I'm not sure how it happened really. One minute we got the tent out from its hiding place under the couch. (If you don't stow stuff under there you should!) and then we were making a lake out of blue blankets and crafting a campfire out of paper for roasting cotton ball marshmallows. In the end, "camping" became quite the creative production. And it's even better because in a couple weeks I won't feel that badly about throwing it out- provided I can sneak it past the bosses.
The boy scouts are good campfire builders. We are good pretend fire builders. Smokey would be proud. And this is how we did it.
What You Need:
for your fire:
- red and orange construction paper
- scissors
- glue and maybe scotch tape
Here's What You Do:
- 1. To make your fire: Cut out flames the long way out of your construction paper, leaving the bottom edge nice and straight and untouched. I drew out an easy zigzag flame shape and handed it over to my 4 year old to cut- good practice!
- Out of leftover scrap, cut more flame shapes and paste them onto the bigger pieces here and there and wherever.
- glue the edge of one side onto the edge of the other side so you have a ring of fire.
- Cut out little u-shaped mouse holes along the bottom edge for your "firewood" to go through so the fire stands nice and straight on top instead of falling over.
for your kindling and fire wood:
- brown paper
- glue and some scotch tape
- scissors
What You Do:
- Cut your brown paper into varying widths by 9" or so. Honestly, it's not a science and I have no idea what length we cut.
- Roll each strip nice into a stick and glue it closed or tape it shut. We did both. It did not want to stay.
- Stick your sticks through the mouse holes you cut in your fire to make it look like they're on, well, fire.
for your marshmallows on a stick:
- brown pipe cleaners
- cotton balls
- white electrical tape to keep the balls neat
- scissors.
What You Do:
- Snip your cotton balls from top to bottom but only half-way through so that you can "unroll" them a little.
- Wrap the snipped cotton balls around your pipe cleaner.
- Wrap a length of white electrical tape around the marshmallow to help it keep its marshmallowy form. (We experimented and did some on the top and bottom of the marshmallows too but really it just looked better when we wrapped the sides of the cylinder in one go and it was way easier to do too.) Now you'll be able to pull on and off your untoasted and roasted marhsmallows to eat right up.
- Roast those puppies over your fire.
Who knows, maybe you can even con your kids into taking a nap "under the stars" when they're done. I wish I had!
