Girls so much more up for it than the guys!

Hi Nikki,

Yes our birthday scavenger hunt was a GREAT success. Your material gave me lots to choose from and I was grateful. I used the treasure map for the invitations and rolled them up to hand out. The list was on the treasure map and it was 8 items to look for or info to find and 8 photos to take to make memories & proof of it getting done. It was a teen girl team against teen guy team and the playing field was the city of Wichita, KS so they had a certain time to be back complete or not and the one with the most done was the winner. They all came back with wonderful stories and had lots of fun. I learned though that the guy against girl wasn't the best cause the guys were too COOL to do some of the list, but the things they did they had FUN! Whereas if they had had mixed teams the girls would have persuaded them into doing everything!!

3 of the top things they talk still about doing were:

1) Photo with policeman (extra points if he'll let you all in his car) He did but didn't thing they would all fit & they crammed in the back seat - he took the picture.:)

2) Signature of fireman (the girls took it a step farther and asked if he could bring the truck to their house for EXTRA points) they couldn't

3) the most daring (per girls) was going to get 2 balloons from some restaurant and giving one away to a kid and bring one home (this was Fri. night during busy evening meal and they went into Applebees asked for 2 balloons and went up to a family that had a girl and asked to take her picture while they were eating & the little girl was sooooo happy.

On the other hand the guys said the police they stay away from so it was crossed off their list from the start NOT to do. They like going to the mall and riding the merry go round. They also liked finding a statue to take a picture with came back with MANY statue pictures it was funny. They also didn't have a hard time finding hats & taking pictures except they were worried about messing their hair up (what's up with that!)

While planning this double birthday party it has prompted other ideas one for our leadership Christmas party at church promoting unity & working together to accomplish a task. Also I have talked with our

Coordinator who is up for the idea of a scavenger hunt during next summer's Family Reunion. Should be loads of fun.

Thanks for the great info! I am going to try to send a photo let me know if it makes it.

Dena Hudson, Kansas USA

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Scavenger hunt a huge success

Our Scavenger Hunt was a huge success! Lots of fun was had by all.

We provide this dinner once a year and always try really change things up.

I will contact you if I need your assistance again. Thank You.

Kris Vandenplas, Wisconsin, USA

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Treasure hunt sets new standard for harvest festival

Nikki

Here are some details of our successful treasure hunt.

It was for our church, at a farm, during our Fall Harvest Festival. We wanted a harvest theme, but not so much a Halloween theme. We also wanted large motor activities so small children would participate in the whole thing. And, we wanted a few team building activities since families were encouraged to sign up as a team. So, our 6 stations were:

1. Ship's Cove: each member of the team had to walk the plank looking backwards through a pair of binoculars.

2. Walleye River: each member was given a "stepping stone", and they had to get to a certain point only using the stones.

3. Spider's Web: We created a 4' x 4' spider web out of twine and attached bells. Each team picked 2 people to pass through the web without ringing the bells.

4. Hide Away Cove: We hid 15 stamps, and they had to find 10 of them and stamp a piece of paper

5. Mummy Cave: We wrapped one person in the group with Toilet Paper

6. Apple Lake: One apple per team mate needed to be bobbed. Not everyone had to bob, someone else could bob for you.

I gave everyone an envelope with their starting spots. As they completed the stations, the station judges would give them a stamp on their envelope (we had 6 station judges) and they had to be completed in the correct order.

We had 9 groups of 4-8 people

We buried 1st, 2nd and 3rd place treasures, and gave them each a map when they completed the journey. Everyone else got a glow stick when they completed.

It was great watching the families really enjoy themselves! They were running from point to point (kids dragging laughing parents) and working together to complete the tasks. They had to think and

challenge themselves a little, and we had a 100% smile-success rate. What a fantastic idea, and thank you for all your work. We'll be using it again. I think I just set a new standard at our yearly Fall

Harvest Festival. I'm already planning the next one!

