Paper Bag Baskets

My sister and I are always amazed by the amount of collecting our children are doing at this age. For the most part, it's adorable. Watching the kids find "treasures" (a mis-shapen rock) and "true treasures" (a pink shell) is so much fun.

We love to go on "treasure hunts" with them. It's amazing to see that to each child, a treasure is something so completely different than the other. The girls may go looking for flowers and leaves, the boys bugs and rocks. More often than not not, they switch it up and surprise us with a new discovery.

The funny thing is, they always want us "mommies" to stuff ALL of their treasures into our pockets. We usually oblige, but sometimes, you just don't want a squishy muddy thing in the pocket of your nice clean shorts. On a recent treasure hunt, my daughter insisted on shoving acorns in my pockets. I had to try very hard to live in the moment and not think of all the little weevils and teeny bugs crawling around inside my pocket.

I decided for our next get together, I would have them make their own little treasure baskets. No need to stuff our pockets -- now they could stuff their own baskets!

I found this cute paper bag tutorial on marthastewart.com.

Materials:
Brown paper lunch bags
Scissors
Tape

Draw a T shape on the paper bag.

Have kids cut around the T. Draw little x's where you want the children to stop with their scissors.