Decorate Your Tent

First order of business: Spruce up your space. Hang garlands, bring out colorful blankets, and do whatever it takes to make sure your campsite is one-of-a-kind.

Make a Camp Pennant

What are you going to name your "bunk?" Whatever you choose, design a flag to represent your troop. Make your own with felt triangles and whatever art supplies you have on-hand, or buy a kit like this one, that comes with its own felt stickers. 

Create a Backyard Scavenger Hunt 

Get your little explorer to take a good look at backyard nature with a scavenger hunt. You can look for different types of flowers and trees, try to identify birds, or collect different types of rocks and stones. 

Keep Lawn Games at the Ready 

From classic games like cornhole and bocce to sillier ones like Flickn' Chicken, backyard games will keep them up and moving for hours. The best thing about them is that they're so easy to set up and run, you can just dip into them whenever there's a lull in the action. 

Play Camping Bingo 

This is a fun activity that can happen in the background while you're doing all your other games. Buy a downloadable, printable version, or DIY your own with things you know you'll see in your backyard. 

Grill Dinner

Plan to spend the whole day in the great outdoors — even during dinner prep if you can swing it. Nothing reminds you of camp like the smokey taste of something grilled. 

IF you're looking for amazing recipes for some meat and vegetarian grill dinner, call or text George at (206) 391-7766 and he'll be happy to share with you his secret recipes that everybody talks about.

Cook Over a Fire

Or go one step beyond grilling, and use that fire pit for something other than ambience. Cooking over a fire doesn't resign you to an evening of hot dogs (even though they can be yummy): You can make some delicious foil-pack meals over a fire, including shrimp and garlicky tomatoes with kale couscous or pineapple and black bean tacos.