Backyard Campout

Awhile back Emma and Erica came over for a sleepover. They had concocted a plan in advance that it would be a backyard campout, with a twist I was unaware of.

They decided that they would camp as if they were away from home with no trips back into the house with the exception of bathroom necessities. 

So they packed up the cooler and did without whatever they forgot once they 'left'.

I'm afraid dish soap was one of the things they forgot.

They had prepared tin foil dinners in advance and cooked them in our fire pit, followed by s'mores of course.

They took 27 pictures of they fire, so I should include at least one.

 I took the first group shot, and after that they were on their own so self-portraits became part of the experience as well as cutting some leftover 2x2's when they ran out of firewood. I won't include pictures of them actually cutting the wood - too scary.

Basically Carmen and Emma provided Chloe and Erica with a little taste for YW's camp including setting up the tent by themselves and singing camp songs for the neighbourhood to enjoy - I loved it!

Youth camp leaders.

Pre-YW campers.

It seems they played some kind of sleeping bag blind-mans-bluff type of game, and since they weren't really in the wild the cooler inside the tent was okay, though we did have a bear wander into the neighbourhood once a few years ago . . . 

Pancakes were also made over the fire. My back yard have never been a more fun place to be.

(And for the record the backyard camp was a total testament to the YW's camp program - those 4 girls cleaned everything up totally. It really was like they weren't even home.)