Treasure Hunt

We went on a treasure hunt today.  It was a special day, prepared by my children, my husband, and me for several weeks now.  My in-laws had prepared for this day for several weeks, starting with a hand-made invitation of the "real" kind which we recieved in the mail.   It listed the day, time, and location and requested that we RSVP if we could make it via their phone number.

We showed the invitation to the children and called to accept and then today, at two-thirty on the dot, we left to meet them.   We had to be there on time because the treasure hunt was in a park on and around a path around a lake.  We arrived, donned masks and applied bug spray, and then followed my in-laws to the bridge going over the creek at the entrance to the walking path from the parking lot.  

We each had a job with the children being seekers and finders.   My husband would be reading the clues as we found them, directing us to the next step of the treasure hunt.   Because the event was happening in a public park, the clues were on pieces of laminated paper to protect them from the rain.   The treasures were three golden rocks, which we would find as we progressed through the adventure of the hunt. 

My son was loving it as we found the first two clues.   He eagerly bounded ahead and went to the locations to see if he could spy the small piece of paper before being told the specific details of the location.   And this annoyed my daughter.   She was angry, petulant, whiny, and just unhappy about everything.   There was a good underlying psychological reason for this as evidenced by the single line she said: "I wish I wasn't blind so I could find the clues before Greyson does."

So we took stock of the situation and revamped the rules: my husband and son would look for one of the clues and then my daughter and I would look for the next clue.   There were three special prizes hidden along the way, which turned out to be rocks my mother-in-law had painted in the most beautiful shade of coppery gold.   It just happened to be my favorite color of late because it matches my favorite 3D printing filament because it just makes any model printed in it look fabulous.  

My son would still run ahead, which still bothered his sister, but my husband got smart and didn't read the full clue until we got to the location to search.   That solved a lot of the complaining part on my daughter's side.   I also did some running ahead with her, in the hopes that would make her feel better about not being in the lead some of the time. 

One of the stops was to each take a turn skipping rocks into the lake.   My in-laws had brought special skipping rocks to the lake and had left them there for us to find.   What a fun surprise to find rocks just for us to skip.

After finding the last painted rock, which was a "luck" find with me being the one who spied it first, we went back to the house for prizes.   Everyone got a prize and we even had a prize for the whole family (a bag of mini KitKat's).  I think I got the best prize of two pairs of socks that said Wheaton Terrier on them with a picture of a dog that looked like our dog.   I'm looking forward to cooler weather so I can wear them. 

We had appetizers and dinner and then special ice cream pie my mother-in-law made with three flavors of ice cream in it including peppermint ice cream which she made herself.  Thank you so much to Nana and Papa for making what has to be one of the most creative treasure hunts I've ever been on.   Next up: we're going to make a treasure hunt here for Nana and Papa.   I'm going to see what ideas the children come up with and we'll see what surprises we want to have them find.   It's fun to be in a treasure hunt, but I bet the children will have fun making up one for their grandparents just as much. 

The Big Boy Update:  Morgan sent me this yesterday with a message that my son said this a few years ago and she'd forgotten to tell me about it.   It is so my son...

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been helping me with some 3D printed braille puzzles we're going to send to her school for some of the other VI students.  She's done the puzzles herself as I've gotten through printing them and now, we're going to pass them on.   Because there is some tetchiness to 3D printing and I'm still learning the best settings based on the model and filament I'm using, there have been some adjustments to the models as they've completed printing.  Today, I had my daughter check them each over and make sure connections weren't too loose or too tight so I could make adjustments by filing away material or adding in additional material with a 3D printing pen that adds bits of melted filament where needed.   She checked that all the braille dots and letters were readable and then told me if it got her, "seal of approval" as she told me.   After doing the puzzles only twice, I was able to give her three at a time, pieces all jumbled together, and she could quickly figure them out.   It's been the better part of a week printing twenty-seven alphabet braille puzzles, but my daughter is ready for another challenge now so we'll pass them on to the school and after being quarantined for a bit, they can hopefully be shared with other students.  Here are what some of the puzzles look like: