Outdoor Games

I have a love of big campsites.  We use the whole space of our site, we go camping to spend time outside.  To spend time together with minimal distraction.

We have the cheap-o version of Corn Hole.  Ladder ball, a washer ring toss game.

The kids have a bin of outdoor toys with bases and a bouncy ball for kick ball.  Bubbles.  Scoop ball.  Rackets and a birdie.  Soccer ball.  Bocce ball.  Stuff has been thrown in over the years.

What are you favorite outdoor games for camping?  Anything you've been eyeing and want to get?

My posts about Board Games & Card Games

Colorful fire

As I was looking for lighter fluid the other day, the kids spotted Colorful Fire and begged me to get it.  I wasn't too sure how it would go, but sure, let's try it.  It also got me out of buying the other 12 things they begged for before we got out of Meijer because they already had something fun in the cart.

I was pleasantly surprised at how colorful the 1 packet was and I'd get it again if the kids ask.  The fire danced away every time my camera got a picture, so this was really the most colorful of 10 pictures I got before I just gave up.

Water Jugs

Sometimes the water at a campground is questionable in how it tastes compared to how it tastes at home.  At the beginning of the camping season, I buy 2 gallons of water.  That water then fills the coffee pot for the duration of our trip.  Then, before our next trip, I just fill the jugs with water from the home tap.  This works great for 2-3 night trips.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Sometimes we need a project, or a way to spend time together on a camping trip.  We have a camping trip coming up and Husband has to go to a meeting for a while.  I thought that the kids and I could go on a scavenger hunt together and find different things in nature.

A Google search found lists that were too easy or not long enough or not printable.  Here is the list I came up with, click HERE for a printable version.

The bare essentials: What do you need to camp?

I had a conversation recently with a long distance friend who was thinking about planning for a weekend camping trip.  She had never been camping before and wanted to know what all she needed to have a successful camping weekend.  This was the list we came up with:

Shelter

• You need something to keep you protected from the elements, a tent or a camper.  If you don't have a tent, can you borrow one from someone?  Campers get a bit more tricky to borrow.
• A tarp to go underneath the tent helps protect the bottom of the tent from something sharp and helps to keep any water from seeping in.
• Hammer for tent stakes

Bedding

• Sleeping bag or some bedding from your home.
• Air mattress or one of those foamy mats, you'll want something to keep you off the hard, bumpy ground.  A pool float could work in a pinch
• Pillows

Meals

• Cooler and ice to keep your food cold
• Paper plates & plastic utensils OR enough reusable dishes & utensils for everyone in your camping group
• Cookware - pots & pans, what will you need for the food you're planning?
• How are you cooking your food?  Bringing a small grill with you? Does the campground provide a grill?  Do you need charcoal?
• Stick with easy food for your first time, see what works and doesn't work
• Firewood - may need to be purchased in the campground
• A water container for drinking and/or washing dishes
• Grilling forks if you plan on smores or hot dogs
• Preferred condiments
• Beverages and cups

Other stuff

• First aid kit
• Garbage bags
• Lighter
• Lighter fluid
• Flashlights or lantern
• Towels, even if you're skipping showers until you get home
• Soap & hand sanitizer
• Toilet paper, depending on where and how you're camping
• Paper towel
• Trash bags
• Change of clothing
• Sunscreen
• Bug spray
• Plastic grocery bags for wet clothes or sticky stuff or dog logs or any of a million other purposes

Nice, but not necessary

• Vinyl tablecloth to cover the picnic table
• Small table
• Aluminum foil
• Ziplock type bags for food

Did I miss anything?  What would you add?

Keeping kids entertained on long car rides

A while back, I shared some of my ideas on bins and some car ride activities.  As I'm deep in preparation for Gatlinburg, one of the things I'm working on is making sure my kids keep entertained for both directions for the kids' longest car ride yet.

Today's brilliant ideas?

I printed maps from the internet and inserted them into their composition notebooks, aptly named Gatlinburg Journal (I'm creative, huh?).  I printed a map for each state that we'll drive through.  When the kids ask where we are, I can tell them to look at their maps.  They can follow where we're at.  They can learn some city names.  I'm pretty sure Oldest kid will love this.

I had gotten a bunch of stickers from the dollar store a while.  And by a bunch, I mean 2000.  Yay, $2!  I separated out the stickers into 4 envelopes.  Two kids, each will get an envelope on the trip down to Gatlinburg and another envelope with different stickers on the way home.  Similar stickers, but different for each leg of the trip.

I'm going to keep things on reserve for the trip home, to keep things fresh and keep them entertained.  I hope.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Firefly Jars

Oldest kid went to a slumber party over the weekend and came home with a firefly jar.  Of course, Youngest Kid saw and wanted to make her own.  Can't really blame her, can you?  We'll be camping with the slumber party family soon and all the kids will be bringing their new firefly jars.