Blessings,

Rebecca Walsh, USA

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Treasure hunt planner was user friendly

We had our treasure hunt Sat night. It was great. The students enjoyed it and so did the adults that were working the different stations. I was so relieved to have something already complete and ready to use. It was user friendly. We changed the font and copied it onto brown aged paper and it looked so real. We had middle school age and college age. They all enjoyed it. We had the stations set up among a pirate town and they had to go through the town to complete. We used it to eliminate the teams to two and the two completed a treasure hunt that was extra. Thank you for such a good product.

Pam Bennett, Tennessee USA

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Already on her THIRD instant treasure hunt!

My kids love the treasure hunts. I am getting ready to print out the THIRD on today!!

Michele Hippensteel, Pennsylvania USA

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Scavenger hunt a huge success

Our Scavenger Hunt was a huge success! Lots of fun was had by all.

We provide this dinner once a year and always try really change things up.

I will contact you if I need your assistance again. Thank You.

Kris Vandenplas, Wisconsin, USA

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Nikki,

Hi, this Laresa Depew. Tonight, Wednesday, I went on the site and planned the treasure hunt stuff for Thursday afternoon. It was so easy, and so much better than racking my tired brain to put one together. I can not wait to use it on Thursday. I also looked at the games and loved them. Over the weekend I will work on the magic show, for next week also. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you did. I will let you know how it went.

Laresa Depew, Missouri, USA

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Girls so much more up for it than the guys!

Hi Nikki,

Yes our birthday scavenger hunt was a GREAT success. Your material gave me lots to choose from and I was grateful. I used the treasure map for the invitations and rolled them up to hand out. The list was on the treasure map and it was 8 items to look for or info to find and 8 photos to take to make memories & proof of it getting done. It was a teen girl team against teen guy team and the playing field was the city of Wichita, KS so they had a certain time to be back complete or not and the one with the most done was the winner. They all came back with wonderful stories and had lots of fun. I learned though that the guy against girl wasn't the best cause the guys were too COOL to do some of the list, but the things they did they had FUN! Whereas if they had had mixed teams the girls would have persuaded them into doing everything!!

3 of the top things they talk still about doing were:

1) Photo with policeman (extra points if he'll let you all in his car) He did but didn't thing they would all fit & they crammed in the back seat - he took the picture.:)

2) Signature of fireman (the girls took it a step farther and asked if he could bring the truck to their house for EXTRA points) they couldn't

3) the most daring (per girls) was going to get 2 balloons from some restaurant and giving one away to a kid and bring one home (this was Fri. night during busy evening meal and they went into Applebees asked for 2 balloons and went up to a family that had a girl and asked to take her picture while they were eating & the little girl was sooooo happy.

On the other hand the guys said the police they stay away from so it was crossed off their list from the start NOT to do. They like going to the mall and riding the merry go round. They also liked finding a statue to take a picture with came back with MANY statue pictures it was funny. They also didn't have a hard time finding hats & taking pictures except they were worried about messing their hair up (what's up with that!)

While planning this double birthday party it has prompted other ideas one for our leadership Christmas party at church promoting unity & working together to accomplish a task. Also I have talked with our

Coordinator who is up for the idea of a scavenger hunt during next summer's Family Reunion. Should be loads of fun.

Thanks for the great info! I am going to try to send a photo let me know if it makes it.

Dena Hudson, Kansas USA

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Scavenger hunt is welcomed by Mall Management (eventually)

Nikki,

The party started off great until a group of the kids ran into a security guard who insisted that it was against mall policy and would not let them continue. I had already checked the mall website and code of conduct as well as spoke to some of the retail stores so that they knew what was going

on and all were ok with it. I did not call the mall office which I should have done but the stores were very open to the hunt so I saw no reason to do that as well. The security guard would not let me speak to his supervisor nor was there any mall management there on a Saturday. I gave up and took

the kids bowling but the kids loved the idea and insisted on figuring out the clues that they had not gotten to yet. I have since spoken to mall management, it was not against mall policy and they are sending out apologies to all kids involved as well as rescheduling the hunt and giving the kids gift cards and other things to help make up for the rude, stupid security guard.

