Any tips for camping in the garden?

[mymumdom]

The kids want to sleep overnight in the garden one night these holidays. We have a cheap 5 person teepee tent, a spare mattress, some sleeping bags, a couple of kids sleeping bags, 2 duvets and some inflatable sleep mats.
DS (3) can sleep inside with his father but the girls ( 5, 8 and 9) will need me out there with them.
I'm not expecting to last the night out there but I've been putting it off for a couple of years and can no longer fob them off.
Has anyone else done this?
Any hints or tips?

Well when we camp, and we have done a lot, away from home it always goes well, all DCs know what to do and how to help. When we try to camp in the garden it all goes to pot and by 30 mins they are all tucked up in bed. Guess main tip would be to put the tent close to the house so that it doesn't take to long to cart everything back inside

DS3 is 9 and sleeps out in a tent in the garden on his own or occasionally with a friend almost all the time from easter to september. I leave the bedroom window open and can hear if he calls (which he doesn't) and he has only ever bailed out if the friend does which is usually just after bedtime not in the middle of the night.

We sometimes sleep out for fun or if the weather is too hot to be indoors, great fun and nice clean toilet!

Okay, so...
pitch tent close to house, when they are 9 kids can camp out themselves and other people do it too.
Cool....

mine always stay up later as they just will not go to sleep, doesnt help in a belltent because its so light inside. i like solar fairy lights so they are not scared if they wake up in the night. also its so much colder than you expect so take the duvets as well as sleeping bags

Ear plugs, hot water bottles, get changed into jim jams inside the house, wear crocs (or similar) and dressing gowns out to the tent. Have a couple of torches easily to hand in the tent, flasks of tea or hot chocolate and biscuits always welcome!

Okay, we tried this last night. The tent went up easily and the plan was for kids to go out first and I'd join them later. I was convinced they would never fall asleep out there and would be inside before my bedtime, but no. Come midnight, they were all snoring and I had to drag sofa cushions outside to sleep on. I was woken up at least 10 times and the sun came up at 5am and they all wanted to party.
I dragged them back inside to their own beds and everyone slept until after 9!
Is there anything like curtains for a tent to keep it darker? and I understand that with 4 people sleeping, you are going to get some condensation but the sides were sodden! Is there anything that can be done about this?