A few days ago, I blogged about Rylynn's birthday party...in July! In keeping with the catching up theme, I'm blogging today about Eyrleigh's birthday...in November....in, you guessed it, February. Oh, well!
This past August, our family traveled to Glacier National Park in Montana and during that trip I decided Eyrleigh's party was going to incorporate hiking somehow! I wanted a party idea that was fun for both boys and girls as many of Eyrleigh's good friends are little boys. We have been super lucky with great weather for her birthday every year and I was counting on that this year. One of the county parks near us has a mixed paved and dirt wooded trail system and I knew it would be perfect for a hiking themed party. I sprang the $100+ to reserve the pavilion to guarantee I had the space to myself and in the event of rain.
I love tinyprints.com and changed out the words in this Thanksgiving dinner invitation to fit what we needed.
link to invitation I had done a similar thing for Eyrleigh's second birthday (turkey themed) and plan to use a 4th of July invitation for Rylynn's second birthday.
As kids arrived we had them decorate their prepared bags for the scavenger hunt. I bought large brown paper bags with handles at Hobby Lobby, tied a pencil to them with ribbon, and glued this awesome nature scavenger hunt page I found online.
printable link here
After the kids had their bags, they moved on the other stations around the pavilion. One station was "Make your Own Trail Mix". In the picture you can see I used large roasting pans to hold trail mix options. Each child was given a small bag and could scoop in their own choices for their mix. I had pretzels, mini-marshmallows, raisins, dried bananas and pineapple, M & M's, and Cinnamon Chex. I left out any nuts as we had 3 kids with severe peanut allergies.
The other station was the bird feeder station. I had seriously considered having the kids paint birdhouses but this was cheaper and had less clean-up. I saved toilet paper tubes for a few weeks and had enough for each child. I purchased soynut butter (see the above note on peanut allergies) to spread on the toilet paper tubes. Then the kids rolled their covered tube in bird seed. They sell butcher's string at the grocery store but I couldn't find it. I asked the butcher where it was and he just gave me some for free. I used about a foot and a half per kid. They simply put the string through the tube and when they got home, tied the whole thing to a tree branch. Any mess could be swept into the grass as birdseed and nut butter are highly biodegradable!
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| All the things we needed! |
I included a few pictures of Eyrleigh and I making a few more at home to show how totally doable and surprisingly mess free it was. I used cookie sheets to contain the birdseed and other than a little nut butter on kid's hands, it was really clean. I had each kid put their feeder in a baggie right away to take home. Probably the most notable thing from these instruction pictures is that when I go back to work, I need to buy jeans that fit!
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| Spread the nut butter all over the tube with a knife |
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| Roll the tube covered with nut butter in birdseed |
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| Put a piece of string in the tube and tie to a nearby tree. |
After the kids had time to decorate their bags and make their trail mix and a bird feeder, it was off on the scavenger hunt. We had walked the trail beforehand and since these kids were mostly 4 and 5, their parents came along. The trail was about a mile and we took about 30-45 minutes to walk it while looking for our items. The trail passed a pond, passed through a field, and went up through pretty heavy woods. Richard led the group and I played sweeper. Considering the kid's ages and the distance, everybody did great! Honestly, I heard more comments from the adults about getting tired! The kids loved it! The hunt kept them distracted and there was plenty to look at.
The best part about doing a party at the park is the playground. You don't have to worry about kids who finish the activities sitting around and getting bored. There is entertainment right there. We saved the "cake" for the end! I had no interest in worrying about a large cake and the trash of plates, forks, and napkins. I considered cupcakes but with close to 30 kids, I did not want to be up all night making them. Initially, I thought about making s'mores but the whole fire and kids thing made me nervous. I finally settled on mock s'mores. I sandwiched marshmallow Fluff and chocolate frosting between two graham crackers and wrapped it in tinfoil. It was perfect! My one suggestion would be to make these treats right before the party. We did and I was very glad! I tried a leftover one the next day and the graham cracker was mushy. These treats were easy to transport and perfect for kids who wanted to run off to the playground anyway. We put a candle in a jumbo marshmallow on a graham cracker smeared with chocolate frosting for Eyrleigh to blow out when we sang. This party was relatively inexpensive compared to last year's pj extravaganza and just as much fun. I was much less stressed since 75 people did not descend on my house! The kids loved it and several friends told me they were copying the ideas in their own parties or with their children's classes. That makes it a huge success in my book!
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