Birthday Campout
Last week, my youngest turned nine. NINE! Samuel opted for a “camping” birthday party this year. (Actually, Steven came up with the idea and then maybe regretted it… he had to stay out in the tent with the boys for the night!)
Samuel is an extrovert and a home-body at the same time, so this party checked all his personality boxes: he got to have several friends over and they got to stay for a llooonnggg time. The introvert in me had to brace for impact. Samuel wanted them to come right after lunch and stay until at least lunch the next day; we compromised at come before dinner and leave after breakfast.
So what did a bunch of nine- and ten-year old boys do all evening? Well, mostly they RAN. They started off having NERF gun battles. There were enough kids to have two full teams for a really good war. We are still finding NERF bullets in the yard…
Steven had the badminton/volleyball net set up in the back yard, which created a nice obstacle for the NERF battles, but then they played volleyball, and badminton, too. They were amazingly good sports, even though the volleyball or birdie rarely went where they wanted it to go! I think just having the freedom to play as they wanted and enough kids to actually play a game successfully was what really made it fun for them.
Then, there was a round of laser tag. My sister-in-law gave my kids a laser tag set for Christmas; it’s been fun, though it’s had sporadic use. But this many kids made for a perfect game. As I said earlier, the kids RAN.
All. Evening. Long.
After dinner and cake and gifts, there was more running. They did all the same games again… but in the dark. The boys were having so much fun, we never even got around to the camp fire and marshmallow roasting we had planned.
By the time Steven and I got the tent and sleeping gear set up, it was after 10. The boys were still running. They must have been running on adrenaline at this point because they showed no sign of slowing down. We finally got them into the tent to settle down with an audiobook… otherwise, I think they would have kept going on into the night. Steven says he fell asleep while the book was still going but, when he woke up and turned it off, everyone seemed to be asleep.
The challenge of a campout with friends is that everyone has their usual wake up time, some early and some late. And when you’re camping, the early risers inevitably wake the late risers. Poor guys. So, they were all up by 6:15.
They don’t even look tired…
What did they do before breakfast? You guessed it… they ran. More NERF battles, volleyball, and laser tag. (How do they have this much energy?!?) And after breakfast? More running.
They had such a fun time. But, of course, the party had to come to an end. Four exhausted boys went home after the party to crash. Samuel actually took a nap after lunch, which is rare for him now. I’m not sure about the others but I know it took us two or three days of regular bed-times to fully recover.
But, man… what a great way to start the summer!