an evening on a waterfront park

Last night the girls and I headed out to find some more letter boxes. We drove to a neighboring town to hunt down some in a library and on a water front park. One of the things that I love the most about letterboxing is that it takes us to place that we wouldn't seek out on our own. It was a beautiful evening and by the water somehow the humidity isn't as terrible. If the sun hadn't been going down we could have stayed for hours. Since blogging is my new form of scrapbooking, I will include lots of pictures again.

Letterboxing 101

I have told you before about our family hobby of letterboxing. I wanted to share with all those newbies out there what our letterboxing bag has in it. (I am in the process of planning a LB event for some local homeschool families and wanted to send them this way for ideas of how to get started on this activity).

Here is a peak into our bag. We use a mini back pack that we had. As you can see it can hold a lot of essentials. I always have our logbooks, ink pad and or markers, garden gloves, bug spray, compass, pen/pencil, our stamp (in the small green pouch) and paper towel or wet wipe (not pictured). We usually take water too (depending on how long the hike is).

Our bag is always packed and ready to go. We print our clues from atlasquest or letterboxing north america and bring those along with us. We search out the location to see if there are more than one LB hidden at each park or trail. We would hate to walk right past one and miss it. =)

When we started out on this journey we carved our stamp out of a pink pearl eraser. All we had was an exacto knife to cut out the design. We are still using the same stamp. **NOT an activity for kids if you are carving with an exacto knife.** I have, since then, ordered the speedball carving kit (about $12) and have used it a lot. But it is not necessary to invest in those kind of supplies. You can even carve a stamp out of foam (good idea for kids). The instructions for carving a stamp without the tools is here. You don't even have to carve your own stamp, you can used a store bought one.One of the first things you will need to do is choose a trail name. Something that represents you and that you can sign into the logbooks that isn't your real name. Ours is 3 Ps in a Pod. And our stamp is a peapod with 3 peas in it. Don't fret over a name, just choose something that you like. Remember you will sign in with that name when you find a box.

We have been LB about a year now and just completed our first log book of stamps. I get mine at Hobby Lobby or you can order it online here. Any notebook will do. I like ones without lines so the images show up well. We each have one (kids and I) but one would also work for the whole family if that is what you prefer. You can also make your own if you are feeling creative (here are some ideas)

I have recently found a great site that has lots of links to helpful tips. Check it out the get familiar with this fun hobby. HERE Hope this doesn't overwhelm you but I hope it inspires you to get started. Click here to follow some of our adventures of letterboxing. Let me know how I can help, ask me questions and I can help you get started.

Birthday weekend highlights

We had a nice little party for Tissy on Saturday. She wanted to have an American Girl doll party.

We invited a few friends to come and bring their dolls for the Doll Mall. I set up stations all over the house for the girls to play at with their dolls. Walk-in clinic, pet shop, pizza shop, beauty salon, book store... you get the idea. And the kids just played at each station. The hit was the beauty shop where I gave the dolls new hair-dos. Just for the record, this is the easiest party to have. I have done it before with bears for a teddy bear picnic. I find that kids really just want to play with your toys at parties and not do organized activities. Half the fun for my kids is setting up the party and making the little centers around the house.

Tissy is not a big fan of sweets (you can tell by how skinny she is!) so she doesn't like birthday cake. We got her a cookie cake from the cookie shop at the mall instead. Yum.











Tissy's favorite food is pancakes. We went to a nearby park that has a old mill restaurant that serves pancakes. The griddle is built into the table and you make them yourself. This place is pretty popular and the wait for a table is about 2 hours. Chuck and I enjoyed our flapjacks with blueberries and they tasted great with maple syrup.

























You may wonder what we did while we waited our 2 hours for a table... why we went letterboxing of course. I can't stress again what a fun family hobby this is. I blogged about it awhile back. (here) This park has a few boxes, and we were lucky enough to find one. It is always the thrill to succeed in the hunt.

Letterboxing

This has quickly become a favorite family hobby. LETTERBOXING. We started early this summer and have really enjoyed it. If you are unfamiliar with it read this short article in Family Fun Magazine. http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/ff0906-letterboxing/

We love that it takes us to new places. We have enjoyed being out doors and exploring nature. I use http://letterboxing.org/ and http://www.atlasquest.com/ to find the boxes we are looking for. We have even planted some boxes.

This was a micro or mini box made out of a film canister. Most are in small Rubbermaid type of containers. This box was attached to the side of a railing. Most boxes are hidden under branches or leaves.

After you find the box you "trade" stamps and journal a bit about your time.

When we solve the clues and find the box and finish the task...we feel pretty proud. There have been a few times that we failed and didn't find the box.