Troop Birthday Girl: How to Throw A Summer Camp Party

A Summer Camp Party is a fun and simple party theme perfect for boys and girls! I’ve collected everything you need to throw your own summer camp party including ideas for party games, favors, and treats! This post contains affiliate links, which help to support this site. Thanks!

Today I’m sharing my daughter’s fourth birthday party that we celebrated a couple weeks ago. We planned a summer camp themed party, and it ended up being a really fun time. I totally recommend a summer camp party, guys.

Summer Camp Party Decoration Ideas

I decided to give the party a little bit of Troop Beverly Hills theming because, well, I love that movie with all of my heart. The summer camp party became a “Wilderness Girl Jamboree.”

I found a lot of great summer camp party inspiration online, and I ultimately decided to go with a mint, forest, pink, and gold color scheme and created a “Troop Birthday Girl” logo [which I love – If you love it too, you can download it here. (For personal use only please.)

The party was held at a little park behind our church. For decorations, I hung a glittery banner across the front of the pavilion and strung up a bunch of God’s Eyes crafts that the kids and I made in the party colors. Have you made God’s Eyes before? They are so fun and easy to make, and I’ve got a photo tutorial to get you started on making your own right here.

Another fun little addition to the party decor were the two A-frame tents we made in a pink and white striped fabric for the kids to play in as we waited for everyone to arrive. We used a combination of this tutorial and this tutorial to help us build the tents. Basically, you just need some long pieces of wood, a few wooden dowels, and a long piece of fabric. I love the way these cute tents turned out, and they will definitely find homes in our kids’ rooms post-party.

Summer Camp Party Activity Ideas

When all of the guests arrived, we sang songs around the campfire and roasted marshmallows. If you or someone you know plays the guitar, this is extra fun. Plus, everyone loves a smore, right?

Next, we did activities to earn our badges. One badge was the craft badge. We used a kids’ jewelry kit (similar to this one) to make bracelets and necklaces for the kids. You want to think about the age of the kids coming to the party when planning a craft idea and keep things simple enough that the kids can complete most of the craft on their own. I am a big fan of craft kits to make shopping and planning easy.

We also did three-legged races and water balloon games, but ran out of time for more games. The kids loved doing three legged races and wanted to do it over and over again. You might also want to do a nature-related activity, such as a nature scavenger hunt, looking for bugs, or painting sticks.

Everyone earned badges for each activity. When the guests arrived they received green fabric sashes to wear and to hold the badges they earned for different activities. To make the sashes, I simple cut strips of green cotton fabric and glued them into loops using permanent fabric glue. Easy Peasy! You could totally sew them too, but I was trying to keep things extra easy.

Guys – these badges were one of my favorite details of the party. The kids just LOVED their badges and couldn’t wait to get the next button. I made the “badges” (we don’t need no stinkin’ badges) using the Create-A-Buttons available at Shindigz. The buttons were really nice quality and looked exactly like I wanted them to look, but that’s not your only option for sweet custom badges. You could also get your own button maker machine and have unlimited button making capability! Or try out these buttons kits that don’t require any special equipment. OR what about stickers? Print your own with printable stickers or order custom stickers here.

Summer Camp Party Food Ideas

For food, we just had snacks and desserts. My daughter wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting – so we had a little cake for her and cupcakes for everyone else. I displayed the cupcakes on a piece of burl wood we got on our trip to the Redwoods last spring. I love the gold cupcake wrappers with the little pink flags! We also had fruit, popcorn, and s’mores trail mix (which is just chocolate chips, golden grahams, and mini marshmallows). If you can cook food over the camp fire, that would be a lot of fun too!

 

Summer Camp Party Favor Ideas

For favors, the kids already had the jewelry they had made, but we also gave them a cute little pack to take home with them too, which was a big hit.

To make these cute little favors, we simple tied bandanas onto sticks and filled them up with candy and other goodies. Pile your treats in the middle of the bandana (they won’t hold too much) and then tie the bandana around the end of stick.

I really enjoyed putting this party together – I will take any excuse to spend time looking up Troop Beverly Hills quotes and parties online – BUT the best part was that the kids really had a lot of fun too. If you are throwing your own summer camp party, I hope these tips and ideas will be helpful for you!

Happy Party Throwing and Happy Making!