After three successful camping trips in the last year, here are a few tips from the Schwartz book on camping:
1. Camp with another family more experienced than you and with more stuff. That way when you forget pillows and matches, they can help you out. It helps if said family is fun to spend time with and game for pretty much anything.
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| Jack and Emma playing "Catch the Smurfs." |
2. Staying at a campsite with showers? Plan to shower immediately after the daily cleaning. Otherwise on busy weekends, showers and bathrooms get pretty muddy and disgusting.
3. Chocolate Digestive cookies are the new graham wafer. If you are lazy like me, you are always looking for ways to simplify. To make S'mores, simply use chocolate covered Digestive cookies and your roasted marshmallow for pure gooey, deliciousness.
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| The kids waiting patiently for S'more time. |
5. Don't buy the small bundle of wood for $6.00. Go for the whole wheelbarrow of wood for $10.00. When making a fire there is nothing wrong with a little lighter fluid to help things along.
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| The best part about buying the wood, was the ride to return the wheelbarrow. |
A couple more photos from our camping trip. All photos taken with our Canon point and shoot.
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| Rocks + Water = A good time |
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| Photo taken by Mr. Jack |
Love the tip about chocolate digestives, that's a winner!
ReplyDeleteI love the tips. Will have to remember the one about the chocolate covered digestive cookies. You're a trooper Lisa! Tent camping/sleeping with kiddos is tough :P
ReplyDeleteWe like to take glow stick necklaces for the kids after dark, they wear them after the sun goes down so that when they're playing away from the fire or we're walking to the washrooms they are easy to spot. Also works well for our black dog!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea. Putting in the tip book:) Thanks.
ReplyDeleteLove the S'more tip! My only tip is let go of the bedtime agenda (that one's for me!). Oh glow sticks! Good one! We also always bring a ready made meal for one night (Spaghetti sauce already made), and because we're coffee-obsessed, we bring a stovetop espresso maker.
ReplyDeleteWhen camping, bring a plastic basket from the dollar store with holes in to put in your shampoo and conditioner. You can also put in soap, that you would place in a red plastic cup, a facecloth, brush, deodorant, etc. This way you or your kids won't forget these items and you can hang this in the shower on a hook. My friend did this and had her kids put their bathing suits in the basket after they finished showing. Also, if you camp for long periods of time like we did this year, we purchased a gas attachment hose that connected our Coleman stove to a large propane tank. The little bottles are very expensive compared to filling a big tank. There is a gas fitting place in Burnaby where we ordered the attachment. It was ready in a day and was only $15. I am also planning to pick up one of the smaller plastic fold up tables from Costco for camping. A bunch of our friends did this and set up the cooking items on this table. It is around $30 and keeps the kids away. We usually place our stove on one end the picnic table and our bar-b-que at the other. I am always worried when the kids are at the table playing a games, that someone will get burned... so this will alleviate that problem. And WET wipes around the campfire are a must if you are making smores. Not only do they clean up sticky hands, but when all the roasting is done, you can use them to clean up the roasting sticks.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a good idea for showering. We are still getting into the swing of things. You need to be so much more organized when camping with kids.
ReplyDeleteThe bedtime agenda is such a good call. This is the first summer that we have really let the kids stay up late. Getting them to bed was much easier this year. I love having spaghetti when camping. I swear it tastes better.
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