tiffanyjanephoto: Camping Party

Our sweetbaby turned 2 yesterday! To celebrate, we invited all his favorite friends over and had a CAMPING PARTY. As a disclaimer, I just want to say that when I put a lot of work into something, it is all made worth it to have awesome pictures to remember it by. I'm really REALLY sad we didn't get any awesome photos of the night. So many details I missed, but the other key to getting good photos of the event is to photograph the set up BEFORE people get there. I was snapping these photos as fast as possible. I would give yourself at least 20 minutes to photograph a party before guests come. At LEAST. That's just my advice though. Back to our fun little party...

We started the night off with a little hike. My nephew was in town and assembled all these adorable stick lunches. I wish I had a photo of all the kids holding them over their shoulders because it was just the cutest! They all found a spot on the ground to open up and eat them once we got to our destination. Afterwards (not pictured) we picked BLACKBERRIES from the bushes behind them. So fun! The kids all got a kick out of that!

Picnic-ing

One of my favorite elements of the party was this TRAIL MIX BAR. The kids (especially the birthday boy) thought this was pretty cool. I decorated some pork-n-beans cans with camping scrapbook paper and labeled each of them for the individual kids. They found the one that belonged to them and then filled it up whatever they wanted before we left on our hike.

After we got back from our hike I gave the kids one of these bags with a pencil in it. This is one I pulled out of the trash because I forgot to snap a picture. I couldn't believe how long they were gone off looking for things. It was so fun to watch them come back with full bags of "treasures"

Could a camping party be complete without fishing??

Or taking a dip in the good 'ol pond? Also not pictured were dirt bike rides ...

Here's the Birthday Boy playing in his birthday present

And here is the how the cake turned out! I totally winged it and it ended up being great. I love when that happens! Not to often for me. The recipe was a mix of Creed's sisters famous chocolate cake, and my all time favorite frosting (a good friends' recipe) Also the candles in the fire and #2 sparkler in the back were insanely adorable!