At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

Let’s Get This Block Party Started…Summer Activities for Kids!

WOO HOO! It’s finally here!
It is the first Official week of Summer and we are ushering it in with the first ever
Blogger Block Party!

I am even going to be getting some warm (FINALLY!) summer weather here in the
Northwest this week
so I couldn’t be happier!

Kiddos home from school + day after day of rain =
grumpy mommy restlessness and lots of time outs.

Now, every day this week you will be able to link up YOUR summer projects to one (or several) of the fabulous parties happening on our Block.
Just check them out…

DebbieDoo’s Blogging and Blabbing-Summer Paint Projects-June 20
At The Picket Fence (Vanessa)-Summer Activities for Kids-June 20
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia-Drop Cloth Projects-June 21
Savvy Southern Style-Summer Decks and Porches-June 22
DIY by Design-Outdoor Cooking and Dining-June 22
Elements Interiors-Summer DIY Projects-June 22
Green Door Girl Designs-Summer Fashions-June 22
No Minimalist Here-Summer Entertaining-June 23
SAS Interiors-Summer Spaces-June 23
Common Ground-A Vintage Summer-June 24
French Country Cottage-A Shabby Cottage Summer-June 24
Stuff and Nonsense-Summer Sales (Thrifting, Flea Markets and Yard Sales)-June 24
At The Picket Fence (Heather)-Fresh from the Garden (Garden Recipes and Projects)-June 24
Party Features and Wrap-Up-June 25

We are kicking off this rockin’ Block Party here at the Fence with a Summer Activity for Kids I did last week with my kids which not only helped fight the “I’m Bored Disease”, but also got us outside and running around!

Now, let me just tell you that we do indoor scavenger hunts all the time at our house.
When you live where it rains a lot you have to get creative.
And a scavenger hunt is a great way to keep your kids out of your hair  happily occupied for awhile.
I have even been known to hide pennies around the house in a moment of desperation!

But in the summer, we take the fun Outdoors!

I started by purchasing these galvanized metal buckets from Lowes.
The size was just perfect for little hands while also providing plenty of room for holding all of the treasures!

I taped off small squares and then sprayed on chalkboard paint to create a space for each child to decorate their bucket. This was my first time doing any chalkboard paint projects (I know I’m the only person in blogland who hasn’t used it yet but don’t judge!) and if I were to do it again I probably wouldn’t use it in the Spray Paint form.
It was very hard to control and well…it leaked and dripped and my lines didn’t come out just perfectly.
But, even with it’s imperfections, the kids sure did love adding their names
(or having mommy help to write it) to the buckets.

My best piece of advice about creating your list of items to hunt down is
KNOW YOUR PARK!
Or neighborhood, or backyard etc.
The items I selected were ones I knew the kids would have no trouble finding at this particular park.
I printed out wallet-sized images.

And then the little Miss (in all of her bed headed glory!) helped me glue each one to it’s own construction paper card. I had intended to have these laminated but…well…life got in the way.
I’m thinking that having this time with my girl to do a craft together was better than having them laminated anyway! Don’t you?
Once they were ready, I punched holes in each one and then tied them onto
the bucket with a little piece of twine. 
And then I did that 3 more times!

Why 3 more times? Because we invited some of our favorite friends to come along!
My wonderful friend Kara and her darling children are so special to us and we love any chance to have a playdate with them. Her son and daughter are roughly the same age as mine and they all have a blast whenever they are together.
This is sweet Miss Elisabeth checking out her bucket and cards.
And even baby Charlie joined in the fun!
Now, you will notice that these photos have a lot of “Pink” in them.

That would be because I could NOT get the boys to stand still long enough to snap their photo.

