Photo Scavenger Hunt for Kids {Free Printables}

Ariana and I were thinking of something fun we could do one day and I came up with a nature scavenger hunt. Ariana loves any excuse to use her Fisher Price Kid-Tough See Yourself Camera so I added a bonus challenge for her by making it a photo nature hunt and she had to take photos of each item she found. It became a good way to document our findings. You can shop our favorite kid cameras on Amazon.

This Nature Scavenger Hunt would be great for the backyard, local park, or a walk in the woods depending on what is around you.

 Print the Nature Scavenger Hunt

I whipped up the list one morning after breakfast and I printed it so that it was about half the size of my printer paper (about 5x7) and easy for her to carry in her bicycle basket.

We took her bike down to the local walking path and start our photo scavenger hunt. She was excited to start searching she hopped on her bike and off she went!

Some of the items were easy to find while others like the butterfly presented more of a challenge but it was fun to watch her and she enjoyed discovering nature around her and checking things off her list as she found them.

And for the city dwellers I've created a City Scavenger Hunt for you too. I tried to include things that I thought most cities would have and that would be easy for kids to find.

Print the City Scavenger Hunt

I included pictures and words to help with reading and word association that's perfect for preschool/kindergarten age but can also be used for older or younger kids too.

You can make your own version of scavenger hunt lists by just thinking about things you would see in your backyard or around your neighborhood! It's fun! Even I joined in on the fun!

Birthday in a Box! {DIY}

The 'birthday in a box' idea came to me when I was trying to think of something creative to send to my sister for her birthday in June. I have no idea if it's been done before or not. I love surprising my friends and family with creative things for their birthday's/holidays. The year of my sister's 21st birthday I mailed her 21 booze/party/21 related cards in the mail for her to open one each day, the 21 days leading up to her birthday. That was fun! This year since we're trying to save money (21 cards was expensive) I decided to do mail her something fun. 

I'm going to be honest here. I was relying on the postal services between Germany and the United States and I wasn't sure how balloons would react to be mailed/flown overseas. Luckily all but 2 made it, those two deflated.

STEP 1: Gather your supplies. A big box, balloons, money, glitter, tissue paper, confetti, funnel and packing materials. I made confetti by hole punching colorful paper and used gold glitter.

STEP 2: Fold your money into tiny squares and put them inside your balloons. This may take some patience. 

STEP 3: Using a funnel, put the glitter and confetti into the balloons. Blow your balloons up and tie them off. Remember they'll take up a lot of space in your box, experiment with sizes.

 STEP 4: Tape a pin into a card with a clever message. The glitter will go everywhere so warn them not to do it inside unless you want them to have to clean up a mess. (I added glitter inside my card too)

See results of pin vs balloon below.

 (My husband helped me test it out in the backyard to see how the glitter would fly.)

STEP 5: Fill your box with balloons, colorful tissue paper (and bubble wrap if you'd like, I did) and mail it off. Or drop it off at your friends doorstep, either way they're sure to be delightfully surprised!

Viola! There you have it! I fun birthday in a box!

75 Stocking Stuffers For Kids

I was thinking of things to put in Ariana's stocking the other day, and then a friend of mine posted asking for advice for stocking stuffers for her little boy and I was coming up with ideas. I decided to share them here too! This list is for boys and girls probably ranging from age 1 - 5.

Stocking stuffer ideas for little ones.

1. foam soap

2. barrel of monkeys

3. character socks

4. crayons

5. mini books

6. little cars

7. toothbrush

8. magic washcloth

9. hairbows

10. flashcards

11. dress up crown

12. train whistle

13. colored bubbles

14. playdough

15. hat/mittens

16. dress up jewelry

17. bath crayons

18. glitter glue

19. spinning top

20. CD of kid songs

21. harmonica

22. stickers

23. kalidescope

24. watercolor paints

25. character fork and spoon

26. temporary tattoos

27. curly straws

28. small flashlight (you'd be surprised, explorer, doctor, shadow maker, cat annoying toy and dentist toy rolled into one)

29. bubble bath

30. mini puzzle

31. letter magnets/foam letters

32. finger puppets

33. animal masks

34. stamps

35. fun bandaids

36. sunglasses

37. growing dinosaur

38. toy baby bottle

39. mini tools 

40. candy canes

41. small doll

42. rubber duck

42. silly putty

43. cookie cutter (for helping mom and dad make cookies)

44. Barbie

45. action figures

46. wind up toys

47. earmuffs

48. pez

49. viewmaster slides

50. echo microphone

51. matchbox cars

52. go fish card game

53. punch ball

54. bath fizzers

55. bird whistle

56. sidewalk chalk

57. little people

58. dinosaurs

59. grabber hand

60. mini magna doodle

61. personalized cup

62. bouncy balls

63. glow in the dark star stickers

64. kid scissors (Ariana loves to cut now)

65. bendy characters

66. purse

67. mini tractors

68. markers

69. foam airplanes

70. small snow globe

71. doll clothes

72. play shaving kit

73. fuzzy slippers

74. fruit snacks

75. handwritten letter from Santa

Maybe this is helpful to a few of you out there. Stockings were always one of my favorite things. I still love to get/give them with my family. Sometimes they can be a challenge to find little things to fill them with though. Happy Holidays!

Faces in Places

Over the past few weeks  months, I've been finding a lot of faces in random places. I decided to put together this little post to share my found faces with you!

My toothbrush holder smiles at me

Happy face found in my watermelon

Kissy face in an Italian train station.

Syrup bottle smiles on Pancake Sunday

Ariana's lunch one day

Ariana's play kitchen is giving me the uninterested face

My moms old brownie camera is surprised

It's fun finding faces in places! Have you found any lately?

xo's

Cat

Shimmering Stars Hair Accessories {a tutorial}

Don't you just want to wear these dreamy glittery star hair clips in your hair!? Well, I'm here with a tutorial to show you how to make them yourself! They're really simple! I made a bunch for my sister Sarah (who loves stars) for her birthday which is today!

★ ☆ Happy Birthday Sarah!★ ☆

Glitter Star Hair-clips

Here are the supplies you will need: 

foam stars (I got mine from the kids section in a craft store

hair clips and combs, you could even put them on a headband if you wanted!

mod podge

hot glue gun

glitter
small-medium paint brush for the mod podge

1. Lay out your stars and coat them with mod podge.

2. One by one sprinkle each with glitter. Once all the stars are covered let them dry. I let mine dry about an hour and went back and made sure the sides of the stars were covered well.

3. Using your hot glue gun, glue your stars to your hair clips of choice.

4. Once they are done see how many cute ways you can style your hair with stars!!

I can't wait for my sister to show me how she wears hers!! I got to see her squeal with delight when she opened her package yesterday on Skype! So fun!

Enjoy!

xo's

Cat