Here is a list of the clues and activities that they were supposed to do. I had made a scrapbook with the clues in it for each kid and left places for the pictures that they were supposed to take during the hunt. There were 4 groups of kids and each group had the same clues for the first half of the

hunt but were all in a different order so that they would not be running into each other and such. We were meeting halfway and switching teams so that they could hang out with different kids for the second part of the hunt. The kids loved it and were very disappointed with the security guard (he is no longer employed there as well).

Your information helped me stay organized and I do appreciate it!

Thanks,

Cindi Brackins, North Carolina, USA

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Scavenger hunt to bring two families together

Our party will be a week long event held in Italy (Tuscany) during the last week of July. We have hired two large villas each for a week in close proximity to each other for our daughters wedding. As most of the guests will be travelling from Australia (bride) and the U.S. (grooms family) and we haven't met I was looking for a lighthearted theme.

My idea was that everyone could be given a list of items and/or questions that had to been collected over the week as guests toured the area (a red wine label from a famous local winery, a ticket to a Florence museum etc) along with some quiz questions/puzzles etc.

Regards

Jill Hill, Hyogo Japan

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Personalized treasure hunt is a great success

I had the treasure hunt. Although we made changes from what you suggested, I was able to use many suggestions from your material. It was so awesome, I'll be doing another one for the family children at Thanksgiving (about 12 kids from 4-12).

Eric Waddell, North Carolina, USA

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Neighbor wants to know where treasure hunt ideas come from

Hi Nikki, The treasure hunt party was a great success. It was a lot of fun and my neighbor asked where I got my ideas from. Thanks,

Catherine Grote, Kansas USA

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Treasure hunt on farm

Hi Nikki,

I held my treasure hunt at my son's birthday party at my moms house on a farm. We had adults and children ( youngest age 4) all play. I spaced out my stations a bit far ( the older ones got quite a workout!) but everyone had fun and enjoyed it! I am going to use it again for my son's grade 6 class at the end of the year party and we are going to do it in and around the school grounds.

Thanks

Lori Hepburn, Ontario Canada

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Treasure hunt is best party ever!

Hi - We had a great party last night!  We decided to have four stations with four groups of two boys (ages 11 and 12).  This was for a sleepover so when the kids sat down for dinner they each had either a red, green, orange, or blue flashlight with them.  Their flashlight determined the teams.  Also, each team had it's own had unique treasure maps so they would all win the same treasure eventually.  Armed with the map pieces and a clue on the back, they all found their treasure of nerf guns and then spent at least an hour outside playing after the treasure hunt.  The boys had a great time and the structure your documents provided for the treasure hunt was really helpful.  After the boys traisped through the woods and found their treasure, one boy shouted "This is the best party ever!".  I was thrilled and my son had a great time.  Thanks for your help!

Alison McLaughlin, Massachusetts, USA

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Treasure hunt guidelines were awesome

Hi Nikki,

Our treasure hunt was just great. Thank you very much. I was a bit nervous about my daughters 11th birthday. She wanted a Pirates of the Carribean party with boy and girls. But wow!!!!! It was awesome. Once they arrived, they had to choose themslelves a pirate name, that in itself was funny. I then made labels with these names and their photos to go on there mugs to drink out of throughout the party. Then it was onto the treasure hunt. I was a bit anxious that they would think it was a bit chidlish, but boy, did they get into it from the word go. We live on a tiny island in the Pacific where props are not easy to come by, but it is amazing what you can find or make. From silver clip on earrings to home made gold and silver loots bags, as well as a coconut palm plank.

We live in a compound and there was a lot of room for the kids. I had made a treasure map which was in 6 pieces, one for each child. They had to put it together to get through each of the challenges. It took about an hour and a quarter to get through the hunt. And they had a ball. The flag they made is still hanging on my daughter's wall. We made some island alterations which made it all the more fun. Your guidelines were awesome. I would advise anyone to use this. It was great. Took a lot of stress out of a fun day. Good luck to anyone else who wants a fun but stress free day. Once again thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susan Lowry, Samoa

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Kids love digging up treasure

It went well. Kids loved digging up the box and splitting up the booty. Your guide was helpful, nice not having to reinvent the wheel.