Go figure!
But I begged Britton to show me what was in his bucket and snapped this one before he knew it!
My own son was less obliging so I don’t have any of him.
This was such a fun way to spend a summer afternoon. The rain stopped just long enough for us to do the Scavenger Hunt and then started up again just as we finished. We moved the fun to our house for the rest of the afternoon and it was the perfect way to kick off our Summer Break!
A project like this could be done in so many different ways and doesn’t even need to be more complicated than giving your kids a list of items and a paper bag to store them in.
I would encourage you to have a few of these activities planned for your kiddos throughout the summer. They are a wonderful way to enjoy nature and each other!
Thanks for joining me as we kick off a week of fun here at the Fence. I’m going to be heading on down the block to visit Debbie over at DebbieDoo’s Blogging and Blabbing Paint Party to link up my Chalkboard Scavenger Hunt Buckets. Hope you will hop over the fence with me and come along! And make sure to get your Drop Cloth Projects ready to share over at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Kristin’s party on Tuesday!
Now, did we happen to mention that there are also going to be GIVEAWAYS on
every corner of this Block?

That is a total of 13 Giveaways!
Here are the wonderful sponsors of our Blogger Block Party.  They are all providing fabulous items for our giveaways!

The sponsors for today’s Summer Activities for Kids Post are the amazing folks at Twisterz Toys!
These incredible educational games are “designed to inspire creativity, learning and parental involvement.”
The winner of this prize will receive the “Clifford Category Matcher” and the “Word Girl Word Builder“. These would be absolutely perfect to take along on that summer road trip or even to have when the grandkids come for a visit. But really, they are fantastic to have anytime and anyplace and we encourage you to pay a visit to the Twisterz Toys website to check out more of their incredible products! Giveaway winners will be drawn from party links so make sure to link up lots of projects!

Now, who’s ready to party with us?! Here’s how it works!

Link up your themed related post(s) on each blog as it goes live on their party day. Your links will appear on all twelve blogs that are hosting the party as their posts go public! That means your posts will appear simultaneously on all of our blogs once you have linked them up and will be there throughout the party! You are welcome to share as many summer posts as you like related to the themes…and trust us there’s a theme for everything! That’s it. Just find a theme related to your post during the week and link up to it…for one HUGE link party!”

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. I used to love to do scavenger hunts with the girls and my nieces. We particularly liked it on snow days. (They are a RARE treat around here. Nowadays, rain days are, too.)

    I think your pails and the cards are inspired. I love this in a big way. Wish I still had little ones around this joint.

    Reply

  4. all linked up…hoping i did everything right! i love the scavenger hunt idea and nature notebooks you made…so cute…eek…can’t believe the party’s finally here!

    Reply

  13. A great idea! I can see this working for birthday parties too! So….let me see if I have this right….it doesn’t take much to confuse me!:) If I link to your post, it should be a kids projects or ideas post? And so on during the week, depending on that blogs theme? This is a wonderful idea by the way. And I know, lots of work! FUN FUN!!

    Reply

  16. Hey Vanessa~ I don’t have an activity for kids post to link up today but wanted to stop by and say thanks for the party! 🙂

    Reply

  17. I absolutely can’t wait to do this project with my three year old and his friends. I actually think using the chalk board spray may have been the better idea. The paint on chalkboard paint can be a little tricky as well. This looks like soooooooo much fun.

    Paula of Ivy & Elephants.

    Reply

  18. I’m confused. I came here to see links to kids activities and I am seeing Debbie’s projects on your page…. Am I crazy?? I have refreshed and come back a few times and I see you cute post about the bucket scavenger hunt, but the links are not kids stuff. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply

  19. OKAAAY! Cutest thing EVA’!!!
    I LOVE this…such a great idea! I am SO doing this! Im STILL trying to finish getting my store moved…so, that has caused CHILD NEGLECT! OOPS! I mean, they are with my parents everyday { Dont call CPS! } but they have been a little neglected, EEkkk! SO, this will be a great thing for me to do with them! I managed to get a post up, YAAAAAAY!
    Thank yall again for letting me be included in your party as a host! I NEED NEED NEED some traffic…my Blig has been a lil neglected too! YIKES! { DONT call BPS-Blog Protective Services, either :-O }

    LOVE YALL!
    xoxokara

    Reply

  20. My neighbor just mentioned doing this with the kids, as we are trying to encourage them to play in the woods a little more! I’m totally going to have to copy you! Now, if only it would stop raining!

