- Decide how many stops you want your kids to make. I had 19.
- Gather one more plastic egg than you have stops, so in my example, I had 20.
- Think if 20 places to hide the eggs AND 20 riddles.
- For example, I used 'a place in the house that is not good for a mouse' and the egg was hidden in the basement by a mouse trap that thankfully, did NOT catch a mouse while we slept Easter-eve. Another example, 'this is an indoor place where you would not want to put your face'. The egg was hidden by the potty. Be creative and use stuff in your hard.
- Write out the clues #1 - #10 and stuff each egg with a slip of paper that contains the riddle.
- MAKE YOURSELF A KEY!!!! I can't emphasize this enough. You will forget what riddles are next, where all the eggs are hidden and some of the hiding places. Make a key.
- In some of the eggs you can shove some candy in with the riddle.
- Now hide your eggs and this is the second point I will be a pushy woman about because I boogered this up. Please learn from my mistakes. CLUE #1 will be placed on the childs chest, next to them in bed, on a dresser or somewhere where they will happen to find it. Then they will proceed to the next clue....I boogered up and put the clue in the place where they were to find the next egg and had to gather all 19 eggs and start completely over. It was late and dark and I was tired.
- The treasure map was easier. Take a piece of paper and with colored pencils make a rough, ugly sketch of your back yard. Include some of your landmarks, for example we had our strawberry patch, trampoline, buddy's dog house etc on there for perspectives sake.
- X will mark your spot where the treasure is. The treasure in our case was in the trunk of the car. Treasure included a volley ball net, beach ball, bases for b-ball, candy and swimsuits
- Dunk a tea bag in some warm h2o and get it all browned in color and dot your paper with the teabag. Be careful you do not over dunk and smear up the map. They have to be able to see the red X.
- Wad the map up and leavec to dry overnight. Next day, take the map and flatten it out, now tear it into pieces. I did like 10 or so pieces ensuring I ripped the X in 1/2 so they did not get a single piece and then just run to the treasure forgetting the rest of the eggs.
- Hide the map pieces in with the eggs and clues. The last map piece should be in the final egg located so they don't again, abandon any unneeded eggs.
- They must put the map together and find their treasure.
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| The Map - Notice the X |
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| The clue was 'a place where a new plant lives' |
Coming soon, The Great Easter Treasure Hunt with a plan, a map, riddle, gifts and a TON of Easter FUN!
This idea was dreamed up one day sitting at work pondering what to do for
NYE. I have never really been a huge fan of leaving the house over the holiday.
I never like braving the weather, it’s always so cold and usually there’s the
battle of the snow/crystal covered windows in the car, the cold car..bleck. I’d
rather stay home and….watch the ball in NYC drop?? Equally boring. If necessity
is the mother of invention, then boredom spat our creative events. Hence,
Brunner Palooza.
What you’ll need is as follows:
- An invitation for your family – I invited the people who live in my home. Weird, right? The kids LOVED getting a note from mom about a party
- A Food Menu – We went buffet style offering Tacos, Nachos, Steak and Chicken ka-bobs, grilled cheese and cake (the family has input here as well). I also made a Hawaiian Punch/Sierra Mist punch and served just after ‘our’ midnight passed.
- An Entertainment Menu – What are you going to do with your time???
The Invite: I found the invite as a template in Microsoft Word. I
edited to suit myself and here’s how it turned out.
The Food: as mentioned above, get an idea from the family of what
they want. You can do a sit down meal but buffets are exciting for the Brunner
peeps so I pretended to just need some ideas
The Entertainment: We had 3 events and had a blast with them
all.
Event #1
We made a sign to hang in the house to announce (to all who lived there and
already know) that we are having a party and it’s called Brunner Palooza. Here
is a picture of it. Hit the dollar store and buy this fun stuff for CHEAP CHEAP
CHEAP!!!!
We danced poorly and awkwardly to Dance Party 3 on the Wii. Those pictures
are in a classified file. J
This event was a little more complex and took more planning. We did a
balloon toss. Two days before (more dollar store items) I purchased several
packages of balloons and garbage bags. I asked the kids to help me blow up the
balloons and bag them. The fun part to this was it was KILLING them to not know
my intent with this mess. They complied and we came up with about 100 various
shaped balloons. After they were bagged I let them sit out in our living room
just to taunt them. I know, BAD MOM!!
Day of event, just as you are ready to ring in your midnight, set
out a king sized, flat bed sheet. GINGERLY dump the balloons on to the sheet.
My kids had trouble not plowing through them and making a scattered mess, but I
kept telling them it would ruin our surprise if they did that. They mostly
complied. Each person grab a corner and count backward from 10. At HAPPY NEW
YEAR toss the balloons and trash your living room. I’ve seen joy on people’s
faces before and not only did my kids think I was the coolest mom ever for
allowing this but the sheer joy on their faces. It’s like when they see a
rainbow or a big bubble or a stray balloon in the sky…they just look at it with
wonder and excitement. It was neat.
Totally worth it. Now they want a part of sorts for every little thing that
takes place I our home. I’m sure there will be more posts similar to this. Got
any ideas or feedback on this? If you did something wonderful, fun and creative
I’d really enjoy hearing about it (and possibly using)…..Happy Saturday.
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