Summer Adventure Box: Ancient Egypt

Since today is the first day of summer, I thought I ought to get around to posting about this year's Summer Adventure Box. Since our local museum is hosting a special Egyptian exhibit this summer, we went with that for our theme.

I used sand and mod podge to make the top and then glued fake jewels along the edges. In my mind, this was going to look like a prop from some Vegas show. It didn't turn out exactly like that, but I still like it.

The sides have different pictures. I thought about painting this to look like it was made of stones and then painting heiroglyphics on it, but then I came to my senses when I realized how many different colors of paint I would need and how little my baby sleeps.

Of course, we have books. I know Jack will be especially excited to have our own copy of Bill and Pete.

This book has lots of different activities. I am thinking we'll open this one after vacation when the summer blahs set in.

I found these two at a new (to me) used bookstore in town. Jack had been wanting the Magic Tree House guide and he has just started reading some of the A to Z Mysteries.

At the museum gift shop last week I picked up this heiroglyphic decoder for Jack and this cute Egyptian art book for Alice.

This set from Dover was a pretty good deal on Amazon. This year's box was financed with Amazon certificates earned from our ultra-expensive 2009.

Jack found this activity kit at the museum shop earlier this summer. He has already made the pyramid bank and he's looking forward to making the mummy.

While he was looking at the kit, I found this papyrus kit.

And we have a few toys, too. This Playmobil sphinx will go along nicely with the little man he got on the last day of kindergarten.

It's kind of hard to see in the packaging, but this is a little Playmobil archaeologist.

I had also ordered this neat Egyptian headdress, but it got lost in the mail and they didn't have any more to send me. I was bummed about that, but I will probably substitute Mummy Rummy, which Kendra found for me.

Today I gave Jack a pyramid to excavate. He was working on it while I was working in the kitchen and he kept saying it was really hard. Honestly, I thought he was whining for nothing, but then I tried it. He wasn't kidding!

The treasure is still inside. My hand was hurting, I was covered in dust, and I had more chores to do before Alice woke up. I'll have to let you know later what we found.

I hope you had a wonderful first day of summer!