Camp Ater

 On Friday the 14th we had a Camp In. Our church was having a lock in with a camping theme the same nite but it was for 1st graders and up. I couldn't go and leave Lucas out. So we decided to have a camp at the house very easy to do.

 I decided to make a homemade campfire on Thursday nite and spent most of the evening crafting and painting it. The pics do NOT do it justice. Even tried to capture it on video and you just have to see this in person to enjoy the true pretend campfire!

 Okay so the campfire is our Halloween smoking cauldron. It lights up and has smoke coming out of it. See you now understand why the pics did not do it justice! So I took a diaper box and cut it up and rolled the cardboard up so that the brown part was on the outside, the white and yellow Target brand diapers box design are on the inside. I then painted them brown to add texture and to darken them. Then I used hot glue to place the logs around the top of the cauldron. Hot gluing the logs together. No glue ever touched the cauldron. So the cauldron can still be used for Halloween but the fireplace can fit on top of it anytime we wanna play with the campfire. I love doing double duty! I found pine cones outside and also hot glued them to add more of the REAL campfire feel. Then red tissue paper is the fire. I crumbled it up and stapled it then hot glued it into place, then took scissors to make the strips of flames. With the flames that got cut and fell to the ground, I decided to glue all over to add the sparks of the fire on the logs. It was awesome when it lit up and had smoke coming out. Gary was in AWE of my creation.

 Our tent that all four of us fit into!!

 So we decided to go outside to cook our hot dogs. Grills have been banned in our community so you can only cook out now using the properties' grills.

 Here is our fountain and lake. What a nice view for cooking out in.

 The boys watching all the ducks and creatures of the lake.

 Our hot dogs cooking away. Yes our pool is in the background.

 So our dinner was hot dogs, Griller fries, that are fabulous by the way, they are by Ore-Ida. http://www.oreida.com/products/grillers.aspx

 The boys little picnic area.

 So after dinner we went on a Bug hunt. I bought a pack of bugs from the dollar store. Go get some now, they are out for Halloween time. I placed them all over the living room.

 I even hid some on top of the tent! hehehe!

 My Mom had some great ideas to add to the camp theme. She said we need bug catcher jars. So I took some empty spice jars, plastic ones and had Gary drill holes on the top. We put our plastic bugs in them. Mom also asked if I had battery operated tea candles. I said yes. I got them at the dollar store 3 pack for a dollar, comes with batteries too. She suggested I place them into the jars and tell the kids they caught lightning bugs too!! Awesome idea. Love you, Mama!!

 Our next camp game was Fishing in the waterfall. I stole this idea from the movie Pollyanna. See Edward swimming in the waterfall. If you love Pollyanna like I did growing up you should remember how she won her doll. They had a sheet up at the carnival she went to and they would fish for prizes. Okay same thing here.

My husband Gary was behind the sheet making gurgling noises like a water fall with an occasional Donald Duck noise as well. He is so Silly, why I love and married him!! Lucas caught a snake!! Oh, the fishing poles are unsharpened pencils, with a string stapled to them and then I fed the other end of the string through a wooden close pin. Tied in a knot.
 

Edward caught a Nemo fish!!

 The boys both fishing. Waiting to see what they catch.

 This was another one of my Mom's ideas.... it was to catch a grocery bag!! Edward was laughing his head off.

 Lucas caught a fish.

 Edward caught a boot! My idea and my boot, giggles.

 Edward also caught a stick!!

Just like in REAL fishing Lucas' hook, well close pin, broke so I had to add a new one.

 I got this idea from Pinterest.com I made a rubber band gun and had the kids practice shooting down plastic cups.

 The boys had a blast with this!

 Oh, I added bugs to shoot at. I don't like to shoot at furry animals but bugs, aim away!! hehehe!

 Lucas playing with his bugs on the cooler.

 So after that I made s'mores in the oven. I just took tinfoil and cooking spray and placed the marshmallows on the pan till they started to puff up, then I took a skewer and pulled them out and onto the chocolate and graham crackers that were waiting for them. YUM! After that we played flashlight tag, told ghost stories, and listened to the rain storm via Youtube.com. All evening I had youtube.com on playing the sounds of crickets, frogs, and wilderness sounds. We then went on a hike in the dark with only our flashlights, we found this critter below!



 

 I shined the flashlight on it and Screamed......"IT'S A BEAR!" Too much fun for words.