Ashlynn's Camp Themed 9th Birthday Party

Ashlynn turned nine on Friday and she celebrated with her friends on Saturday evening.  This year we went with a camp theme and named our yard Camp Night Owl because Ashlynn likes owls.

 This year I decided to not try so hard to decorate the place, knowing that the kids don't care all that much about decorations; they just want to have fun!

I did make a few animal silhouettes that were placed along the patio wall and fences.

When friends arrived, we started the party with a few crafts.  The first was a birch slice camper necklace.  They decorated the slice with Sharpies and then strung beads on the string.

 There were breaks for playing around on the swing set, in the tent, and on the trampoline (which got pretty crazy).

 Then they painted and decorated an owl craft.

 And they made washi tape bracelets.

 Crafts galore!

 Here's Ashlynn with her friends:

 Time for dinner!  We ate camp food: hot dogs, baked beans, pasta salad, watermelon, ants on a log (celery, peanut butter, and raisins), and chips.

By the time they were finished with dinner, it was dark.  Then, they made UFOs by cutting, hole punching, and decorating paper plates.  When the two paper plates were stapled together, a ring of glow sticks was inserted to make the UFO light up.  I had thought up the craft after seeing the idea of paper plate frisbees, thinking it was kind of cheesy, but the kids really liked making them.

Pippa got lots of love during the party.

 Once the UFOs were assembled, we took them to the front yard to fly, to play a glow stick ring toss game, to look at the moon through Ashlynn's new telescope, and to just lay on a blanket and look at the stars (well, the ones you can see in the city).

**The bummer about most of the photos from this point on is that I had to use a flash, or I ended up with blurry photos.  It was pretty magical to experience the party in the dark and the photos just don't do it justice.

Then it was time for making s'mores around the fire pit.  There were lots of giggles as they caught their marshmallows on fire and then got super messy faces from eating their s'mores.

A gooey, yummy mess!

 Time for opening presents!

 Carter even got a gift.  Thanks, Jack and Julia!

Since Ashlynn isn't a big fan of cake (well, frosting, really), we ate "mud pots" (chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, and a gummy worm).

Ashlynn enjoyed the enthusiastic singing of "Happy Birthday to You" from her friends (with lots of strange voices, hand movements, and "cha, cha, cha"s).

After a little bit of crazy playing on the trampoline and scary (or maybe just silly) stories told in the tent, there were hugs and Ashlynn's friends went home with their treat bags.

The treat bags contained their crafts from the evening, a pack of glowsticks, a really cool stick pencil, and s'more mix (Golden Grahams, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips).

 Ashlynn was delighted by a fun time with her friends as they celebrated her ninth birthday!