    Thanks for hosting this fabulous blog party!

    Reply

  22. Okay, I’m confused….(which really isn’t anything new!) but wasn’t this linky party for and about summer activities with the kids? I’m seeing other stuff linked up~ Am I nuts? LOL
    hugs, Sue

    Reply

  23. Hi Sue no you are not nuts..lol I was going to email and then decided maybe I should put it on here in case anyone else has questions related to the party.

    The link part of the party is a shared link on all 12 blogs. Our individual posts will be themed
    related and projects will be kind of grouped together by theme as they are linked up but
    it’s one big shared link so some of the smaller themed posts (like Vanessa’s on kids activities or Jenn’s, which will be Wednesday, on summer fashion and which possibly won’t have as many links as say paint) can still get exposure on several blogs. We wanted everyone to be part of the whole party and get to have everyone see their posts on all 12 blogs by the end of the week instead of having 13 different party links.

    So because today is paint projects and summer activities for kids they are intermingled together as people link them up. There seem to be a few other types of “summer” posts and that’s okay, they have probably just linked some up a bit early. But since we don’t get over concerned about stuff like that, it’s not a big deal. :)Tomorrow the drop cloth links from Kristin’s party will start to show up as well when she posts her part of the party tomorrow!

    Hope that helped to clear up any confusion! If anyone has any other questions that this does not answer, always feel free to email us as well and we will respond promptly! Thanks!

    Heather

    Reply

  25. I better get busy! I don’t have anything for today, but wanted to stop by and say ‘hello!’ Vacation last week with no wi-fi so feel disconnected with my blogger world! What is that?! It was like being on a deserted island! What a great party all week! I will keep checking in! I love the scavenger hunt buckets Vanessa! My kids will love this! Christie

    Reply

  26. Hi Vanessa,I don’t have any summer activities for kids to link up today… but just wanted to say thanks for hosting this wonderful party for us… it’s a marvelous idea! The kids are looking adorably cute and looks like they are having lots of fun… such a fun idea and its perfect for outdoors as well as indoors. I loved those galvanized pails painted in chalkboard paint. Thanks for sharing!~Poppy

    http://withadashofcolor.blogspot.com/

    Reply

  30. The name on the bucket appeals to all sorts of activities and all ages. I love the idea of printing out pictures to show what to hunt for.

    Reply

  31. Hi Vanessa,

    We used to do a scavenger hunt before we were married. It was a group of couples and we would spend a day on the weekend driving around the countryside finding all of the clues. Each stop with a clue to the next location. Thanks for the great memory! The kids look like they are having a blast!!
    All the Best,
    Christine

    Reply

  36. As many times as I’m in Lowe’s and pass those buckets, I never would’ve thought to create something so cute as this! Love how you got the kiddos involved, too. I’m sending Jax to visit you guys, ok?! xoxo

    Reply

  37. I love this. Such a good idea, and the buckets are so cute with their little cards! I bet even my 8th grader would get into a good scavenger hunt, right along with the younger ones.

    Reply

  38. I homeschooled my children through to graduation, and there were many, many scavenger hunts over the years. It was such fun for us all! Of course, one of the wonderful things about YOUR scavenger hunt was that it was fun AND educational. 😉

    I just joined you as a follower, and now I need to see if I can get some posts linked to these fun parties.

    Blessings,
    Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage
    http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/

    Reply

  39. Hi Vanessa and Heather, thanks for putting together this wonderful blog block party! It is so much fun! I look forward to reading more of the party posts. Thanks for always commenting on your party posts.
    You both continue to inspire blogland.
    ~ Julie

    Reply

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