Nature Scavenger Hunt and Grass People

I had seen some nature scavenger hunts on Pinterest and I thought it would be fun to one with the kids. We decided to do it on part of the Appalachian trail.  And we met up with Jessica and her boys.  She was also babysitting 2 cute little girls that day.

It was very cloudy, very humid and had a chance of rain, but we went anyway.

 Here are all the kids that Jessica and I hiked with...

My kids were so excited!  And while we waited for Jessica and crew to show up they started finding things.

 But once we got started they kind of forgot all about the scavenger hunt part of the hike.  Jayden and Tanner took Caleb and sometimes the older girl, Brenna, and hiked way far up ahead of us.  I was not happy that my boys couldn't listen and kept going so far ahead, out of site!  I've been having a hard time getting my boys to listen to me and stay with me, very frustrating!

in the picture below, Jessica has her point and shoot camera linked to the back of her shorts, she did not sit in anything.

 Like I mentioned before, the bigger kids were way far ahead and totally forgot about the scavenger hunt.  But we stopped to look and some soft stuff growing on some rocks.

 They found a big rock they wanted to climb and discovered some spiders on top of it.

 There was a really cool tree that was burnt on the inside, but not the outside.  I had asked Dave about the burning we had seen and he said he believes they burn the brush, so it's a controlled burn.

 Cutie-Pie Mackenzie... I carried her most of the time!  I didn't want to bring the back pack because i knew she'd want to get down.  And she did get down often.

 After our hike it was raining but we still went to a park and had a picnic lunch under the pavilion.  Then we headed back to Jessica's place to make some grass people.

You can find the idea here on Family Fun's website.

Basically all you did is clean a yogurt container.  We had the kids color a paper to glue around the cup, ideally they were decorate it like a shirt.  Then you use those stocking socks, put about 1-2 teaspoons of grass seen in the toe then fill it with soil.  Tie a knot and leave the end hanging down, it will act like a wick for the water.  Then you can glue eyes on and draw a mouth.  Then put fill the cup with water and put it in.

And here are JJ's, Tanner's and Mackenzie's...