoon.  Awesome.  That's how I roll when I'm in craft mode.

We also added a packing list, so the kids would know what to bring.

You see that nasty carpet underneath there?  That's gone now.  Yes!!

Another thing I always do is hand write the envelopes in some kind of cute font.  But I just didn't have the energy to copy that cute camp font.  And now that I've figured out how to load free fonts onto word, I decided to let the computer do the work for that, too.  Look at me.  I know you're impressed.

I had originally thought that I would have the boys immediately tie-dye a shirt to wear for the rest of the party, but the practicality of that shot that idea out the window.  So instead, I bought inexpensive backpacks from Oriental Trading and tie-dyed those ahead of time.  This left the dyeing to just our family, which was probably a smart idea.  My kids had fun tying the rubber bands around the backpacks and taking turns dipping them in the dyes.  We chose different shades of brown and green so we had a kind of camouflage effect.  So here's the thing about tie-dyeing.  It says on the directions how long to put the fabric in the dye.  It helps if you actually follow those directions.  Who knew!?  Needless to say we dipped them in for much shorter amounts of time, so our backpacks turned out really light.  I still think they're really cute.  And then I wrote each boy's name in black fabric pen.

At the last minute, because I had time to spare (i.e. I wasn't freaking out about screwing up another cake.  Curse you birthday cakes!!) I decided we needed a pennant sign on the front door.  I printed out the letters in that cute camp font again.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I am a high school geometry tutor, spacial awareness is not something I possess.  Sigh.  There was a lot of cussing going on during this frustrating process.  I decided to bag in completely, when I spotted these:

Old file folders.  I think these might even be from grad school.  I think some of them were reused from my mom and are probably as old as I am.  Put those buggers to good use.  They certainly aren't holding social studies guides anymore!

Cut off the labels and cut them in half.  (There's that carpet again.  In the words of three year old Juliette, "See you later, suckah!")

Much easier to use pencil, a ruler and my BFF paper cutter.  As I was at this time, running out of time, I didn't do a cute font on the pennant, but here's the finished sign on the front door:

You can see it's just twine, and the letters are folded over and taped on the back side.  The sign was ever-so-elegantly taped to the door.  It got the job done.

When the boys arrived, they ran around for a bit.  (Obviously.  They are six and seven year old boys.)  And then they prepared for their hike.  Each boy found their backpack and water bottle, also with their name on it (purchased at the dollar store) and a large Ziploc bag for any treasures they found on their hike.  Then they loaded up a smaller baggie with trail mix from the trail mix bar.

My mother-in-law found these old vintage napkins hiding in a linen closet.  Weren't they perfect for the occasion?

A little twine around a mason jar and it's rugged.

The boys loaded their packs and headed out for a hike with the two dads, one leading (or chasing after the runners) and one bringing up the rear (and nagging/encouraging the stragglers).  Lucky us, we have beautiful horse trails that weave in and out of our whole town.  Zachary and Jason had mapped out their route ahead of time and the boys headed out on about a two or three mile hike.  And I didn't go!!!  I had a break.  In the middle of a birthday party.  Shocking.  I don't even remember what I did during that time.  Probably I cleaned.  So maybe it wasn't that exciting.  The boys came back dirty and thirsty and ready to run around some more.  So they did.  We had no other structured activities, so they played in the "fort" (made up of some old blinds, parts to a composter and anything else the kids can find) up the hill in our backyard, played basketball in the driveway and soccer in the cul de sac.  For dinner, we fed them hotdogs, cooked on skewers borrowed from the Girl Scout troop, over a fire pit, borrowed from my friend Michelle, placed on our driveway with camp chairs surrounding it.

For a cake, we decided not to do a cake.  You can't do a campout without s'mores.  And these boys were spending the night.  I was not about to feed them s'mores and cake.  I'm not totally insane.  So Zachary blew out his flaming marshmallow as his friends sang him happy birthday.

Little shout out to my cousin Katy there, a Wagner lacrosse player!

At this point, about half of the boys went home.  The rest of the boys got in their jammies and got into the tent, armed with flashlights and glowsticks, also purchased at the dollar store.

