Girl's Camp Banner and Other Camping Decor :)

Yep, I said it.  I decorate when I go camping.

Doesn't everyone???

Well, okay, if I were going camping with Cowboy 

I wouldn't decorate...very much.

He just doesn't get it.

Nor does the rest of my family.

But when I go to CHURCH camp, and it's pretty much ALL GIRLS, 

then totally yes, I'm DECORATING!

The woods are gorgeous to gaze upon, that much is true!

But when you're looking at the CABIN, well, it just needs a little sumn sumn.

Or....maybe......a LOT.

My cabin mom partner, Ronnie and I LOVED sprucing things up a bit!

Since summer is almost here and we're about to embark on another girl's camp adventure, I thought I'd share some ideas on how you can liven up your camping quarters.

You can also see HERE what gifts I gave the girls each day.

CAMP.  IS.  FUN!

First of all, I made this banner

 out of a bunch of super fun paper that I already had in my stash.

(THIS is why you need a stash, ladies!  

So that when you get around to making something with it,

 it feels like it's free......lol)

I staple-gunned it to the beam, one corner at a time.  

Yeah, it was a pain, but so worth it.  

Dontcha just love the color and joy it adds to our cabin porch?

Ronnie brought the pink sheer curtains (***BIG HEARTS*** for those!)

and the pink feather boa!

All we were missing was buckets and buckets of pink paint and an air sprayer!

The dollar section at Target is your FRIEND!

That's where I got these darling foam words.

I'm totally reusing those this year!

Except not the Princess one, cuz we've moved past the princess faze...

this year it's gonna be all about the owls!

Let me know if you see groovy owl decorations anywhere (cheap).

Here's my Pinterest board where I've been gathering owl inspiration for months.

We were, well, the Snow White cabin. 

That's way more fun than, say, cabin #9, right?

(the cabin naming and signs were the work of our stake leaders)

Here's the banner, up close...

can you see that each one is based on 

each of the Young Women Values and in that Value color?

FAITH

DIVINE NATURE

INDIVIDUAL WORTH

KNOWLEDGE

CHOICE AND ACCOUTABILITY

GOOD WORKS

INTEGRITY

and VIRTUE

Here's the overall look of our front porch.

And here's how it looked from the road

Niiiiiiiiice!  ;)

(there are strings of lights all around the outside of our cabin too)

See that blue cooler there?  

Ronnie had that packed full of juice boxes and such for the girls 

and Diet Coke and such for US. 

 She was the BEST cabin mom partner!!

Inside looking out.

Strings of Christmas lights and big tissue flowers everywhere.

(sidenote: Look way way back in that corner.  We nailed up a cheap shower curtain so that the girls could have a private place to change their clothes, and a clean rug to stand on).

More light strings and tissue flowers!

This was the first time I'd ever made tissue flowers

which means ANYBODY can do it!

Do anything you can think of to make it pretty!  :)

We covered our picnic tables with cheap plastic tablecloths from the dollar store. 

 Bring extra because they WILL get ripped up.

All along the middle of both tables we had baskets and buckets filled with all kinds of little craft things they could make during their free time, big bottles of bubbles, Bath and Body Works body spray (cuz they don't get to shower every day), air freshener (2 CANS!), coloring books, crayons, markers, bug spray for humans, stationary, and candy!

The girls kept busy and had something to do while chit-chatting and waiting for the next organized camp activity.

One of the girls actually filmed a video of a squirrel breaking into this tub of licorice.

It's HEEL-LARE-EEEE-USSS!

Anyone know how to download a video that's posted on Facebook?  :s

So, uh hum, I guess my advice is

DON'T LEAVE FOOD AND CANDY OUT, EVEN IF YOU THINK IT'S SEALED.

Ronnie and I were bound and determined to get the 

GOLDEN PLUNGER AWARD

for having the cleanest cabin.

It took three days

BUT WE FINALLY GOT IT!

(the previous two days were both won by the same cabin.  What? 

 I think there must have been a pay-off or something!)  ;)

We are SOOOOOO proud of this bejeweled toilet plunger!

Keep your cabins clean and organized.

The girls grumble about having to clean up constantly,

but they actually do enjoy having a tidy place to hang out!

It became a hang out for a lot of girls from other cabins too.

You may even have to resort to putting their shoes OUTSIDE!

PeeeeeYewwww!

So our cabin was almost always tidy,

except that one night when we secretly got stringed and saranned!

Hey, I guess THAT can be considered decor!

I am so grateful for the awesome stake leaders who gave us newbies a lot of pointers on how to be the best cabin moms we could be.  Some other suggestions for out-of-the-ordinary things to pack that were super helpful:

extra camp chairs if you have them

wipes

fan

yellow light bulb (if the bugs get bad...they don't like yellow light)

tacks

nails

hammer

staple gun

clock

extension cords

power strips (so glad I had TWO!)

hand sanitizer

masking and duct tape

saran wrap and string???

(if I think of anything else, I'll add it here)

The most important things, 

even more important than making your cabin 

extra fru-fru and yummy-smelling

are those bonding moments where kids truly know you care about them.

Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works,

 and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

I would love to hear about your camp experiences and ideas!

I've got less than two months until we embark to the mountains again!