Michele Currie, Oregon, USA

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School scavenger hunt unearths interesting facts

Hi Nikki!

It went very well. Because we are a heritage building, I was able to find lots of unusual and interesting questions. For example there are pictures of the classes on the three floors dating back to 1907. One question was how many colours had the double front doors been (class pictures were always taken on the front steps). There are many facts/stories lining the walls up to the attic so I was able to pick out a few interesting questions from there. Anyway the students had a blast. I had also created a treasure map puzzle and as they searched for answers to the scavenger hunt they were also looking for puzzle pieces. At the end they put all of the pieces together and there was a riddle about where to find "treasure". They loved it!

Beverly Ruberg, British Columbia, Canada

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Treasure hunt will be repeated

The treasure hunt was great. I downloaded the new adobe version, and then it worked.! Every thing went smoothly and the boys loved it! I will be doing more treasure hunts in the future!

Thanks,

Laura Morreale, New Jersey, USA

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Scavenger hunts for both parents and children

The scavenger hunt was great! We had a huge candy bar for the team with the most points. Gum for the best turkey. Silly String for the silliest poem. Cotton candy for the sweetest good deed. Diapers filled with candy for the best babysitter stuff.

My sister lives across the street, and she took all the little brothers and sisters, and had an indoor scavenger hunt with them! Fun!

They all had fun! And, the parents had a great time! While they were gone, we had time to build a fire and go get the pizza. Perfect! Thank you for all your help!

Amy Evans, Texas USA

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Large scale church treasure hunt

Nikki,

Due to the size of our treasure hunt (140 participants) we found it difficult to use everything that was in the kits. We did use the pattern for the puzzle and made our own clues. We had to run two games at the same time. Both having 7 teams in each game with 10-14 players on each team. We used ciphers, cryptograms, Mad Gab clues, riddles, word searches you name it. We had the games travel all over our town. The games took about 2 1/2 hours to complete. At the end location, no matter where a team ended up, their last clue sent them on a final trek to gain the last puzzle piece. The timing worked out great. This was my greatest concern. Cars/buses you name it started rolling in one right after the other. Remember I told you weeks ago that our theme for the weekend was the Bailout.

Jesus Christ bailed us out. There was no way that any of us could pay the debt that we owe for our sins. He paid it for us.

Keeping with the theme, our last clue on a list they followed read like this. To "B" or not to "B" that is the question. Whether tis nobler to.... Oh forget it, I need a bailout! Go to the bucket and draw out your last clue. Once they climbed up into our "B" lettered bucket truck and gained the last piece, they were frantically taping them together. The first team from each game to read it to me out loud me got an envelope that declared them the winner of their game. They however needed to follow another map to the location to gain the treasure map. Cars were frantically driving everywhere. The energy was amazing. Everyone was having a great time, even when they didn't win. Once they got their respective treasure maps. The hunt was on. We buried two treasures with a backhoe and when they

finally found the right location, the digging began. The girls were able to pull their box out without a big mess. The guys team saw the lid and pulled it out letting all the dirt fall in on the treasure. The note in both boxes read. Jesus Christ died one for all and the treasure is to be shared by all.

There was a grand prize for the winning teams which was CDs from the Christian Band that was here for the weekend. There were thumbs up from everyone. Good game. My only fear now is that I know they are going to want another one.

Thanks for getting us started.

Karen Bowles, Alabama, USA

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Impressive treasure hunt guidelines spark more ideas

Hi Nikki,

I am one of the organizers for my company's treasure hunt this coming May so yes I am truly excited. I have read through some of the files you have sent and I will say I am quite impressed as everytime i read your ideas and guidelines I have come up ideas in my head.

Thank you so much for your help..

