A Retro Camper Themed Anniversary Party

My parents have been married for 30 years.

That's a really long time, and it also makes me feel kind of old.

Because it means that I'm almost 30. (Does that mean I have to stop acting like I'm 15?)


One of the best things about my parents is that they're always up for an adventure. 

Between raising four daughters (the last three are fifteen months and eighteen months apart), the many many camping trips of our childhoods, road trips, a move to Iowa, and starting a new business, my parents are adventurers to the core.

So us girls (that's my three sisters and I) decided that we had to throw them a fitting bash.

And the theme?

Camping!

INVITES

Here are the invitations we used:

With so many out-of-town relatives, we wanted to be sure they were in on the celebration without making them feel like they had to make the 10-hours-plus trek out to Iowa to join us, so we also sent out these invitations:

FOOD

For the chow, we figured that light snacky-stuff would be just the ticket rather than having a full meal.

My sisters put together quite a spread. 

We had a build-your-own trailmix station with M&M's, two kinds of peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, craisins, dried mangoes, pretzels, and dried bananas. Too cute-- and the guests had a great time creating their own concoctions to munch on. 

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But that wasn't all... we also had fruit and veggie trays, two pasta salads, Snickers salad (I'm going to have to get that recipe from my sister...), little hot dogs, and chips.

Yum.

As far as desserts were concerned, I provided s'more cookies...

... but for sure, the finishing touch was Trevor's "campfire" at every table.

He used six Ho-Hos (the rolled pastry things with the cream in the middle) as the logs. With food coloring, he created yellow whipped cream and red whipped cream, and then piped that into the middle of the "logs," using a toothpick to create flame-like peaks. Too darn cute. 

DECOR

I'm not sure you can really call it "decor" when it's just a bunch of stuff I found lying around my house... but...

In keeping with the camping theme, we used lanterns, antlers, camping cups, pine cones, and the cutest (seriously, the cutest) little flower pots borrowed from a sweet friend of the family. She also provided the flowers- a perfect mix that really looked like wildflowers.

We used burlap for some of the tables, and colorful scrapbook paper on other ones.

One of my sisters dug through photo albums to find pictures of us camping when we were little, and some great shots of my parents, too.

My sisters and I. I'm the tall one. (This is probably the last time I can say that, since now they're all taller than me!)

(I can't find that exact pillow on Amazon-- sorry-- but here are a couple of really cute pillowcases that fit the theme: Vintage Travel Trailer Happy Camper Pillowcase, and Retro Camping Throw Pillow Cover)





It was so much fun to celebrate with my parents and dear family and friends! They were totally surprised, and we had a great time remembering our camping trips and just chatting!



We love you, Mom and Dad!

Looking for some super-cute camper-related gift ideas for your party? 
(Had I seen these earlier...) 

This welcome mat is to.die.for-- perfect for the camping family. Love it. Maybe I'll get it for my folks for Christmas. (Pretend you didn't read that, Mom.) 

This cute little camper key-cap would be awesome to distinguish your camper keys from all the rest, and it's precious, so there's that. 

Camper salt and pepper shakers! Ah! Okay, I'm getting carried away. You get the idea. 

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