You like our tent?  It's actually my parents' tent and it's muuuuuuch older than I am!  They bought it right after they got married.  I spent much of my youth in that beauty!

This one is ours, a wedding present, but that night it was for Jason and Bryan to snuggle up in.  Or snore the night away.  The girls and I had our own sleepover in my bed.  I didn't sleep much.  Too many elbows on those little people.

In the morning, we served chocolate chip pancakes and kicked those boys to the curb.  I'm still tired when I think of that day.  After each sleepover, I vow it will be my last.  They are just torture.  But Zachary and his friends loved it!  As I said before, it was a really low maintenance, low budget party, but Zachary said it was his favorite!

Our Own Private Forest

Though we live about 20 minutes from downtown LA, and there is a major freeway bissecting our town, I usually feel like I live a million miles from the major metropolis, at least the stereotypes thereof. People from out of state and out of town, it seems, think of people who live in LA as shallow, rich, shopaholic, plastic and botoxed and obsessed with celebrity culture. I'm sure there's some truth to this for many Angelinos and probably many people in our own little town. But as I walk or drive around town, I am much, much more likely to see women in sweats, their hair in a ponytail, walking a big dog than someone in the latest fashion, with a face unrecognizable to their high school friends and a dog in their purse. The original purpose of our little town was to be in "the country." It seems that much of that original purpose has been replaced by suburban shopping centers, SUVs and houses that fill an entire lot. But some elements remain. We still have very few street lights or sidewalks. Most of the town is still not on sewers. The city is littered with trees; eucalyptus, sycamores and California oaks, some smackdab in the middle of the road. And we have our horse trails.

Today the kids and I decided to have an adventure. Inevitably, these adventures take place on the horse trail. We've been exploring different aspects of it, going for short walks, collecting pinecones and leaves. Since we are on two feet (and not four), there is only so far we can go at a time. Today we were in a new (to us) part of the trail, canopied in ancient oaks. Even though today was a holiday and a gorgeous fall day, we came across only four other people on our walk. We had the trail almost completely to ourselves. The kids made up stories about where we were as we explored what felt like our own private forest. It was beautiful, peaceful and centering; the perfect way to forget about the stress of every day life. How lucky that we are to have all this right here in our own town. My kids were so excited to see two "big kids" who were having their own adventure, scouting spots for a scene in their "movie." (OK, it is still LA.) I can't wait for them to have their own adventures without me, like my childhood friends Sarah and Heidi and I used to do. I am often envious of people who live on huge properties of land or people in other parts of the country who have woods behind their backyard. Imagine that! How quick I am to forget what is in my own backyard.

One aspect of our walk was a little sad for me, though. We didn't come across a single horse. I know there are still horses in our town. We see them. We stop our car for them when they cross the road. There is even one family who rides home from school sometimes in a horse-drawn buggy. (Seriously. How cool is that?!) But they are getting more and more obsolete. I'm afraid that one day all the beautiful horse properties in town will be filled with enormous houses, swimming pools and play equipment, the barns and stables and horse spaces converted into something else entirely. Or worse yet, someone will subdivide the land and put on two or three or four enormous houses. As you walk along the horse trails, you can see into many of the yards of the homes that back the trails. Gates in the properties make for easy access on horseback. We saw lots of stables, one with six stalls and an enormous green area where horses once ran and grazed. Not a single stable that we saw today had a horse. Some appeared to be converted into storage. One is maybe a poolhouse or a guesthouse now. But most are just empty, their rooves starting to cave in. I don't really remember because well, my memory is spotty at best. But I know that horses were much more prolific in my youth. I remember bringing along a carrot or an apple to feed the horse on the street behind mine. Horses were as much a part of our town as the schools that now define it. It seems that some of the country has left our little town, left many of the stables empty and deserted. And though I have never ridden a horse, I still dream of someday opening a gate from my backyard, leaving behind a refurbished stable and hitting the trails on horseback.

Today the kids and I collected berries and acorns, freshly fallen after this morning's wind storm. Tomorrow we will make a wreath using them to adorn our front door. It will remind me to enjoy the nature that is right around me; enjoy these simple times while my children are young enough to enjoy them with me; and appreciate what has been, what is and what will be in an ever-evolving world.