I have many pics today, and only minimum useful stuff. Hoping the next post will be a bit more informative!
Digital Camera Race - This is a party I planned for Roxie and Friends at the end of their 5th grade year. It was lots of fun, but did not involve a lot of expense OR prep time!
NOTE: This party works just as well for boys as it does for girls.
You need two vans, two parents for each van (one to drive and one to take the pictures), and a set of girls in each van. You will need to make clues that match your area. Each team will begin at the same location, and each team will end at the same location. However, as with all of my scavenger/treasure hunts, one team is working clues 1 through 10 while the other team is working the clues backward (10 to 1). The last clue stays the same for both teams.
These are the clues we used for our Race:
1. Go to a place where yellow balls bounce. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS WHERE THEY NEED TO GO BEFORE READING FURTHER.) Somewhere inside your van, you will find a ball and a racquet. Each girl must take a turn hitting the ball to an adult (just once). Take a picture with one girl holding the racquet and the other two girls on either side of her. (Tennis Courts)
2. Go to a restaurant where you love to eat chips and salsa. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS WHERE THEY NEED TO GO.) Once there, go inside with an adult and ask for three sombreros. Go outside on the bench and have your picture taken wearing the sombreros. (RETURN THE SOMBREROS BEFORE GETTING BACK IN THE VAN.) (Habaneros)
3. Go to a place where books are EVERYWHERE. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS WHERE THEY NEED TO GO.) Once inside, find one Hardy Boys Book and check it out with an adult’s library card. Take a picture outside the building on the bench holding the book. (Library)
4. Go to the place where Roxie lives. Look under the mat on the front porch and get one envelope. (DO NOT OPEN THE ENVELOPE UNTIL YOU ARE IN THE CAR.) Take a picture on Roxie’s front steps before getting back into the van. (OPEN THE ENVELOPE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS INSIDE.)
NOTE: Inside the envelope was the next task. The girls had to go to the Dollar Store and buy three different kinds of candy to share with everyone at the end of the Race. The envelope also contained $5.
5. Go to a place where you can get a drink out of a lion’s mouth. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Take a picture with all the girls standing around the lion. (Moncrief Park)
6. Go to a place where you’ve spent most of your time this past year. In fact, you were there at 8:00 this morning. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Take a picture of all the girls standing near some playground equipment. (Elementary School)
7. Go to a place where white and black balls are kicked around. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Once there, take a picture of the girls beside the fence with the fields behind them. (Soccer Fields)
8. Go to a place where one of your moms does nails. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Take a picture of the girls in the back of the shop by the big tree. (Nail and Hair Salon)
9. Go to a place where you’ve all played in the gym the past 10 or 11 years. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Take a picture of the girls in the gym. (Church Family Life Center)
10. Go to a place where you can take a dip in the summer when it is very hot outside. (LET THE GIRLS GUESS.) Take a picture of the girls beside the gate and/or the sign. (Community Swimming Pool)
11. LAST STOP!!! YOU’VE WORKED HARD!!! NOW GO TO THE PLACE WHERE A SNO-CONE CAN BE BOUGHT TO REFRESH YOUR TIRED, WORN-OUT LITTLE BODIES!! FIRST ONE THERE WITH ALL THE PICTURES WILL WIN!!!! (Sno-Shack)
Once there, everyone ordered a treat and an adult checked the winner's camera to make sure all the pictures were there (IN ORDER) before we declared the winning team. The losing team (my van) was only a minute or so behind the winners.
What also makes this fun is passing the other van as they go in the opposite direction to complete different tasks. It was very inexpensive (except for gas), and it ended with all the girls together talking about their past year and their plans for the summer. (I liked it because it was a no mess, no fuss kind of party. When it was all over, the house was still in tact. Always a plus.)
As always, make it your own.
Family Spring Fun
Pick a Town... Any Town
On slips of paper, write down any and all little towns surrounding your area. For example, in my area I would write down the following: Trussville, Cahaba Heights, Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover, Pinson, Homewood, Birmingham, etc. That's eight right off the top of my head.
Now put the slips of paper into a bowl, and pick a family member to draw a piece of paper. Whatever town is written on the paper you draw, you will be spending a day in that town this spring. That's right. A whole day.
Now that the town has been chosen, as the mom and/or dad you will need to do a little research. Call the Chamber of Commerce. Go to the town's website. Call the local librarian. They know EVERYTHING! See if you are going on a day the town hosts a Festival or other special event.
