A scavenger hunt for kids is a great way to explore the world around you. My kids love them. They have minimal exposure to them, but every time we’ve done one they have had a blast. We played a New Year’s Eve game where we hid clues for the kids that lead them around the house finding photos to recap the year. I don’t know if that constitutes a true scavenger hunt, but I’m also not sure what it’d be called otherwise!
There’s also a fun app called “Klikaklu” (click-a-clue for those of you who have trouble with “license plate words” – lookin’ at you dad!) where you can create a scavenger hunt for kids or adults on your phone and share it with friends or family (or make public!) My husband’s family has used this app at our annual Christmas hotel reunion weekend (scavenger hunt + hotel = great fun, if you’re the ones participating!), and my boys have been asking me recently if we could do more scavenger hunts.
I thought it would be fun to make an outdoor scavenger hunt, and what better place to search than our local city park? Having a park scavenger hunt was also a win for me because, to be honest, I sometimes get tired of the same old park trip. We always have fun there, but there is very little way to “mix up” playing on the swings, going down the slides, and looking at/being terrified of ducks. Seriously. Why are they under the park equipment? Go to your home! Wait, is this your home?
In any case, Klikaklu is still under development for Android users, and at this time us Droidies (can we get this nickname to catch on?) can only access scavenger hunts created and shared by others, not create new ones. So I figured I’d just start from scratch and make one up that we could print and take with us. Ditch the phone and play the old school way. Incidentally, it was also a great way to get some quality time in rather than just watching them play. (If you missed the discussion on love languages, read more here!)
What Age to Play?
I made the scavenger hunt for kids ages 3-6. My oldest boys are 3 and 5, and I had both of them in mind when I created the categories. That’s not to say that an older child wouldn’t have fun – they probably would – but the target age group is 3-6. I took a young 3 and an older 3 to the park to try it out, and both of them enjoyed it and were able to participate. I included pictures on the page to make it easier for them to recall what they are looking for. This way they can be somewhat independent as they search. The younger the child, the more “reminding” you’ll have to do as you search, and the more breaks they will need as they lose focus quickly!
Learning Through Play
I’m a teacher by trade, but I very rarely do any “formal” learning activities with my 3 year old. I’m a believer in learning through play and wanted to be sure to include some age appropriate learning opportunities in the game. We were able to talk about a variety of topics throughout the course of the scavenger hunt:
Size/length comparisons
Counting
Color recognition
Physical health – talking about types of exercisers to look for, the reasons people would be exercising and why exercise is important
Imagination
Citizenship – taking care of the park by helping clean up a bit
The kids knew they were learning something, even though it was not explicit. In this picture, he had just found an item and yelled, “I’m a genius!”
And also, isn’t he so sweet in his rain boots!? These are falling apart from his hard use – time for a new pair. Totally off topic, I know, but have you seen the “Hunter for Target” collection that’s coming out?! So cute!
Prepped to Go
Before we went, I told the boys we had a fun game to play at the park and got them excited about participating. We looked at the scavenger hunt page and talked about every box and what the pictures said to look for. I also explained to them that the white boxes were to mark off the items that they’d found. They each picked their writing utensil, and we were on our way. Finny of course wanted a sparkly crayon!
I think that prepping the kids before you leave the house is essential for this activity – especially with the younger ones. If you get out of the car and say, “WAIT! We’re not just playing today!” chances are that you’ve already lost them to the distractions going on around them. After we talked about the scavenger hunt, they knew what to expect and that they had a mission upon getting out of the car. (In fact, my son had an item knocked off before I even had everyone unstrapped from their car seats!)
Ready, Set, Hunt!
As soon as we got out of the car, the boys were ready to see what they could find. They remembered as soon as they saw a squirrel shoot past that they had animals on their list. The race was on! When we got to the play area, I first let them search for things at their will. We, of course, spotted litter very quickly, and they were eager to help clean it up. (Use your judgement here – if you think litter is too gross to touch, take a look around. There’s plenty of litter that is likely not too disgusting. We found a plethora of zip ties – creepy – and left over cracked plastic eggs from Easter hunts. In fact, Finn acted like he’d just found an Easter egg with each piece of trash.)
If you spend much time with 3 year olds, you know their attention span is pretty short. I had no illusion going into the day that we would go and they would be totally focused on the hunt the entire time. We went back and forth between playing and hunting. After they played for a few minutes, I’d either say something like, “Is there a box on your sheet you haven’t checked yet?” (they loved checking items off!) Or, “Oh wow! I think I see something purple!” I wouldn’t point out an item directly, but giving them a teaser like that made them eager to see what I was seeing!
We were able to play, mark everything off our lists, and have a fun morning out of the house. Our total time spent at the park was about an hour, but the hunt could’ve been accomplished in a 30-45 minute trip.
Park Scavenger Hunt for Kids
I created this scavenger hunt in the hopes that my boys and I could have a fun out of the norm activity to do together. I hope you’ll do the same. One thing I didn’t want to come from this is stress – for me or the kids! If they’re not into it, try again another day. If you try it, let me know how it goes! I’m always open to making improvements, and would love to hear if your kids (and you) enjoyed it! Feel free to share the link to this post in your moms groups on Facebook. What do you think about a scavenger hunt for kids of different ages?
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Spring Break Fun
I started teaching straight out of college, and haven’t stopped since. My husband has been a teacher for the better part of the last decade. We are lucky to be able to enjoy Spring Break each year as part of our scheduled time off. This year was slightly different, though, because we now officially have a boy in school. This was his first true Spring Break experience, and he was so excited for a vacation and extended time at home.
We had an ambitious Spring Break to-do list, and I think we did pretty well in whittling things off of it. We had a fair amount of in-home and out & busy days. I tend to get overwhelmed at holidays because we are on the go constantly for most of the time. This break felt like we had some good time to relax, with some out-of-the-norm activities sprinkled in.
Yardwork
We started out by tackling some yard projects. The weather here has been incredibly nice (and at times downright hot – but I keep trying to tell myself to cherish this “hot” because come August I’ll be wishing for 85!) So we took advantage of the opportunity to get outside and get started on our mile-long to do list.
Lava Rock Bed Be Gone!
The first for Kyle was a big bed of lava rock outside of our back door that’s been here since we moved in. We still aren’t sure what exactly is going to happen with this space, but we were in agreement that “bed-of-rock with weeds” wasn’t it. The boys helped him remove the lava rock, and he made several trips to our city dump for free mulch. Some people frown upon the free mulch – “You just don’t know what’s in that!” … but, for me, free = getting it.
For now it’s been transformed into a mulch bed with our cinder block bench (fresh with new cushions).
All of the lava rock is out!
Helping spread mulch
Believe me, this is better!
Butterfly Garden
Last summer we were gifted a new swing set. We loved our old one, but it did not hold up very well after moving from house to house. There’s a butterfly garden at one of the parks in town, and the kids love it. The boys and I decided we would transform our old swing set into a hub for a butterfly garden of our own. We did not do so well last year with this. I think we got started a little bit late, and by the time we got going, plants were out of stock and it was too hot for anything to be happy out there.
This year I decided we’d get a jump on things, so we went right after school on Friday to speak with our local nurseryman. (We actually worked with his wife this time!) She helped us take a look at our space and our list of plants that the Internet says are good for butterfly gardens to come up with a plan.
We were able to get a few things going, and our plant stand for pots got a fresh coat of paint. There are a few more plants in the plan that will really change the look of things. But I’ll go ahead and share what we’ve got going on so far! I plan to write a post detailing the make-up of our garden once we get it all established!
What break would be complete without craft projects?! Not one of mine, that’s for sure. I was so happy to get a fresh coat of paint on that plant stand – but that wasn’t even one of my planned projects. There were only a few things on my list for Spring Break crafting, and I was happy to be able to fit them in.
Doormat DIY
I have been seeing cute DIY doormats all over social media lately, and I was itching to get us a fresh one. Our old one was a gift from our sweet realtors when we bought this house, which means it was almost two years old. The lifespan of a doormat is not that long. I was excited and nervous to try painting my own mat. Usually stenciling is a task I tackle with confidence and end up disappointed with in the end. However, stenciling on these coir doormats is a dream. No bleeding! What!?
I went back and forth on whether to do a silly saying or something more traditional like a monogram or “welcome.” But I’ve already got a little sign for my house number with our last initial and the word welcome, so silly saying it is. If you can’t have fun on a doormat, what can you have fun with, right?
Now I want to stencil/paint my porch too. Kyle thinks I’m crazy. *Update: If you want to see how I made this, I wrote a quick tutorial for stenciling a doormat.
T-shirt Mania
I recently bought a new Cricut (an electronic die-cutting machine). I already had a Cricut, but just like anything else, it became outdated. The old ones only cut images from cartridges that you had to purchase, so the things I could cut were very limited. New Cricuts cut any image or font you have on your computer. So the cutting world is your oyster. So far I’ve made some vinyl names for steel cups, a few t-shirts, stencils for signs (and my doormat!), and a few other random gifts. If you’ve been on the fence about buying one, or are just now climbing up on the hypothetical fence, do it!!
I wanted to make shirts for my smallest guys since I’d only made a shirt for the oldest. My middle child (the Halloween lover!) wanted a pumpkin shirt in another color, and I still get to pick what the baby gets! I fulfilled the pumpkin request, and put some Drake lyrics on a tiny shirt.
A navy blue jack-o-lantern
Drizzy baby
Day Trippin’
We took a few day trips for the kids to do some fun things in neighboring towns. They loved all of them, so the travel time was worth it!
Waco
We live about an hour or so from Waco, and I joined my mom and sister for a trip to Magnolia to experience the Chip and JoJo mania. Each time I’ve been it’s crazy busy and crowded, and I haven’t bought anything. But it’s always fun to get out of the house for a bit anyway! We also hit up Spice Village, which is a cute collection of boutiques in one space. Definitely worth the walk a few blocks over from Magnolia.
Mayborn Museum
My husband and his mom ended up taking the kids to Waco on the same day that I was there. But they did not go for shopping, they were headed to Baylor’s campus to the Mayborn Children’s Museum. We were able to meet up with them after lunch and take on the 2nd floor of the museum. There were many interactive exhibits for the kids, and all three boys found things to enjoy. Their collective favorite was the big water table. Of course! Here they are in the old-timey village learning how to crush herbs.
Epic Waters
The city of Grand Prairie recently opened a large indoor water park, and my family made a plan to check it out over Spring Break. The boys had a blast playing in the water. My oldest was a huge fan of the kid-sized water slides, the 3 year old just kind of “swam” (layed horizontally and walked along with his hands!), and the 1 year old got a kick out of the floor fountains. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves in their own ways and are ready to go back. It was crowded, but not in the way that makes things un-fun. The facility keeps track of how many people they are letting in at a given time, so there is some level of crowd control. Word of advice if you plan on visiting – buy tickets online before you go! Otherwise, plan on a very long wait outside.
Birthday Fun
Our last out of town activity was a trip a couple hours away to celebrate two of our cousins’ birthdays. The guys got to go swimming in March again (twice in one week!?), and the big boys stayed at the Embassy Suites with their grandparents. Kyle and I took advantage of the kid-free dinner to stop on our way back home and eat our favorite – Pei Wei. Turns out Noles likes lettuce wraps! The trip was mostly great, except for little man terrorizing his brothers the whole way. This can’t be comfy!
I also sorted, packed, and delivered the first of many loads of baby boy clothes to my sister-in-law, who is expecting her first boy. While it’s great to clear out some storage space, and kind of fun to think about getting to be done with the “baby phase,” I did shed some tears while preparing to officially close the door on that stage of life. I am super happy that the clothes are going to a family member and I’ll get to see some of them again, though!!
Springbreaksgiving
And of course, we celebrated Springbreaksgiving. If you’re not sure what that word means, go read this post! We had a lot of fun, and though I was insanely worried, we had enough food! I made Kyle run out at the last minute to buy some totally unnecessary chicken strips for the kids, but I was honestly convinced we were going to invite all these people over and run out of meat. A few expected guests were unable to come, but I think we probably would’ve been okay even if they had! The kids had a great time playing, and we enjoyed the time with our family, friends, and neighbors. The weather was great, and the food was delicious. I spent much of the day Wednesday and all morning Thursday cleaning like a madwoman, but my house is already back in post-tornado condition. Oh well, what can ya do?
Almost Summer
The only silver lining to Spring Break ending is the 2nd half of the spring semester generally flies by. I’ll wake up soon and be stressing out about not having enough teaching days left in the semester before my students take their final exam.
Life keeps getting more and more fun as the boys get older, and I’m excited to get into summer and make more memories as a family, both in and out of the house! What did you get accomplished this Spring Break?
As a mom of three boys, it feels like sometimes no matter what I do, there are are days where the fits just won’t stop. There are times when it feels like the kids are hellbent on ensuring that I get nothing done. Then there are times where it feels like everything is going right. Smiles, laughter, and cuddles mixed in with independence and helpfulness. I try to do all that I can to make the good days more frequent than the hectic ones. But to be honest – sometimes it just feels like a crapshoot.
I do not read near as much as I feel like I should, but I do get an itch sometimes and end up browsing the free downloads on the library site. If you’re anything like me, then you can spend as much time browsing the books trying to pick something to read as you actually do reading a book. It’s exactly what happens to me in Netflix. By the time I decide what to watch, I’m ready to call it a night. The last time I got the urge to take in a book, I settled on The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman, PhD and Ross Campbell, MD, and I’m glad I did.
I don’t know what exactly made me choose it, as I’m not usually big on the self-help genre. But I guess I thought that if I’m raising three boys, maybe I should see what I could be doing better to help them become well-adjusted little humans. I’d heard someone talking about love languages in the days before seeing the book in the virtual library, so it felt like the universe was telling me something. After reading the book, making those good days more frequent feels like less of a shot in the dark, and more like something I’m actively working to make happen.
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What are love languages?
In his book, author Gary Chapman applies his “love language” theory, originally developed for couples, to parent-child relationships. While this may seem a bit odd at face value, it makes sense. We are all human, and whether it be from a spouse or a parent, we all have ways that we communicate and feel loved. The basic premise is that there are five ways in which we communicate our feelings, and that each of us has a preferred love language that makes us feel valued and loved. Think about it. You may have one child who wants to be hugged all the time, and another who could do without the hugs but is constantly asking you to play with him. These two children would have different preferred love languages. The 5 love languages are as follows:
Primary Love Languages
When applying this theory to your significant other and older children, the idea is that everyone needs a bit from all areas, but that most people will have 1-2 primary love languages. As a significant other, if you know that your partner’s primary love language is acts of service, then you would want to make a point of going out of your way to regularly take on tasks to ease their burden.
What I found most interesting about applying this theory to children is that the authors state that most children under the age of 5 do not yet have a primary love language. They require regular expressions from all five categories. Since all three of my children are 5 and under, this got me thinking and wondering if I really am showing them I care in different ways. I know that I love my kids, I know that we provide a safe environment for them, and I feel like we have a very loving household. But the bottom line is that if my kids are not feeling that, then I’m not doing my whole job.
In an effort to make sure that we are thoughtfully showing each of them love from all five approaches, we made a few super easy changes to our regular routines. As it turns out, some little tweaks to what we were already doing made a big difference!
If you’re like me and tend to forget things as soon as you’ve started something new, take a minute and print off my free Love Languages Ideas recording sheet. It’ll allow you to record anything you like here, or any ideas you have as you read/later on as you begin to implement the principles of the five love languages!
Receiving Gifts
I’ll start with this love language because it was probably the one that seemed the most out of my comfort zone. I generally do not give my kids gifts outside of “gift giving occasions.” The fact that this was a love language had me thinking that maybe I’d just have to fall short. As a stay-at-home mom, our budget is pretty strict. Not to mention, we don’t like having a lot of junk! And then to top it off, we always hear about kids being entitled or spoiled, and I don’t want to turn my sweet boys into materialistic beggars who always expect something. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic.
Since reading this book, I have changed my tune. Have you ever seen a kid who was just incredibly excited to receive a gift, no matter how small? When someone gives you a gift, it is just one more way that they can show you they are actively thinking of you. And don’t gifts that someone gives you “just because” somehow seem even more special?
So how do we do this without breaking the bank?
The “Giving it to them anyway” Gift
This idea came from the book, and I have had fun with it. My kids have felt special, and I haven’t even had to buy anything extra. The suggestion from the authors was to try wrapping something you were going to give them anyway.
I did this with a shirt that I made for my son to wear to school. He even knew it was coming. Instead of just handing it to him or laying it out for him, I took an extra 30 seconds to put it into a plain gift bag and left it at his place at the table where he’d see it when he woke up for breakfast. He was so excited. His reaction to the thoughtful addition of gift wrapping made the whole thing even better for both of us. You don’t have to make your child something to do this. I also wrapped some clothes that I had bought online just because they needed new ones, and they loved that too.
The Gift of Groceries
Wait, what? Yes. The gift of groceries. Is there something ridiculous at the store that your kids are always begging you to get? For mine it is Scooby Snacks. Dog bone shaped grahams. I’d much rather just buy good ol’ (cheaper) rectangular grahams. But every once in a while I’ll buy those Scooby Snacks (or Frozen cheese or whatever the ridiculous thing is they’ve been asking for). And you better believe I make a big deal about it. I come home from the grocery store acting like I’ve brought home a puppy. “You guys get in here! You’ve got to see what mama got for you at the store! I picked it out special just for you!” It’s like Christmas. Only it’s groceries. And for about $0.50 extra I’ve pleased the masses.
Christmas Book Countdown
This one’s a bonus to implement later. I know, I know. You don’t need one more thing to do at Christmas. BUT this is a fun replacement for (or addition to) an Advent calendar filled with chocolates. Wrap a Christmas book per day in December (or just regular books!) and take some time to read the ‘special’ book the kids opened. (This pulls double duty for the “quality time” category!) If you’re thinking that 25 books is not cheap, you’re right. So we just wrap up books we already own, with a few new ones sprinkled in.
This has two effects. It breathes new life and excitement into our old books. It also makes the kids’ anticipation and joy for the new ones that much greater. Every time they open one that is new, it’s kind of like they hit the lottery. If you have multiple kids, this is also a great exercise in patience and sharing. One book a day means not everyone opens one every day!
Quality Time
How many times do you find yourself saying, “Just a minute …” or “After I finish … ” when your kids ask for help or attention? I know for me it is more often than I’d like. How often are we on the phone when our kids are just needing a few minutes of quality time? For me, it’s more often than I’d like. Since reading the love languages book, I’ve tried to be extremely mindful of my responses to requests for quality time.
More often than not, if my kids want to play catch or cars, they truly only are engaged for about 5 minutes before they’re on to the next thing. I’ve found that since saying, “Yes.” a little bit more often, my children actually can be a lot more self-sufficient while I complete whatever task I was about to do.
The average children’s book takes about 5 minutes or less to read, so I’ve also tried to respond to those requests with an immediate yes rather than put them off as well. I’m not suggesting that we should always drop what we’re doing the second a child asks us for some QT. That’s unrealistic and unreasonable, and sometimes what I’m doing is honestly important. But there are many times when whatever I’m about to tackle can wait while I read a quick story. Making my kids feel more important than laundry is a-ok in my book.
It may also be fun to try a new twist on a family favorite. My kids love going to the park, so I created a scavenger hunt for us to complete and it was a lot of fun! I shared it here so you can print it too! Following are a few ideas you can implement around the house:
Before School Snuggles
I wrote earlier in this post about my oldest son’s transition to kindergarten. He was having a very hard time adjusting to the early mornings and long days. We weren’t having knock-down-drag-outs every morning or anything, but he was just overall grumpy and uncooperative. We decided we’d try waking him up 15 minutes early for snuggles while he took some time to adjust. I’d be lying if I said he’s super pleasant all of the time now in the morning.
BUT the difference this small change has made has been awesome. He knows when he gets out of bed he’s going to get some one-on-one quality time. (If you can ignore the 15 month old crawling all over us!) Sometimes he talks, sometimes he closes his eyes, sometimes he wants his back drawn on. But he truly enjoys this time. I know this may be unrealistic for some schedules. But if you can’t fit it in before breakfast, I’d strongly encourage you to try to squeeze in some extra one-on-one snuggle time after school or in early evening some time.
Breakfast Book Club
This one is my husband and oldest son’s ritual. But I have to share it because my five year old looks forward to it so much. After he’s done snuggling with me, he goes on to breakfast. While he’s eating, my husband reads from whatever chapter book they’re reading together at the time. (Usually it’s an Astrid Lindgren tale! They’re both a bit Sweden obsessed, so Pippi is a favorite around here.) This time is pretty sacred for my son. On the few occasions where daddy’s been out of town for conferences, he is very concerned that I won’t be able to read to him during breakfast. (I do.) He loves getting to have a special time with dad, and it’s never a bad thing when a kid is into a book, right?
Morning Walk
With my younger boys, I’ve been trying my best to stay regular with a morning walk. Sometimes I feel like I don’t do a great job focusing on them for significant amounts of time when we are hanging at the house. I of course play with them, read, etc. But there’s always something to be done from housework to work-work (I teach part-time) to just wanting a minute of my own. When we’re on our walk though, we are free from distractions. We can play games like color spotting, bird/squirrel watching, or my three year old’s favorite – leaf or rock gathering. On days we don’t get out for our morning walk, I can definitely tell that the boys are more needy, clingy, and whiny. This works double duty for me too because I get a little bit of exercise guaranteed!
Physical Touch
I feel like with kids especially, this one is easy for a lot of us. In my experience, small children will often initiate hugs, snuggles, and physical play. For this love language, I wanted to think of a few ways outside of the normal day-to-day touch we engage in. Take cues from your kids. We have changed the way we interact with our middle child since reading the book. He used to get frustrated as we would initiate hugs/kisses etc. “I don’t like kisses!” he’d yell. He does not love unwelcome touching. We have changed from forced hugs to high-fives and hair tousles. I can tell since the change, the number of hugs and snuggles initiated by him have gone up.
What Am I Drawing? Game
This one is a favorite of my kids with their daddy. It’s quick and easy to do whether you’re sitting at home or out and about. They often play it in church (while they’re listening intently of course!) or at times when we are having to wait and be quiet or still. One of the kids will hop up in Kyle’s lap, and he draws a picture or writes a word on their back from a category they choose. I love hearing our 3 year old’s sweet voice say, “My category is …” Sometimes he comes up with some crazy stuff. It can also get pretty specific, like “tiger eating a mongoose.” So…. you want me to draw a tiger eating a mongoose then.
In any case, the big boys love this game so much that they also request at least one round of drawing on backs each night when laying down for bed. Sometimes all I want to do is get bedtime done with and go relax. But I realize how important it is for me to take a few extra minutes to draw a little picture and spend some extra time with them.
The Dab Hug
This is another one of my husband’s “games.” It sounds silly because it is. Instead of just tackling a kid for a hug, he engages in a “dab hug.” It’s where he pretends like he’s going to force a kid to hug him, and then dabs at the last second. If you don’t know what “dabbing” is, allow me to share with you a dabbing cat shirt. Animal dabbing is the best kind of dabbing (other than my 5 yr old’s dabbing. That’s pretty entertaining!) According to my husband, dab hugging always results in actual hugging. And giggles.
Dab Cat Shirt at Target
Words of Affirmation
I feel like I’m a pretty good verbal communicator with my kids. I do my best to orally praise them each time I’m proud or pleased. People have given me parenting advice like, “Don’t praise a kid for something they’re supposed to do anyway.” But I don’t follow that advice. I 100% believe that my kids need to hear that I’m happy with them when I’m happy with them. Otherwise, they may not be perceptive enough to pick up on the fact that I notice or approve of their behavior. Seriously, kids are oblivious. So I go out of my way to give them positive verbal reinforcement. I was struggled to find a way to improve in this category. What else should I be doing?
Write a Note
I have Facebook friends who have posted sweet notes that they have gotten from their kids that were written at school. I must admit, I had some jealousy because it seemed like everyone’s kids but mine write their parents sweet notes. One time I got one, but it came with a disclaimer: “Oh yeah, we had to write that.” I’d decided that maybe that just wasn’t my kid’s jam. One day I wrote him a lunchbox note. Nothing fancy, just an, “I love you, have a great day!” note. And I wrote a few more. Dad wrote a few Swedish notes.
I cannot verify that this was a catalyst for change. But I can tell you that I have gotten many, many notes this semester. Maybe he just decided to start writing. Maybe his daddy told him he’d better start writing mama love notes. Then again, maybe he realized that this is a way to express to someone that you’re thinking about them. Be the change you want to see, folks!
Acts of Service
In a relationship, acts of service are intended to be things that you do to intentionally lighten your partner’s load or to, well, serve them. It could be as simple as taking on one of their “regular” chores one day. With kids, it feels like literally my entire life is an act of service to them. I mean, if wiping someone’s hiney on the daily isn’t an act of service, what is? For this love language I wanted to think of things I was basically already doing, but that I could just modify in my delivery to be presented in a loving way.
Favorite Dinner Thursday
I am the cook for dinner more often than not. I do like cooking, but in my opinion it is already an act of service for the family. I’ve decided to instate Favorite Dinner Thursdays, which is exactly what it sounds like. I’m going to rotate and have a different family member choose a favorite for Thursday dinner each week. I have a feeling I’m going to end up with a lot of meatloaf and pork chops, but lucky for me – I like those things. It might not sound like much, but this is a way that I can turn cooking dinner into an intentional way to serve each of them individually. I make their favorite dinners pretty often anyway, but this way it’ll turn it into a special event “just for them.”
Public Service Announcement
This one is, again, Kyle’s brainchild. He has begun announcing whenever he picks something up for one of the kids. Not in like a weird way like Dennis Quaid on Ellen, “Dennis Quaid is here!” Just in a way that says, hey – I’m doing this for you so that you don’t have to. Our oldest constantly leaves his backpack and coat in the middle of the kitchen after school. Almost always, he’s responsible for coming back to hang it up.
But sometimes you clean up after your kids anyway. Instead of just putting it away unnoticed, Kyle will say, “Hey, I’m going to go ahead and put this up for you!” A service that would’ve gone unnoticed can now be appreciated. (This is also nice for the parents – a bit of appreciation goes a long way!) Note: this doesn’t work if you are sounding annoyed about it. It takes a bit of a mindset shift from viewing it as picking up their junk again to seeing it as speaking in love languages.
Mindful Responses
I don’t expect that any of these suggestions were ground breaking or novel ideas. The point of the love languages theory is that you are mindful of how you are expressing yourself. You probably already do many of these things. We have not made any huge changes. But being mindful of the ways we express ourselves has definitely made a difference in our relationships with our kids. Knowing specifically what the boys need from us has made us better parents. And if you weren’t able to pick up on it from this post, my kids have a great dad!
Speaking Their Love Languages
As the boys get bigger, they will each develop a preferred love language. I have some guesses as to what the older two boys’ will be, but I’m interested to see how it plays out! That doesn’t mean we will quit trying to fulfill all five, but there will be one that takes precedence.
Have you read about love languages before? If you’ve applied the theory to your children, what have your results been like? If not, what do you plan to tweak to start regularly hitting all five?
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Halloween Party Food
When I was prepping for my middle man’s Halloween Birthday bash I searched a lot of Halloween party ideas on Pinterest and Google. If you do the same, you’ll find that there are several different types of Halloween party. One of those is the nasty/gross type. My son loves Halloween, but Halloween to him is about fun ghosts and pumpkins – not gross gory weird stuff! Maybe that’s why I have not really ever been into Halloween.
I haaaaate the gross stuff. Like a lot. But helping him celebrate the holiday 365 has reminded me that it does not have to be disgusting or even scary (though we do like stuff to be a little bit “spooky”). There is a lot about Halloween that is just fun and silly. So these Halloween food ideas are a small sample of the fun and silly side of Halloween, all approved by the 3 year old man of the hour for his Halloween birthday party.
Prep Ahead!
Some of the foods here are special treats that require preparation ahead of time. Others are literally foods you dump out and set a label on. My kids love coming up with silly names for regular foods for their parties – and I’m not complaining because that’s one less thing I have to make. I like to have fun foods for any party, but I hate when I’m in the kitchen after everything has started still trying to get everything ready. We’ll get started with the ones that require a bit of prep ahead of time – and then finish up with the dump and go! I’ll share my food labels too at the end of the post, so if you want to print those off for use at your party feel free!
Before Party Day:
We were able to knock out several of the food items before party day. Which was super helpful because I had to clean my house (ish) on party day and make big boy’s cake the day before, so I did not have time to be making a bunch of stuff.
Eyeball Bites –
AKA Cake mix cookies with eyeball sprinkles. These bad boys were a party hit with the kids. There were one or two left, and my children argued over who would get the last eyeball. (They split it, and I got another sprinkle from the cabinet. Because I had them, and why not.) These were made the afternoon before the party and stored in a plastic container overnight. I had never made cake mix cookies before, but they are like crazy easy. If you are needing colored cookies, I would definitely recommend these over sitting there squeezing in dye to your mix. I used this mix:
And I must admit it was a little weird when the “Vibrant Green” cake mix came out blue. Where is the yellow?! We need green! Anyway the most popular cake mix cookie recipe on the Internet (no stats to back this up, it’s the first one when you search Google) calls for 2 eggs and 1/2 cup oil. So I dumped in 1/2 cup of oil. Then I had the thought… “That was not a lot of cake mix…” Turns out these tiny packages are NOT 18.25 oz standard cake mixes. More like 9. Soooo I now had double the oil in my mix.
We did not have another mix, I’d already poured in 1/2 cup, so I figured it was worth 1 egg to try and salvage this stuff. So I carefully spooned out 1/4 cup of now green oil and just tried my best to not get too many cake mix bits out too. In went the egg, and I mixed ’em up, scooped ’em out, and baked at 350 for about 5-7 minutes. I did some with the “eyeball” before baking, some I stuck it on after – because there’s no info out there about when to add the eyeball to your cookie, and I didn’t know. Turns out I liked the “add the eyeball before” cookies better. The boys loved them.
Monster Spit
AKA Water. My 5 year old was super excited about his “Wartortle Water” at his Pokemon party, and really wanted to name the water for his brother’s party. We came up with Monster Spit (though later my husband said he thought Monster Slobber was better… but it was too late.) I had the labels printed off on cardstock, cut them into strips, then my awesome husband put them on the water bottles with clear packing tape.
We didn’t even bother to remove the original bottle labels beforehand, because it honestly seemed pointless. I want my kids’ parties to be great, but I’m not trying to spend 3 hours replacing labels on water bottles. We have not tried this method with bottles in a cooler, so I don’t know if the ink would bleed from the melting ice or not. They hold up really well in the fridge though! Scroll to the bottom of the post for the printable water label if you like!
Spooky Ghosts
AKA String Cheese. My son loves string cheese, so when I came across this idea I knew we had to have it. These were so easy. I used a sharpie, and drew on some circle ghost faces. Hardest part of these was just tearing apart the cheese sticks and praying that the tear wouldn’t go crazy and accidentally open them!
Jack-O-Lanterns
AKA Mandarin Oranges. Do y’all love these as much as we do? I get frustrated when I accidentally pick up a bag that are not the easy peel ones, and even the easy peel ones I have to peel for my kids, but when these are good, they’re good. This one was also a simple draw-on. I used a food writer instead of a sharpie because I wasn’t sure how permeable an orange peel was. These stumped a dad at the party for a minute! He said he had to do a double take to figure out what I was serving!
Worm Food
AKA Pudding with Oreos and Gummy worms. This was just a classic dirt-and-worms dessert scooped into cups! One of my all time favorite desserts. Mix chocolate pudding (according to package) and incorporate with a package of cream cheese that has been beaten with 1/2 cup of sugar. Fold in a container of Cool Whip, and the pudding is done! The ‘dirt’ is just Oreos that have gone through the chopper. I did wait until party day to top the pudding with the dirt and worms.
On Party Day
These are the things I did on the day of the party. Nearly all of them were “dump and go.”
Mummies
AKA Hotdogs wrapped in crescent rolls! I opened a can of crescents, pressed the perforated edges closed, then cut little strips with a pizza cutter. After that I took the strips, wrapped one per hotdog, and baked according to the crescent roll package. These were more of a hit than I could have imagined at the party. The kids loved this one!!
Creepy Carrots
AKA Carrots, Cauliflower, and Broccoli. This one was for the non-junk eaters (yes we have those!) It was super easy to do, and I used olives for the jack-o-lantern features. Done in a flash. We almost always have a veggie tray anyway, so it was crazy easy to just dump them in a pumpkin shape.
Zombie Eyes
AKA Grapes. That’s right. I just poured some grapes on a plate. The sign did the work.
And last but not least,
Pumpkin Skins
AKA Nacho Cheese Doritos. My 5 year old came up with this one and was so proud. I loved it. Another dump and go item with a clever name.
The Cake
My son requested a “pumpkin with sprinkles” for his birthday cake, so I delivered on that. This cake was incredibly easy to do. Read more here about how I put it together!
The food for your party does not have to be 100% homebaked and difficult. Planning a party is hard work, especially if it’s at your house that you’re trying to clean too! Feel free to use my food labels for personal use only! Hopefully they can make your party planning a little bit easier!