What you need

• Quart mason jar
• Lid and band to keep the lid on
• Decorations - stickers, duck tape, ribbon, use your imagination

What to do

• Take a nail and hammer some holes into the lid, perhaps the first initial of the kid if you're making multiple firefly jars
• Let your kid get creative while decorating, keeping sure that there is enough space that they can see into the jar to watch the fireflies

When catching fireflies

• Food (aka: sticks and leaves) can be added to the jar to make the habitat a little nicer for the fireflies
• Be sure to release the fireflies before the night is over

Bikes and scooters and skates, oh my!

We love to explore the campground while we are there.
Family bike rides are a fun way to do that and gives us time together.

Grand Haven 2012

The kids also love to roller skate/blade.

And the scooters are fun for the kids, too.

We make sure to have all the protective gear that our kids need.  The one time Oldest Kid didn't put on her hand, knee, and elbow guards on a camping trip, she took a spill off her scooter and got some lovely road rash on her hands.  We were in Hocking Hills and she got some great speed as she went down the hill and then she hit a rock in the road and down she went.  Now, all that protective gear is on my packing list.

Let's talk about garbage

Garbage.  We make it while camping.  I really like our collapsible garbage can.  It collapses while we're traveling, holds the garbage up when we're set up.  It does not keep the critters out of it at night, but a determined critter is going to find a way into garbage pretty no matter what you do.

If you want to be like us, here's the link to our garbage holder.

Cooking over the fire

Cooking over the open fire goes with camping.  Lots of ways to do it, you've got to find what works for you.

You can see in the picture that Husband is cooking the Hearty Breakfast (yeah, it's the same picture because that's how I work) on our trip to Wilson State Park.  Breakfast is cooking in a cast iron dutch oven - don't forget your liners for easy clean up, like these.

Husband put the dutch oven on our own grill over the fire.  Some camp fire rings at some campgrounds have some sort of grill that you can lower down over the fire.  The fire ring in this picture is standard at most Michigan state parks (definitely not at Grand Haven state park, you don't get a fire ring there at all).  If we're planning on cooking over the fire, we make sure to bring our own grill.

The grill we have has a single stake to put your food right over the fire.  You can swivel it out to check and adjust your food so you don't scorch yourself.  You can adjust the height for optimal cooking.  I checked several camping sites trying to find our exact grill and this was the closest to the exact grill we have.  It works for us.

What do you like to use to grill over the open fire?

Car Travel Bins

Long car rides.  They can be torturous for kids.

"I'm bored."

"Are we there yet?"

"How much longer?"

"I can't find my _____!"

"She has my _____!"

It's enough to make any easy-going parent snap when you're in the car for hours on end.  And for the not-so-easy-going (you know who you are), well... good luck to you.

Technology has certainly changed since I was a kid.  BUT, my kids can only play on a device for so long.  They'll want something else to do.

On the way home, the bins are a bit messy

That's where these bins come in handy.  I've tried bags in the past.  The stuff in the bags ends up in a heap, burying the bags.  Stuff is falling onto the dog.  No one can find anything.  It's a big mess.

The beauty of the bins is that they're open, the kids can see everything in them and grab it easily.  What they put back goes right into their own bin.  The responsibility of keeping the bins neat rests solely on the bin owner.

What goes in the bins?  I'll write another post about that later - heh, heh.

Ok, I'll tell you one thing.  I'd like to point out that you can see a pink cup in the picture.  Colored pencils go in a cup, one cup for each kid.  Why colored pencils?  They don't melt in a hot vehicle like crayons.  They don't accidentally mark the vehicle when dropped and they don't dry out.  I really like the twisty kind of colored pencils by Crayola because they're easily sharpenable (yea! I made up a word!) with just a small twist.  Buy one package of these things, split them between the kids, and everybody is happy.  When the kids were younger, the Crayola Wonder markers were my go-to.

The bins are stacked nicely at home, easy to get ready for the next trip.  Though, honestly, they're still sitting and waiting for some items to be put away before I can put the bins where they belong.  Yeah, my process of unpacking from a trip sometimes involves laziness.

Fire Roasted Popcorn

Pop, pop, pop.  We love our popcorn.  Fire roasted popcorn adds an extra little yumminess to the popcorn.

We've had a couple of popcorn poppers for over the fire.  This is our current one, a gift.  You need to heat up the popcorn popper over the fire.  You'll need oil to help the popcorn pop, I use Orvil Reddenbacker popcorn oil.  You'll also need popcorn, I just pick up a bottle of kernals right by the popcorn oil at the grocery store.

Heat the oil.  Pour in some popcorn.  Hold the popper over the fire.  Watch the popcorn pop.

We'll season the popcorn with a bit of Lowry's Seasoned Salt.  Kids that camp with us have said that we make the best popcorn ever.  So there you have it.  Kids you don't know voted our popcorn the best.