Vacation Jar

I love Martha Stewart. I really love browsing her website for fun party ideas and what not... then I came across her vacation jars seen here.
This past week we went to Ohio for our first little family vacation.
Now you are probably thinking... Ohio? Really? What is in Ohio?

So here's the quick story why we chose Ohio.
We live in Illinois and wanted our first vacation to be somewhere we could drive to... Since Maddux is only 18 months... we wanted something close... and somewhere we could just spend a few days at... doing things that would interest him.
So I googled... and came down to a few choices... St. Louis, Indianapolis, or Cincinnati.

Now all of these spots had high rated zoos and children's museums. Indianapolis... I believe has one of the best Children's Museums in the country. But their museum is more centered around older kids... and so is St Louis.
Cincinnati had a museum that was said AMAZING for toddlers.... they had a zoo... and an aquarium. So with that... we thought this would work best for us... plus we had never been to Cincinnati... so it was exciting to go somewhere we have never been.

Well the reviews were right. The museum was AWESOME. And to be honest... he was still a little too small for probably half the stuff they had to offer... but there was so much stuff he could do... He LOVED it.
The zoo was awesome... They have someone at almost every animal station there to teach the kids about the animal... How much kids can learn there was unreal. My husband kept getting sucked into the animal lessons being put on... he was probably more amazed than some of the kids. And the aquarium was Amazing for all of us. They had so many sharks... and tunnels to go through.. and the animals came right up to the window. Especially the penguins.....

We also went to the ballpark to watch a Reds game. Seeing a game at every ballpark is on our bucket list... so we decided to check off Cincinnati :)

But back to the jar.

I also love this idea because kids... all kids are obsessed with souvenirs... and I am well aware that my kid is still going to want the ridiculous dinosaur head that costs 20 bucks... that I will know is a waste of money because he wont ever play with it. (but we will deal with that as it comes) but I thought this will also be a great little game for us.... to find something in the gift shops to add to our family vacation jars... in a few years he will be old enough to help look... and I think this little tradition will be fun for all of us.

I am hoping to always do jars... in different sizes on every trip we take.... no matter how big or small... and maybe in our office... have a book shelf filled with jars of memories...

Now what we put in our jar this time.
ticket stubs from all four places: zoo, aquarium, museum, game
small souvenirs: tiny animal figurines from the zoo, arrowhead & patch & mineral rock & souvenir penny from the museum, shark teeth from the aquarium.



So we took these... placed them in the jar...
added the Cincinnati Skyline thanks to Silhouette...
I still want to add a tag with the dates of our vacation to hang off the ribbon. But I don't have any around at the moment... so use your imagination what it will look like once I do it ;)

And here is our Cincinnati Vacation jar.
I'm still playing around with the fabric on the top. I think I am going to get a map of Cincinnati... then cut it out and modge podge it to the top instead... and add my tag... hmmm that would probably be better.

But I just love imagining shelves filled with bottled up memories.... of all different shapes and sizes :)

219. Summer Vacations no matter how big or how small

220. Natural highlights from the sun

221. Garage Sales

222. Fresh fruit at summer picnics

223. Maddux dancing to the radio in the car

224. Decorating with memories