Some friends (also homeschoolers) of ours had a birthday party for their middle child this weekend. They hired a guy from this company, and flew him in from Colorado for a survival campout party. It started at 9:00am Saturday and ended at 1:00pm Sunday. It was not a drop-off party; entire families were invited. The dads participated with the kids while the moms did meal duty and chatted in the house.

The survivalists started by going across the road, over a hill, and down by a lake. They learned to make wood shavings for fire kindling, (What a studly husband...mine)


and how to start a fire with a metal match and a knife. (For my real-life friends, those are Kendall's and Rodney's hands.)


They started several fires.


KJ was temporarily granted a reprieve on fire building. (He's been banned since the fire in his bedroom incident.) KJ and Elora are roasting wild onions.


They learned how to build a shelter,


and cut grass for the roof.


The roof has to be 2 feet thick to be watertight, but survival man let them stop here.


They also built a huge "S" (from SOS) on the ground as a distress signal. I was inside getting supper ready so I didn't get a picture of that. They learned about wild edible plants, and ate prickly pear cactus, mustard flowers, and wild onions. They slept in tents behind the backyard in the horse pasture. I did get pics of that, but they were too full of other people's children. After supper, we had a firework show to rival any I've seen the city put on. (I forget to mention that this family lives on quite a bit of land out in the country.) On Sunday morning, we had a brief devotional and the survivalists practiced navigating with a compass. All in all, it was a wonderful party.

Is this not the cutest cake ever!?