This weekend we had an indoor camping adventure with my family at our house. Our goal: camp-out indoors, eat s’mores and have a cool experience. I have been compensated by Ignite Social Media to participate in this social adventure, but please note that the opinions are 100% my own.
When I was a child, I would build the best living room forts in the world with my 2 brothers and sister. We would create and build and play for hours. We would use couch pillows, blankets and pillows from our beds and any kind of prop we could find to help stack the blankets up to create walls (usually our stools in the kitchen). We would just have a blast! Each time we built something it would be something different – a castle, a mansion, a store, a restaurant, a secret cave, etc. For me, it was the fun of just playing and having a cool adventure to accomplish indoors.
Now as a mom of 5, 4 of them being boys that are 6, 7, 9 and 10… I love seeing them play together and doing some “cool” activities, adventures and things with each other. We live in Rhode Island, so right now the weather is FREEZING. There is no playing football outside after school. There is no riding bikes up and down the street. You literally can’t even run to the bus stop without shivering. So… for me, it’s essential for the boys to find fun things to do indoors with each other. Since they LOVE to go camping, the idea of an indoor camping adventure REALLY jumped out at me for them!
So this weekend… we embarked on our adventure with the boys!
We created an indoor camping adventure for them, with all of us sleeping downstairs together in our camping space.
First off… we needed a tent. Since we couldn’t put up our actual tent in our living room because we knew it wouldn’t fit, I showed the boys some of my fort building skills with blankets and pillows! I helped them create a cool “tent” for us for our overnight adventure in the living room.
No camping trip is complete without sleeping bags and pillows! All the boys grabbed sleeping bags and we laid them all out for everyone. It was so cute seeing them all lined up and put together. It really felt like we were in our tent during the summer. The boys all wanted to be on top of each other in them! They didn’t want anyone off to themselves. It was adorable.
Once we got our spot all set, it was time to enjoy some cool activities.
We actually have a fake fire and log for our Christmas decorations, so I decided to use this for our campfire, too. It was really cool because the glow of it was awesome in the room. It really looked like an actual camping fire. The boys got a kick out of it because it really added to the fun of the adventure!
Next up!? S’mores!!
Come on… what camping trip is complete without s’more!?
I bought all of our essentials – Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, Honey Maid Graham Crackers, and Hershey’s Chocolate. I’m going to be honest, I make s’mores as a treat for myself throughout the year. Obviously I don’t have a camp-fire on hand at all times, so I use our microwave. I surprised the boys with my “homemade” s’mores for our delicious nightly treat!
They were THRILLED!
It really added to the camping experience, it made it more real for them all. My secret is adding in extra, extra chocolate! It makes it worth while and that much more DELISH!
While the boys devoured their s’mores, we decided to tell some “camp-side” stories. I didn’t want to scare the boys, so we decided to talk about the holidays! Each of us talked about what we wanted for Christmas and we talked about what it was like when me and my husband were kids. The boys sat there listening and laughing and sharing. It was perfect.
And I did a little extra for the boys to make the adventure a little bit more authentic! I bought a Glade candle with an Evergreen scent… it was as if we were in the middle of the forest! It was super cool and the boys weren’t expecting it! I loved that it made everything just THAT much more special and cool.
I’m telling you, this was an adventure that made my sons light up! It was so much fun and so wonderful. It was a great family bonding activity and it’s something that we’re going to do with the boys and their friends over the holiday break! It was easy to put together and it just really left such an impression for them!
Thank you to Ignite Social Media for the wonderful experience!
