Nature Treasure Hunt

Each weekend, I try to do something fun and creative with the kiddos. We've done scavenger hunts, treasure hunts, clue hunts, bug hunts, frog hunts, etc. Do you see a pattern ;) ? They love the idea of finding things. The weather was supposed to be so pretty, so I wanted to do something outside. But wanted to do something we'd never done before. I ran across this and thought it would be a fun idea so I planned it out.

However one thing about me is I go full in on pretty much everything I think is fun or interesting. Whether it be birthday party planning, some kids' crafts, or costumes, I just feel the need to go all out. One time I was making a costume and I needed some type of color fabric, so I just cut up and used my favorite shirt since it was the color I was looking for. Hahaha. It's not always the best trait. So I was reading the little sheet I found online and I was kind of driving me crazy how plain and pixelated it looked. So I stayed up the night before redoing the sheet in Photoshop. Here's the one we used (full resolution) in case anyone wants to print and use it for yourself.

Feel free to share it as well. I like when people are outside :)

Also, I know this is a scavenger hunt not a treasure hunt. 

I'm normally very particular about the names of activities, but I thought this just sounded funner.

So I didn't tell my kids what we were doing. I just told them we had a surprise activity we would be doing Saturday. Clearly Olive was too excited because she woke up first thing that morning. 

In case you didn't know, 

Minnie Mouse stickers are the best type of alarm clock

Also, that morning I was a message from a friend that they wanted to treat my kids to lunch. This isn't the first time they've blessed us. They would probably kill me for mentioning them publicly but wanted to say thank you to Michael and Kori Smith. 

So we went to Cici's Pizza for lunch before we went out on the hunt. The kids still didn't know, so the whole meal, they were guessing what the activity was going to be. I jotted some of my favorite guesses:

Tie a rope to the fan and fly around the living room?

Meet the president?

Eat so much ice cream I throw up?

Buy a Daisy Duck face?

Since we live in the city, my friend said we could come out to their land and do it out there. When we got there, we got a surprise and got to have a friend come with us. Neela of course so pumped that we were doing something with "Nature" in the title.  So we all looked over the list and headed off on the hunt. 

The crew 

Something fuzzy

A bug chewed leaf

Exploring a deer stand

 

Pinecone

And... his shirt comes off (just like his daddy)

 

Small red leaf

Big green leaf

A puddle of water

Something smooth 

Also, don't love when kids have dirty little hands :)

An old toilet (not on the list :D )

Stick shaped like a letter

Big and small acorns

Plant with thorns

Something slimy

Creepy Crawly (she named the worm Sparkles)

Giant tree

  

Took a break to play at the river

 

Three colors of dirt

A plant with thorns

Plant with berries

Circle shaped rock

 

 

"Daddy, wanna meet Hampton?"

We found a cocoon.

Complete!

It was really such a fun little day. Plus, the kids were pretty worn out and super dirty by the end of it all. That's kind of how I gauge the success of a Saturday activity. :)

Be Blessed,

Seth