This past year Eli really fell in love with hiking, camping, fishing, kayaking, and anything else involving the great outdoors, so when it came time to choose a theme for his seventh birthday camping was the obvious choice. We also happen to have an Indian village near us so that was the perfect venue for a little boy's camping birthday. I created his invitations again myself and printed them at a local office supply company here in town. I love designing and creating his invitations and for his camping birthday I tried to keep it pretty simple.
Like I mentioned in the last post, his party was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but the weather completely rained us out so I moved the party to Sunday afternoon instead. That was the best decision, too, because the weather Sunday was beautiful! I was also able to use all day Saturday to get everything together for the party the next day so I didn't feel crazy like I usually do. The only hiccup in my plans was that Josh woke up on Sunday morning super sick. There was no way he would be able to make it to the party so I quarantined him to the bedroom. My parents, Josh's mom, and our friend Reve all pitched in to help me with the setup and decorations since Josh couldn't and it all turned out great. I hate that Josh wasn't able to come to the party, but we made the best of it and Eli still had a great day.
Eli's campfire cake I made.
Camp Eli
(The burlap banner was made by my mom.)
Sticks and acorns
Once everyone arrived at the party, each child got a paper bag with a list of items taped to the front for the nature scavenger hunt.
My beautiful niece
Tinsley and Avery became fast friends!
The kids had a great time exploring the Indian Village and found almost all of the items on their lists.
Pop even helped Jameson with his list. He loved putting stuff in his bag.
After the scavenger hunt, the kids were really hungry so they all ate and the adults got to visit. The kids also played in the yard with some of the toys I'd brought from home.
After snacking and playing, it was time for the cake!
I even managed to grab some snuggles from Tinsley.
Once everyone had their fill of cake, it was time to open presents. The past few years we haven't opened presents during the birthday party because the end result was never good; someone always ended up crying! I figured these kids were old enough this year to handle opening presents so that's what we did and it worked out great. Eli loved all of his gifts!
Eli with all his friends that came to his party.
Hayden got Eli a camping hat so they would match when they go camping again.
Cuties!
Once the gifts were all opened it was time for the guests to start leaving. We gave them their treat bag and thanked them for coming to celebrate Eli's birthday with him.
We all cleaned up and I took a few more pictures of the birthday boy and some of his guests. I also managed to get a lot of family pictures in there as well.
Me and my brothers
Zue-Zue and Eli
Pop, Eli, and Grammy
Eli and Tinsley
We loaded up all the gifts, leftover food, and decorations and headed back to our house. It was a wonderful 7th birthday party. I hate that Josh missed it, but he needed time to get better. Before Eli started working on all his new Lego sets, I made him take a quick picture with all his new presents. I'm thankful to everyone that came out for Eli's birthday party and made his day special. I'm looking forward to all the fun that my seven year old is going to have!
