Celebrate the end of summer with a campout! Backyard campout that is.  You don’t have to drive four hours, sacrifice showering for 3 days, or give up your fancy coffee machine to experience the benefits of a family campout.  Bring the good stuff to your own backyard and leave the not-so-pleasant parts in the wild.  These seven ideas will turn your backyard into the ultimate (easy) family camping adventure guaranteed to give you a few fun memories to end the summer with a bang!

Pitch a Tent in the Backyard 

…and let the kids help!  Setting up a tent is a magical experience for a kid. I mean, it starts as a bag and turns into a “house”?!  Whaaa?! If you don’t have a tent, you can rent one fairly inexpensively from REI or borrow from a neighbor! 

Get Campy Crafty

Level up your camping experience with an easy camp craft.  If you don’t have a fire pit in your backyard, you do now with this cute craft!

Play DIY Yard Games

Get the whole family involved in making AND playing this DIY yard game.  All you need is paper plates, a marker, and beanbags (or balled up socks!). Give each plate a point value, line ‘em up and start tossing. Boom. Easy Mom Win!

Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Nothing screams backyard adventure like a Scavenger Hunt.  Add a kid-approved Dinosaur activity as the “prize” at the end of this scavenger hunt  and you’ll have happy, busy kids for at least 30 minutes. Quick! Grab a camping bev and a book and go relax at “camp”, Momma!

Play Board Games in the Tent

Our favorite new game to play cozied in the tent is Bellz.  It’s fun for the whole fam (seriously, adults won’t mind playing this one) and packs up small. 

Grill Out

Camping food should be easy peasy, yummy, and fun.  Enter camping pizza.  Get the whole family involved with this easy recipe.

S’mores Gone Wild

Let’s be honest. This is the real reason why kids wanna camp.  Show the kids just how crazy you can get with this new s’mores variation! Ice cream cone s’more? Done.  Make these fun s’mores on the grill or roast over a bunch of candles for a DIY “campfire”!

Cheers to the camping experience ANY mom can pull off, because after all, if it starts raining, your sleeping bag just ain’t cutting it, or the campfire stories got a bit too scary and the kids think BigFoot will show up in your backyard at any moment, you can always walk the 20 feet to your backdoor and crawl into a real bed with real sheets. Family camping has never been easier! 

Meet the Author, Nikki Harrington

Travel and adventure have always been the things that lit Nikki’s heart on fire. Adding two kids to the mix only made the fire burn brighter.  Traveling and adventuring with littles is so amazing, rewarding and inspiring, but it can also be patience testing and make you question if the effort is worth it.  (She had huge questions after a family sailing adventure went south thanks to two category five hurricanes!)  Yet, she is crazy passionate about living a life full of family adventure and travel, despite the obstacles because she’s found that by bravely embracing the mess, priceless memories are created when families adventure together.  The messy middle of travel and adventure promotes a unique kind of connection and growth and she’s all here for it.  

Nikki’s latest adventure is in entrepreneurship as she’s found a passion in helping other mommas adventure more too!  Her mission is to help make family travel and everyday adventures easier, more fun, and more meaningful for busy mommas. 

Website: ourtravelanew.com

Instagram: @ourtravelanew 

Email: ourtravelanew@gmail.com