Katrina: A Fun Mother's Day

When I think about Mother's Day, I think about how grateful I am to be a mother.  I think about how grateful I am for my mother and all she has and still does for me.  I think about how grateful I am for my mother-in-law and the wonderful job she did raising her wonderful son (my husband).  I think about my grandmothers and the good lessons they have taught me and the great job they did raising my dad and mom.  I think about the mothers I know that have lost a child or suffered other hardships with their children.  I think about the women I know that long to be a mother, and have not yet had the opportunity.

I think about my brother, on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Brazil, who will get to call home on this special day called Mother's Day.  I think about the many memories I have of celebrating Mother's Day for my Mom growing up.  I think about the past few years where I have gotten to celebrate being a mother, and feeling appreciated (not that I don't feel appreciated other days :).

So, to keep my status as the least creative poster/contributor to this blog, I don't actually have a craft to show you, but I came up with an idea, that I would love to do on Mother's Day that I think would be fun for my children as well.  This isn't necessarily an original idea, but I've never done it on Mother's Day before so that makes it original, right?  I don't know. :)  I also happen to be one of those people who think and think and stress and think about what to give as a gift, and I love surprises.  So I am not posting what I am giving my mother for Mother's Day because I want it to be a surprise.  Or I can't decide what to give her :)

 So, here's my amazing idea.  This year, I know what my present is going to be.  And I was thinking, well, if I can't be surprised by my gift, maybe I can be surprised as to where my gift is!  So, drum roll... let's do a scavenger hunt (aka treasure hunt)!  This is perfect for my family because it would create a fun memory on Mother's Day, and everybody would have fun.  Either the kids could help Dad make the clues and hide the present, or Dad could just do it all and then Mom and the kids have to search for the treasure!

You could do an all out amazing, long treasure hunt, or keep it really simple.  We did one here and it was a very simple one, indoors, because of rain.  But feel free to go outside if weather permits!

Here's what I did:

If you haven't figured out already, my crafting supplies are very limited at this point.  So all you need is 2 pieces of paper, scissors, markers or colored pencils or other drawing tool you want, and a treat/treasure/mother's day present.

Fold the papers so that each piece has four sections, or however many you want.  Then cut on the fold lines.

 Draw amazing sketches of where you will be hiding the clues like this one below.  Hide the clues that will eventually lead to the treasure!  If your kids can read, then you can use words instead if you want.

Give the kids the first clue and let them study it and figure it out!

They will be very excited when the figure out what the clue is!  Sometimes it will take a while if your sketches are as amazing as mine.

When they get to the treasure, they will be so excited!  They will want to eat their treat instead of their lunch!

If you try this activity on Mother's day, you won't be disappointed!  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mothers out there!

Katrina