Staycation, The Sequel: Indoor Camping

A while back, a crafty friend of mine made these beautiful gifts for my daughters. They're Camping Books, and she instructed me to save them 'for their purpose'. Well, owing to all that rain and the car problems and so on, we haven't been camping yet, and now the season's almost over and we're not going to get another chance to camp this year, in the conventional style, so I thought it was time to try something unconventional.
A clothes horse, a dining chair and a large sheet took care of the tent requirement, and only consumed half the living-room, leaving the other half free for the fire (rolled up corrugated cardboard selotaped into log-shapes) and the activities. As Dawn struggled with building the fire, my dad got stuck into the role play and assured Dawn that it would settle down into a better shape once it was lit. Dawn looked horrified and explained to him with her Serious Face that we were not really going to set light to it, it was just pretend.
The first activity was a treasure-hunt. This was completely non-competitive, with the girls sharing a list (words and pictures, to cater for both the early-reader and the pre-reader) of things to hunt for around the 'camp-site'. There were conkers (which later became 'chestnuts' to 'roast' on the 'fire'), coins (for the Camping-Book games), corn-dollies (seasonal), toy ponies (no reason - they were just convenient and appealing), and individually wrapped cakes. All the treasure was pooled by the 'fire', and the cakes and coins were distributed evenly. Next came tea and, yes, you've guessed it, cake.
After the snacks, the girls got stuck into their Camping Books. Page 1 contains a space to draw your tent. Page 2 contains a space to draw any creatures you find. (The toy ponies made an appearance there, along with a spider, followed by various things Dawn could remember from real camping. My dad, whose house I live in, asked them please to not record the dust-mites.) Next are several coloured pages for free-drawing and writing, and then miniature board-games (using coins for counters and dice), and finally some camping-related sticker pages, full of beautiful drawings by my friend.
Whilst the girls were busy with this, I whipped up our traditional camping meal of sausages in buns, which we ate sitting around the camp-fire, along with some runner beans which we had 'foraged' from 'the woods' (our garden). We also had blackberry and apple pancakes, which was nothing to do with camping, it was just a result of the vast amount of fruit pouring into my kitchen at the moment.
Next came stories and songs around the 'camp-fire'. It was getting dark by now, so I drew the curtains and lit some candles to see by. The girls snuggled down in their sleeping-bags in the 'tent' and played with torches, making shadows and so on, while they listened to the stories.
Sadly, as we don't have much space in our house and we wanted our living-room back, the girls then had to drag themselves off to their real bed, but I'm pretty sure they'd had a good time while it lasted, and I know the adults certainly did. The best thing is, it was hardly any effort to clear up again afterwards!