Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

It's been a crazy time in my household. The kids have been sick, I've been picking up extra hours at work and Scott worked over 60 hours last week. Whew! Thank goodness for my Mother-In-Law!

Kiki had a fever last week and I thought she was all better--until I noticed the spots all over her mouth, hands and feet :( Looks like she has Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease! By the way she's been bouncing all over the place, it doesn't appear to be bothering her. However, we still have to stay away from others since she might be contagious. And the verdict is still out on whether or not Finn will wake up with a rash tomorrow.

So, what did I do? I stole borrowed another great idea from Smashed Peas & Carrots blog! (Really, if you haven't already, you have to go check them out!) It's a Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt game. I couldn't get theirs to print, so I just made my own real quick in Word with clip art.

I put it on a clip board, grabbed a pen and took the kids out for a walk. We just checked things off as we saw them! I even made a list of more things I could add next time:

fire hydrant

hose

motorcycle

truck

different colors of flowers

specific bugs

street signs

wreaths

for sale signs

Best yet, the kids were actually excited about doing it! Finn's been quite a downer since he got a fever last week, so I was thrilled he was actually enthusiastic about doing something!

Counting Yellow Cars

Driving with my children has become sort of an annoyance lately. Let me amend that: driving with KIKI has been sort of an annoyance lately. If she isn't yelling for a book or dropped toy, she is INSISTING that we listen to the same song OVER and OVER and OVER again.

I try to remind myself she's only two. And it will pass. (sigh)

Anyway, naturally we decided it would be a great idea to take a week-long car trip with the children this weekend. Luckily, Stacy at Not Just a Housewife (a daily read for me) had my back. She featured Tammy from She Wears Flowers' Car Game this week! She came up with a wonderful tutorial on how to make a counting yellow cars game for your kids to play in the car. I saw it, and knew I had to make it!

I let the kids pick their fabrics from my stash (guess who's is who's!):

I switched up a couple of things from her tutorial (out of frugality--I was determined to not spend any money on this). I used yellow felt (double layer) instead of clay. Also, I didn't use interfacing to keep it stiff. It's cardboard! I sewed all three sides together, then topstitched, inserted a rectangle of cardboard, then topstitched the bottom shut! I know it sounds cheap, but I was seriously trying to work with what I had. Naturally, mine do not fold up the way Tammy's do.

I hope you click on over and check out her tutorial. It's a good one!