My kiddos and I love a good scavenger hunt, especially ones we can do outside! We have a few favorite trails for nature scavenger hunts, but this spring scavenger hunt could totally be done just outside around your neighborhood or at a nearby park. I will pack clipboards (Amazon has some really inexpensive ones in fun colors like this one), pencils, and usually a bag to collect little nature treasures in. We head to the trail, and I just let my kids loose! They love exploring to find everything on the checklist and I love having a reason to slow down and just enjoy being outside.
You can download your own spring scavenger hunt here. Enjoy and let me know if you do it with your kiddos!
]]>goodbye winter, hello spring | bear finds eggs | god gave us easter | easter is coming | the very hungry caterpillar's first spring | pick a perfect egg | first notes of spring | finding spring | little blue truck's springtime | 5 minute nature stories | grumpy monkey spring fever | the story of easter | an easter egg hunt for jesus | how to catch the easter bunny | when spring comes | spring stinks | 5 minute easter stories | the little rabbit
Every month I update our playroom book wall to reflect a specific theme. Our March book wall includes a collection of spring and Easter books - both religious and secular. Most of the books I put on hold from our library, but every year I also add 2-3 books to our own Easter book collection. This year was The Little Rabbit by Nicola Killen and Pick a Perfect Egg by Patricia Toht. Both books are part of book series that we already own for other holidays, so my kiddos were excited to see these new books that they recognized!
Most of the books from our book wall are linked above for you to easily browse! Any purchases from the links do help me earn a small commission, but I always encourage you to check your local library for these titles first! Enjoy, and I'd love to hear if you have any other books that you would recommend!
]]>1. Surprise your child with balloons. My husband always goes out the night before our children's birthdays to pick up a bunch of balloons in their favorite colors and featuring their favorite characters. They're always so excited to come downstairs in the morning and see them! You could also create a balloon arch or cover the floor in balloons.
2. Decorate their doorway. Waking up to find streamers and balloons covering the doorway has to make a child feel special.
2. Start a birthday memory book. It's never too late to start! Add photos from the celebrations, have loved ones write birthday messages and complete a birthday interview with your child to see how their answers change year after year. The Birthday Book is the perfect tool for this!
3. Let your child pick dinner, whether it be at their favorite restaurant or their favorite home cooked meal.
4. Bake birthday cupcakes (or cake or brownies or whatever treat you child loves) together. Spending the time to make them together will make it all that much sweeter.
5. Ask loved ones to mail cards or letters to your child to be opened on their birthday.
6. Take your child to their favorite place - the zoo, the children's museum (a big favorite in our house), the movies, the park, whatever they love best! This doesn't have to be done on their birthday, of course. With school and work, we always have to wait for the weekend, which just means we get an extra day to celebrate our little ones!
7. Have a special movie night. Make popcorn, cozy up, and watch your kiddo's favorite movie.
8. Use a special birthday plate. There are some stinking cute ones on Etsy. I love this one and this one!
9. Look back at old photos and videos. Pull out the memory books and photo albums and reminisce with your child about special memories and how they've changed.
10. Measure their height on a growth chart. I always wish we had done one of these! There are cute plain ones and also ones that can be personalized.
11. Create a birthday countdown - on a calendar, with a paper chain, or with balloons. Ideas for inspiration can be found here and here.
I hope this gives you some simple ideas to create your own birthday memories!
]]>1. Set up a first day of school breakfast table. This could be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. I love this one and this one for a little inspiration!
2. Go for an ice cream date after the first day of school.
3. Take a first day of school photo. Our printable pennant flags or editable sign would make the perfect photo props!
4. Put together a back to school basket for your kiddos. There are some really cute ideas for this out there! I loved this one and this one! Psst - our printable flags would look so cute in one of these baskets, too!
5. Read back to school books before the first day. I love creating themed book walls, so we'll have a wall filled with books about school to choose from. This is our book wall from last year and this one is also so good!
6. Start writing lunchbox notes! Write your own or there are a plethora of sets that you can purchase. I am obsessed with this set from The Adventure Challenge!
7. Buy a special shirt for the first day! I love the ones that include the grade your kiddo is in! This one, this one, and this one are so stinking cute!
8. Start a school memory scrapbook. Our Raising You memory book includes a page for a school photo and a few little prompts about the school year details if you're looking for something simple. But if you're feeling a little crafty, try out this fun scrapbook idea from The Ever Co!
And there you have it! I hope you feel inspired to start a simple new tradition in your own family this year!
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1 toddler backpack | kids backpack
These backpacks are amazing! The toddler size fits my two year old perfectly and the kids size is great for my five year old. Even the toddler backpack can fit a water bottle in the outer side pocket and they're super roomy inside. Plus they have a chest strap so the backpack doesn't slip off my kiddos' shoulders.
2 comfy headphones
3 ipad case
4 yoto mini
We are obsessed with this audio book player and this one is the perfect size for travel! You may want to grab the card case too to organize all your story cards.
5 magnetic puzzles
6 crayons
7 mini notebooks
8 wipe clean activity cards
I split our deck of activity cards in two, hole punched them, and threw them on a binder ring. This way both kids can do activities at the same time and none of the cards will end up on the floor. The best part is that they are erasable so you can use them over and over.
9 sticker books
Sticker books are our jam, especially reusable stickers. We love them for eating out, long car rides, or anytime there's a long wait.
10 water bottle
11 snack containers
Plus ALL THE SNACKS. Like way more than you think you would ever need.
12 hand sanitizer
13 wipes
I will continue to use baby wipes even after my littlest is potty trained. They're great for cleaning up messes and sticky hands.
14 bandages
We love love love Welly Bandages. Plus the containers are so cute and the perfect size for storing crayons on the go when you've used up all the bandages.
15 blanket
Or lovey, stuffed animal, or any sort of comfort item to make your child feel a bit more at ease!
So. It's the end of the school year. Maybe you've found yourself with a vast collection of artwork, stories + notes, and other paper goods from your kids that you have no idea what to do with. Well, lucky for you, I have a solution. Enter: the memory tote!
It's super easy to put together and makes it even easier to keep everything you want to save organized. KEY WORD: everything you WANT to save. This isn't a free pass to just shove every paper you've ever received from your kiddo into the tote and call it a day. You'll still need to take the time to sift through all those papers and pick out the ones you really want to keep - maybe even enlist your child to help you determine which are the most special.
Anyways, back to the creation of the tote! You'll need some kind of file folder bin. I like this clear one, because I love seeing the fun colored file folders peeking through, but really any file box will do. I wrote my kids' names in permanent marker on the bins to keep it simple, but you could really fancy with it and use a cricut to make pretty labels if that's your thing. You could also add some fun ribbon to the tote handles as well.
I used these file folders with built in tabs so that I could print labels on sticker paper to slap on. I designed the labels on Avery using template 5366. I picked a cute font and typed up my labels. I chose to do one for first year, toddler years, preschool, and then kindergarten through twelfth grade. Then I printed them on clear sticker paper and printed it! You could also just purchase the Avery labels that match the template to make it super easy too.
I highly suggest lining up all your file folders in the order you want them in the tote first, and then going through to add the labels on if you choose an assorted file color pack like I did. I had to reprint my labels like three times because I had to keep changing my file order to keep my color pattern going. Oy!
Add in the papers you've taken the time to sort through into the corresponding file and that's it! Now when the next school year rolls around, you'll be ready to take on collecting those precious works of art in a super organized way!
Let me know if you decide to make your own memory tote! I'd love to see how yours turn out!
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