Rock On

Have you heard of this? This is sooo cool!!!

So, I’m strolling through a garden in my town and I look down and see this pretty little flower rock.  When I flip the rock over there is a message to go to a Facebook page.  When I get to the page I see all sorts of people hiding and finding rocks throughout my community. People post photos of the rocks they painted and then they go hide them all over town like an Easter egg hunt. The person who finds the rock then goes to the Facebook page and posts a photo of where they found a particular rock.  This way the painter can follow where their rock travels to.

Let’s talk about all the positives.

First, I can’t tell you how excited I was to find a little piece of treasure and I’m a grown-up!  Through this activity you are anticipating making random strangers happy which is a great small lesson in selflessness.  Next, it’s creative and free!  What??? Creative and free?   Who knew you could spend hours at a table chatting with loved ones and decorating with little to no cost?  Brilliant People! Finally, the entire activity is madly addicting.  The painting, the hiding, the finding and the checking in on the local rock page are just too fun to stop!

Now consider this.  I am vacationing on a little island, it’s raining and we have a house full of kids. Yep. You guessed it.  We collected buckets of rocks and got busy!

By the time the rain stopped, we had amassed 117 painted rocks and seashells.  I don’t know which part they liked better, the painting or the hiding.  We walked all over kingdom-come finding silly places to hide rocks.  My son put one in the bottom of a soda dispenser.  My daughter snuck one into a book at the library.  They rocked the ice cream parlor, window boxes, landmarks, bikes, stores, streets… It took us a good two hours.

All FREE!

It’s been a few days and we are still finding people through Facebook that are still finding our rocks.  Seeing someone smiling in a photo with the rock you painted?  PRICELESS!  I’m telling you, you have to get in on this craze. I’d imagine you can Google “painted rock hiding” in your area.  If you don’t find a community page, you need to create one!  Trust me, it’s a terrific way to spend a day :)