Mark and I took the girls to a local park for a fun “fossil” dig! Since there are no beaches near us, we settled for the park’s outdoor sand volleyball court. The girls love to dig in the sand!
Our “fossils” were made up of small toys (i.e. Happy Meal toys, game pieces, toys from the dentist, or from party goodie bags). We counted them to make sure we knew how many there were, then Mark and I buried them (partially exposed) for the girls to find. Clara was so excited to find her own treasures!
Emily used our old salad shaker to sift through the sand. That salad shaker was from when Mark and I started dating, and we would joke that we weren’t quite ready for the “salad spinner” stage of our relationship.
There were LOTS of fossils to find!
When all the fossils were found, we all took a nice long walk through the park. What a wonderful (and frugal) way to spend the afternoon!
So much fun!!
April 10th, 2010 on 7:47 pm
Great idea! I'll have to try this at the beach. My kids love to dig in the sand too.
I love the salad shaker story!
I'll have to check back later for Mark's comment.
April 10th, 2010 on 7:56 pm
@ Christy — One year my mother gave us a fancy salad spinner for Christmas. That's when we knew things were "serious"!!
April 10th, 2010 on 7:58 pm
I've been reading your posts (as well as the comments section). You two are too adorable!
April 10th, 2010 on 8:19 pm
I'm glad the only "treasures" they found were those intended
April 10th, 2010 on 8:43 pm
Dear Valerie,
The salad spinner was given to us after Emily had been born. I'm glad it wasn't too serious before then!
You also failed to mention that we never did find the 9th toy. It is someonelse's treasure now.
I'm glad that these courts were not like the one my uncle made. His cat thought she had gone to heaven.
Love,
Mark
April 10th, 2010 on 9:53 pm
Oh, I am so doing this for our finding gold activity! Perfect.
April 10th, 2010 on 10:28 pm
So fantastic!!!!
April 11th, 2010 on 12:13 am
Too funny about the salad spinner story. I like the dig idea and was thinking about doing the same. There is only one problem – our park has no sand, and digging in our small backyard sand table gets old pretty quickly.
April 11th, 2010 on 2:38 am
what a great family day! I love you blog! It inspires me a lot! thank you!
April 11th, 2010 on 12:29 pm
What fun, looks like you had a great day!
April 11th, 2010 on 10:43 pm
Great idea! My daughter and I will be at the beach next week and she loves treasure hunts! I'll have to find a few things to hide
Stacy
April 12th, 2010 on 11:55 am
What a fun activity! My son loves to dig up toys in his sandbox too!
April 12th, 2010 on 4:51 pm
@ Ticia — It would be perfect for a finding gold activity! How fun!!
April 12th, 2010 on 4:52 pm
@ Roxana — Thank you so much!! I'm so glad you stopped by!
April 12th, 2010 on 4:52 pm
@ Lindsay — It's as if digging for things never gets old, right? Too cute!
April 12th, 2010 on 6:40 pm
Love it! This weekend River got to play in a lovely sand box at his Uncle's house…wow. I think kids can play in sand for hours, and hours. When we go back we will need to hide this great fossils!