You will need to choose five or six (or more) things to do in that town on any given Saturday. Here are some ideas:
1. Restaurant (Not a chain. Pick a restaurant located only in this town. Example: Cafe on Main in Trussville.)
2. Park or playground
3. Library (Check to see if there is a story time or something special going on that particular day.)
4. Stream or creek (You can use this for wading or fishing or tubing or pictures.)
5. Store (Pick a store that is unique to this area alone. Example: Smith's Variety in Mountain Brook.)
6. Bakery
7. Museums
8. Biking Trails
9. Tennis Courts
10. Some sort of Fun Zone (Example: Froggy's in Warrior or PlayStation in Trussville.)
11. Book Store
12. Yard Sales
13. Movie Theater
Mountain Brook is the location of The Birmingham Zoo and The Botanical Gardens. Hoover, of course, is home to the Galleria and the Hoover Met. (There might even be a ballgame scheduled for the day of your visit!) Homewood has a fantastic little bookstore, as well as Ed's Pet World. As you can see, the possibilities are limitless.
You may have all of the above in your little part of the world, but everything is a little different and exciting 15 minutes away.
NOTE: This can also be a very low cost activity. If you pick going to yard sales, the library for story time, a park for a picnic, playing tennis, a museum, etc., you are talking gas money only. This can cost as much (or little) as you like.
Pinterest Stuff
Cooking Hacks
Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to water when boiling eggs. Once cooled, the shells will slide right off.
NOTE: Hallelujah! It really worked.
RANDOMNESS #1 - A Little More Eden - She gets prettier and more bright-eyed with every passing day.
RANDOMNESS #2 - Judith Does Build-A-Bear - Since Courtney is off work for the next few weeks, she made a list of things she wanted to do with me and Judith AND Eden.
Build-A-Bear was at the top of the list!
We were the only ones in the store, so we were not rushed at all and Judith had much fun building her bear/white dragon.
When it came time to name our new friend, she chose Julie.
I think she looks exactly like a "Julie."
Personally, I was drawn to the rainbow-colored llamas, but that day wasn't about me...
Obviously.
RANDOMNESS #3 - Faulkner Family (Party of Ten) Easter - Mike and I hosted our little family's Easter get-together the Sunday BEFORE Easter.
Up until everyone arrived, I thought we were actually going to get to hide eggs outside and eat on the deck, but cooler weather descended upon us AND cloudy skies and sprinkles kept us inside on this particular celebration day.
Not to worry...
Egg hunts are fun inside, too.
Josh, Courtney, Judith and Eden.
This pic was taken before the inevitable newborn-hair-ribbon-slide."
And this one was taken after.
And before you even ask...
I gave the big kids harmonicas in their Family Easter Baskets.
(And I made sure they took them home.)
Easter Traditions at Nana’s House – These are a few of the things we have started doing the Sunday before Easter when the ten Faulkners get together.
1. As the kids walk in the door, Roxie greets them with a bowl of jelly beans and shows them a small planter filled with dirt. They have to “plant” the jelly beans in the dirt before coming into the house. When they leave a few hours later, they find Dum-Dum suckers have grown from the jelly bean “seeds” planted earlier in the day. (My friend, Cam, does this in a little garden patch beside her house for the grandkids, and they love it.)
2. After we have a traditional Easter meal (ham, deviled eggs, fruit salad, vegetables and rolls), we open Family Easter Baskets in the den. These baskets contain some family snack items, one or two pieces of candy for each person in the family, a couple of small toys for the little ones, a clothing item for each of the adults and an activity for the adults to have together while Pop and I babysit the kiddos at a later date.
This year, it was a Gift Certificate for axe throwing.
Yeah.
Axe throwing.
3. We have at least two good Easter egg hunts. This year, we had a Color Hunt. Judith’s eggs were pink, yellow and purple. RT’s eggs were orange, blue and green. I also put small items in six of the eggs. RT had bunny crayons and cars in his eggs while Judith had quarters and bunny crayons in her eggs.
4. The past two years, Melia has prepared a devotion for the kids. A simple version of Resurrection Eggs were front and center this year, along with an age-appropriate Easter book about Jesus rising from the dead.
As always, things will change here and there as the kids get bigger and understand more and more about what Easter truly means.
I hope you and yours had a blessed Easter weekend. Take care, and I will be back soon with a little more of this and that.
Sincerely,
The Enchanting Belinda
Appearing in the next post...
Mike had a conference in Nashville the week before Easter, and I tagged along.
Courtney and I took the girls to Let's Play in Huntsville for an afternoon.
I was able to attend RT's class Easter Party.
Mike, Roxie and I celebrated Easter Sunday in Oxford with Mike's family.
No pics below. Just a couple of things I came across on Social Media that tickled my funny bone.
"I'm just a girl, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a doughnut."
"I don't always exercise, but when I do, I expect the results to be instant, dramatic and spectacular."
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