It has been busy around here! The weeks are whirling by and my organization has seriously been lacking. I had zero plans for this week for St. Patty’s Day and I love celebrating with my kids! I remember in 2020, this was the first holiday we celebrated at home. I made our traditional Irish Stew that year and put together a colorful rainbow fruit platter that I knew as part of our routine each year, would be pretty easy to shop for and add to our week. We also had a box of Lucky Charms in our pantry that my kids look forward to adding to our cart this time every year and that would check the box for a festive breakfast.
But I didn’t think I could pull much else together. As much as I love festive holidays, I really dislike the stress and have learned to tone it down to avoid both toddler and my own meltdowns at the holidays.
But then I saw the weather for tomorrow. Sunny, and 68 degrees. That first really warm day of the season after a long, bitterly cold winter, when the afternoon holds onto just a little more sunlight, that kind of day can really energize me. Unlike the days of summer when we expect the warmth of the sunshine, these kind of days in March are really extraordinary. Knowing I would have a little extra skip in my step, I decided to last minute pull together a favorite activity of mine that I’ve done before…a scavenger hunt.
And while you might not have time to put it together for tomorrow, this is an activity you are going to want to file away for later. You can do it in the sunshine, rain, or snow. It can be tailored to fit any holiday, celebration, or birthday theme. And it comes together pretty quickly, especially once you have done it once or twice! I’ve done it twice before for Halloween so tweaking it to fit tomorrow’s St. Patty’s theme was much simpler.
In fact, it can come together so quickly that I’ve even had other parents put together scavenger hunts in their own backyards either by borrowing the supplies from me or creating one on their own with a totally different theme. And each time, the kids have a blast!
Here are the steps I follow.
- I buy 8-12 cardboard lawn signs that follow the theme I’m working with, usually off Amazon.
- I take photos of each one on my phone and then I send them to my computer. Cropping and resizing, I put the images onto one page of a word document. Then I hit print and make enough copies for all the kids participating.
- Then I put together some prizes for the kids. The first year for Halloween I did a prize at each lawn sign since the kids weren’t going to be trick or treating but ever since, I’ve done one prize at the end instead. This year for Halloween it was ghost, pumpkin, and bat pop-its. Tomorrow it will be mini pots of chocolate covered gold coins.
- Right before everyone arrives, I hide the lawn signs and bring out the stack of papers with scavenger hunt on them and markers or crayons. And once everyone arrives, the hunt begins! At the end, everyone gets a prize!
- And the best part is when the kids are done finding the signs I hid, they usually like to hide them all over again. Together they search for them again and again running and laughing along the way!
It’s great fun! Try it for another holiday coming up or just because it’s finally almost Spring!
Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone! Hope your day is filled with rainbows, sunshine, and hearts of gold!
