Treasure for Grown-ups

[crockpotcauldron]

I managed the treasure hunt for my dad in the nick of time - the last day my twin and the kiddo were there, and the moment the hunt was over they had to go home and pack for the flight. The kiddo and I had a lot of last minute fun doing the setup - burying a mint tin in the patch of pine trees, drawing letters on the bottom of soda cans, making a soda tab necklace, blowing up jellyfish balloons, swimming to the patch of sea grass and dropping a bottle tied to a weight, hiding walnuts among the gnomes. All in giggly top secret spy fashion, of course. She ran around with my dad as he solved the clues, I have a lot of great photos of them. She shot me sly conspiratorial looks every time he solved a puzzle.

God, I am exhausted. I have been working hard for what, a week? Coming up with the puzzles, crafting them in secret, and then staying up late to do a last minute drawstring bag because I didn't have a proper prize. Then I had to gallop up and down stairs, dig a hole in hard ground with a pickaxe, stand on chairs to hang balloons, carry lead weights around, and go back and forth over the terrain planting clues as quickly as possible without being noticed. And then do it a second time with my dad, taking photos and giving gentle nudges. At one point, he needed his reading glasses, which had been swept into the sea and lost a lens. That wasn't part of the puzzle, but we had to fix it anyway. The hunt ran about an hour and twenty, judging from the time stamps on my photos. I didn't get any shots of the setup, because I was in a hurry, but that also probably took over an hour, and I was soaked with sweat by the time it was ready.

He had a wonderful time. The kiddo did too.

I've taken a lot of notes for next time.

Comments

[which_chick]

The treasure hunts sound like a great deal of fun! It's the kind of thing I would probably enjoy making but I don't have people who would play along for the treasure-hunting part. *sigh* My people are kinda resolutely practical without much of a side for whimsy.

[crockpotcauldron]

Whimsy tends to be more abundant in kids, if your friends have any of those around the place. The kiddo loved her hunt, and also loved making weird crafts for the hunt, and we had a lot of good bonding time. (The jellyfish balloons were a huge hit, rated as way cooler than the paper jellyfish craft she got to do at school.)

LiEr at ikatbag.com has a bunch of great posts about the themed parties and scavenger hunts she throws for her kids, and the various crafts and activities involved. I really like her stuff, it's a great mix of creativity and practicality. You really do learn a lot from experience.