A Mountain Man Birthday Party for A 9 Year Old!

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       Between a wedding and a birthday, we are in the party mode around here! 
       That happy little boy up there turned 9 this past week, so we threw him a birthday party! It was so much fun to plan as well as execute.  Today I'm sharing all about it! 

       This 9 year old is a rock hound!  He loves his rock tumbler and geodes and gem stones.  He love breaking rocks and finding fossils and bones.  He is also one of those rare breeds of children who would rather play outside that be in front of a screen! Because of all of this, I knew that he needed to have an outdoor themed party so I decided that a Mountain Man Party would be perfect! 
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Decorations

      Ha Ha! I forgot to take a picture of the beautifully decorated table before the kids started their craft.  But, as you can see, I purchased a couple of yards of buffalo plaid fabric for the table cloth.  I trimmed it and used the leftover piece as a runner on a second table!  For the centerpiece, I found 90% off Christmas pine boughs and pinecones at a craft store plus used a small Christmas tree that I already had and made the table look like a mountain forest  scene.  
​     On the gate to our backyard, we hung a sign that said, "Welcome to Hunter's Mountain Man Rendezvous!"

Crafts and Games

     The crafts and games help to add to the decor of the party!  

• The craft was the first thing that everyone did as the guests arrived.  They made possibles bags.  I explained to the kids that possibles bags were something that mountain men carried with them to hold any necessities that they may have wanted or needed.  I put out beads to add to the drawstrings of the little burlap bags that I had ordered on Amazon.  The beads had bear and deer silhouettes on them.   I also put out stamps and stamp pads so that they could stamp their names and make designs on their bags.  

• ​Estimating Game:  I found these really cute yogurt cups at The Dollar Tree and I filled them with malt balls, (musket balls), fruit snacks, (fruits and berries), gluten free Oreos, (mountain man sandwiches).  I had slips of paper and pencils that the kids could write there guesses of how many of each item were in the containers.  This was a simple thing to do as they worked on the craft or finished at different times. 

Here is the simple printable I made for people to write their guesses on.  Nothing fancy, but it might save you some time: 

• Musket Balls
• Fruits and Berries
• Mountain Man Sandwiches

• Axe Throwing:  You can pick up a Velcro axe throwing game complete with axes and target at Walmart or from Amazon.  For our party, I asked Maddy to draw a large bear shape for me and then we attached the target to the bear.  This was a popular game! 

• Buffalo Chip Throwing:  I found a frisbee game set at Dollar Tree and transformed it into a Buffalo Chip Throwing Contest.  (I don't see the same set online, but here are flying discs.) I glued shredded paper onto the frisbees to make them look like dried cow pies and Maddy drew a large tree that we used as a target.  The little flags that came with the kit were put in the ground on the way to the tree so that kids who couldn't hit the tree for 10 points could still earn points.  This was also a fun game, but alas the buffalo chip look of the shredded paper only stayed stuck for about 2 throws, but that didn't deter the kids from playing.  They also thought it was pretty cool/gross when I explained to them what buffalo chips are and what they were used for. 

Pinata:  Hunter had requested a pinata so of course he had to have one!  The closest thing we could find to a Mountain Man theme was a cowboy boot.  Not exactly on theme, but better than Spiderman or a Dinosaur, ha ha!  We made sure to fill it with things that provided dietary safe items for the various needs of people at our party.  There were Starburst, Smarties, Dum Dums and Slim Jims.  One problem that we had was that the zip tie that is on pinatas to hang them from kept breaking whenever someone hit it.  If anyone has an idea about how to reinforce that, please let us know! 

The Food

      To feed everyone, we started a fire in our fire pit and roasted hot dogs.  While the hot dogs were roasting, I brought out various fruits and skewers and let the kids create their own fruit kabobs.  Then, they ate their hot dogs.  
       Throughout the party, I had small bottles of flavored water available on the table that I labeled as Pond Water, Rain Water and Snowmelt Water.  The kids got a kick out of that! We also had apple juice available at lunchtime.

Those cups in the back are ones that I found at Dollar Tree to use as favors. They had various themes that I knew different kids would like different themes, so I picked up a variety.

Here are the pdfs for the labels: 

The Cake:  For Hunter's cake, I made a triple layer chocolate cake using the recipe from this post.  I filled it with chocolate pudding and frosted it with chocolate butter cream to look like a tree stump.  The pine trees were easy to create with candy melts drizzled over skewers, or you could use pretzels as the trunks.  I used plastic forest animals as well as Kodiak Bear cookies to decorate and made a fire ring with malt balls and chocolate covered raisins.  That is where we put the candles. 

The trees were the kids favorites.

      Some of the guests at the party had special dietary needs, as I mentioned before.  So, I also made cupcakes that were gluten and dairy free.  They came out so good!  Here is the recipe: 

      The recipe simply says to frost the cupcakes with chocolate, dairy free frosting.  I made mine by using powdered sugar, plant based butter, almond milk and vanilla.  Super simple. 

      We also had a choice of regular ice cream and dairy free ice cream! Everyone was happy! Especially Hunter! 

Past Party Posts:

• Love Grows Bridal Shower
• Emily's Baby Shower
• St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas