It's official...

We are done with diapers!

Another one of my less brilliant ideas...

This is what I spent my ENTIRE day doing:


You see, the Deschutes County Fair is next week (anyone want to go with us?). The kids love to go, and it is a fun day, but it gets expensive paying for 5 kids + myself to get into the fair, if we get hungry $$$, if we can't walk by the carnival rides without the kids noticing $$$... you get the idea. So, I realized last year that if the kids enter an art project into the fair displays they get a wrist band that gets them in free. I thought it would be so easy - they could spend some time creating something beautiful and I would glue it onto poster board and they would get their wrist bands. Why do I always underestimate the time and energy (and patience) it takes to have 4 kids doing art projects especially the one child who is all Earnest in his perfectionism???

Letterboxing

I received a couple of e-mails about letterboxing several months ago so when summer came, the kids and I decided to give it a try and have an adventure. Letterboxing is similar to geocaching without the GPS system. There is a website on which people post directions to the letterboxes they have hidden. Inside these boxes are a log book and a rubber stamp. Following the directions and armed with your own log book and rubber stamp you set off on a hike. When you locate the well-hidden letterbox you stamp your rubber stamp into the log book and stamp your log book with the rubber stamp in the box, then hide the box back where you found it. I know it doesn't sound too exciting, but to the kids it was like a treasure hunt. So I looked up some letterboxes in our area and the kids and I set off in search of treasure.


The first time we tried letterboxing we failed to find the box, but we did find a furry caterpillar and a scorpion. I really didn't feel like the outing was a failure - the kids had fun, got some exercise, and found some fascinating creatures.


So after doing some research, I located some more recently placed letterboxes and we set off again. We hiked through the Redmond Dry Canyon and found 3 letterboxes! It was very exciting especially because these boxes were placed by friends Quinn went to preschool with.



The girls stamped and recorded their success.


Jonas didn't have his own log book, so he improvised.


If you are interested in a treasure hunt of your own, check out the website (www.letterboxing.org). They are all over North America (but not Korea :( - sorry Annee & family). I don't want to sound like an advertisement - just wanted to share a fun activity for summer with all of you!