Wilderness Explorer Birthday Party - The Activities

Like all Wilderness Explorers the guests would be doing activities to earn badges.  We decided on 7 different badges.  Art, Wilderness Explorer call, knot tying, fishing, zoology, hiking and master of disguise.

For the badges, I used the same process that I used to make the badges for the tray in our living room.    I purchased 8-1/2"x11" transparent sticker paper by Avery and 1-1/2" felt pads (used on furniture).  I printed out the badges, cut them and stuck them to the felt pads.  Since the stickers were transparent you are able to see the texture of the felt through them and they really look authentic.

We set up different "stations" through out the yard where the girls could get instructions and earn badges.  The Base Camp is where everything started.

When the girls arrived they were given a sash and a Survival Bag.  Once they had these items they were given the chance to earn their first badge.

I had bought a tall canvas and painted the picture form the movie that hangs above Carl and Ellie's mantle.  It is their house on the top of Paradise Falls.  As the girls arrived they were able to put paint on their hand and put it on the canvas to look like the balloons that Carl had attached to the house to fly to Paradise Falls.  Once they did this they received their Art Badge and Bug-A-Boo received a wonderful moment from her birthday party.  The painting now hangs in her playroom.

In order to get the party started we all needed to learn the Wilderness Explorer call.  We gathered the girls around the table at Base Camp and I taught the the call.."The Wilderness must be Explored.  Caw, Caw, ROAR!"  The girls loved it.  Once they kew the call they all received their badge.  They were so excited to put the badges on their sashes.

"The Wilderness Must Be Explored!"

"Caw, Caw..."

"ROAR!"

Since Prince Charming was home and is the greatest Daddy in the world I wanted to make sure that he did an activity with the girls as well.  We thought that teaching the girls to tie a know would be a great thing that he could help with.

The girls all grabbed the piece of rope from their Wilderness Explorer Survival Bag and they all earned their Rope Tying badge.

Next was rising.  Prince Charming cut sticks from our trees and Bug-A-Boo and I attached string and paperclips to them and viola!  Fishing poles.  We filled the baby pool with water and Bug-A-Boo colored some paper fish that we laminated and attached pipe cleaners to and the girls were able to learn some "fishing" skills.

Another activity that Bug-A-Boo came up with on her own was the Zoology Scavenger Hunt.  She chose several of her stuffed animals and thought it would be fun to hide them all over the outside of the house and then the girls could try to find them to earn a badge.  We broke the girls up into 2 teams and each team had 4 animals.  I made a checklist for each team that had a picture of the stuffed animal they were looking for, some facts about the real animal, a graphic of what that animals tracks looked like and a clue of where to find it.  

For example:

MOOSE

the moose tis the largest species in the deer family.  They lie in northern forested habitats that have lots of rivers and streams.  Moose eat the shoots, leaves and bark of trees and shrubs.  Their most distinguishing feature is the broad palm0like set of antler that the male moose grow new each year.  Look for dark green bushes along the side of the house to find this moose.

The girls had a blast running around the house finding the animals.  They earned a zoology badge and a hiking badge.

When deciding which badges to have the girls earn, Bug-A-Boo and I looked in our Wilderness Explorer Guidebook.  One that she really liked was the Master of Disguise badge.  I thought it would be fun to t=get the girls Groucho glasses that they could use, and take home, and then we could have other dress up items (hats, boas, etc.) ad set up a "photo booth" to take individual pictures of the girls being silly in their disguises.

All the girls definitely got their sillies out during this activity.  The scavenger hunt and the Master of Disguise "photo booth" were probably the two favorite activities of the party.

For more of the Wilderness Explorer/Up party please see the links below.  Thanks for your time and please comment below to tell me how you like our party.  Don't forget to follow my blog for more fun party, scrapbooking, home decor and many other project ideas.

The Stationary
The Favors
The Food

The Theming and Decorations

This was by far one of our most fun parties.  I told Bug-A-Boo after this party that this was THE last party we would be having at home and then she looked at me and said, "but Mommy I really want to have a Harry Potter party for my 7th birthday."

I can't pass that up.  I have wanted to plan a Harry Potter party for years.   All I can say is...Bring It!