Turning 7 can be
In-Tents so that's exactly what we did and it was SO much fun! I can't believe how great our first sleepover went. Way better than I ever could have imagined. Ella's group of friends are just the sweetest and they made the party so fun and easy going. (makes me get a little teary eyed thinking about her moving away from them soon)
My awesome husband helped me turn our living room into The Great Indoors! We moved the furniture into the garage a couple of days before the party and then began to make the night sky. I bought two rolls of navy plastic table cloths. I cut them into strips and Bob used a staple gun to attach them to the walls. It took us a while but it was so worth it. The room was dark and felt so cozy under the stars. I loved it!
I painted the trees on white butcher paper. I used an overhead projector to help me with my lack of art skills.
Campers arrived at 6pm. It was so fun to see each girl's excitement walking in and setting up their tents.
The weather was beautiful so we did the pillow decorating outside after pizza. I ordered some pillow cases from Amazon and had the girls decorate them with fabric markers. They loved it!
Camp Counselor Jackie (and Andy) were so amazing and helped us out so much during the party.
After that we all went inside and played Camp Bingo. I had a bunch of candy and glow sticks so when they got a bingo, they got to pick out their candy for the movie later on.
Once the sun went down we went outside to make s'mores!
I put on the movie Parent Trap around 8:30 and everyone loved watching it. Well everyone but Crazy K. McKenna was hilarious and will defiantly be that kid at slumber parties that is the last one asleep and will have your socks frozen in the freezer when you wake up. Did y'all ever pull that prank? I sure did. You take peoples socks when they are sleeping, get them wet and then stick them in the freezer. Classic.
McKenna would go from tent to tent pretending to ring the door bell and would sit with each girl for a little bit. They were all so sweet to her! At one point McKenna went around and asked each girl if they had anything that needed to be washed. I didn't realize she was actually collecting their dirty clothes and putting them in the laundry room until later on and I was cracking up! That girl never sat still.
Everyone was asleep by 11 which I thought was a huge success!
Andy and Jackie stayed over till midnight playing Rummikub with Bob and I so it was a dream night. I pulled a mattress in the room with all the girls and slept with them just in case anyone woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone slept all night and we started the morning off bright and early at 6:30. Everyone ate donuts while Ella opened her presents and then we sang since we never got around to the cake the night before. It worked out perfect since Saturday was her actual birthday anyway.
The giant s'mores cake is something I saw on Pinterest forever ago. I think it might have been my very first pin actually. I thought it was just so cute. I'm not much of a baker but decided to give it a try. The giant graham crackers were from this recipe and they were surprising easy and even tasted great. The middle of the cake is just white cake. I had made everything the night before her party and started putting it all together a couple hours before the party started. Everything was going great until I attempted to layer two white round cakes. They didn't come out of the pan evenly on the bottoms so when I stacked them and iced them, they just cracked and crumbled everywhere! I baked another cake real fast and just stuck with one layer the second time. It worked so much better and turned out so cute!
Instead of trying to cut it into pieces I just let the girls break off pieces of each layer and make a s'more. They just laughed and had so much fun with it. Cake success!
I ordered these cute
All About Camp pages from Oriental Trading Company. It was a great morning activity for the girls to do. They colored them and filled out all their favorite parts about Camp Ella.
Each girl got to take their tent home with them and some popcorn that my awesome neighbor Andy brought over. His mom has a popcorn business in Round Rock and it is amazing! Did I mention that Jackie also made Ella the Camp Ella banner that hung on the fireplace?! I mean, best neighbors of all time.
Happy 7th Birthday my sweet Ella! I love seeing your heart grow each year. I love seeing your enthusiasm for the simple things in life and your loyalty towards those you love. You have such a kind heart and we are all so blessed by you each day. We love your sense of style and eye for creativity. You always strive for what is right and your determination is something I admire so much about you. You are one special kid. I love you Ella Reese!