Maryana Tahir, Malaysia

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Bought three treasure hunts and yours is the best!

Dear Nikki, many thanks. The party is over, and the treasure hunt went well. It was a very nice change from my usual treasure hunts. Good product. I actually bought and downloaded three different hunt games, and yours was by far the best. The calculator worked brilliantly! I changed it to match the combination on the lock which I already had, and it worked like a charm. How long did it take you to work out all the connections so every team would wind up with the same combination?

Thanks again

Laura Gordon, Pennsylvania USA

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Treasure hunt is one of best party experiences ever

Hi Nikki,

The treasure hunt we had for my 6 year old daughter was one of the best party experiences we've ever had. It went off like a fire cracker with both adults and children electrified by the teamwork, the clues, the race, the map, the treasure and most of all the fact that the hunt was switched at the very last moment from outdoors to indoors due to torrential rain. The game strategy is flexible enough to allow the whole shooting match to be moved from an outdoor setting over 1 acre to an indoor setting in 20 minutes. We had 5 teams moving between 6 rooms and the fun side of the game was enhanced tremendously. The game was more intense and nobody felt left out though some people somehow managed to leave the house while following their clues ! It was another testament to how well thought through the treasure hunt game actually is. I have subscribed to your database for future use, in fact I suspect we'll have a treasure hunt for every birthday from now on.

There's enough clues in the database to keep us going over their entire childhoods.

Thanks again for the support and good luck with the site/game/business.

Steve Tee, Kildare Ireland

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Excited pirates waiting for their treasure hunt

Nikki,

The party is happening this Sunday coming. At the moment we have 18 very excited 10 & 11 year old boys looking forward to the upcoming treasure hunt.

The invitations were a huge hit. I hand delivered in the darkness of night, washed wine bottles. The outers were wrapped in a printed map with a poem that I had made up -

"This bottle comes to you on shore,

Floating 11 years from days of yore

.......................

It went on to say that the recipient of the bottle had to work through a series of clues to work out where and when the party was and who it was for. Inside the bottle I had tightly rolled another larger

map which had all of the clues. I had also wrapped some scull and crossbones fabric around the neck of the bottle (all of the kids have been asked to bring this to the party on the day and they can wear this twisted with some coloured fabric that I will hand out as soon as we have selected the teams as per your instructions eg Black brigands will get black fabric and twist with the scull and cross bone, Blue, Yellow, Orange etc)

Also tied to the neck of the bottle was some fairly roughly hacked paper, which had the child's name and his pirate name for the day eg Mr. Peter Piper, Pirate name - One eyed Scurvy dog

The feedback that I have had from children and parents has been sensational. Now just hoping that I can pull the party together so that all goes smoothly and the kids have fun.

Best regards

Anita Sawrey, Victoria, Australia

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Will definitely do another treasure hunt

The treasure hunt is done and the kids had fun. Your suggestions were very good and I think we will do another treasure hunt in the future with our other kids.

Thanks

Toni Hudson, Texas USA

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Strawberry picking treasure hunt

Hi,

I am planning a strawberry picking party for my 7 year old. And aside from picking strawberries and making their own individual shortcakes I wanted to something else that would take up some time and be unique.

Christine Flory, New York USA

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Treasure hunt plans for the weekend

Nikki:

Have purchased your guide, and am I'm planning the treasure hunt for this weekend. Details are below.

Number of children: 8

Ages: Mostly 5-6 year old boys, plus 2 3-year old girls (who won't probably participate as much as just 'run with the pack')

Theme: Lewis & Clark/Exploring (it's my son's 6-year birthday party and he's very 'into' Lewis & Clark at present). He is also a big fan of treasure hunt-type TV programs, e.g. The Amazing Race and Treasure Hunters.

Location: We have a very large garden (>1 acre) on a hill so there are plenty of places to hide things. It's fairly 'woody' (lots of trees) around the house, so I thought to bury the treasure in one of the more woody sections, with the clues hidden more in the garden proper.

Ideas: It's not a big group so I'm not sure it makes much sense to do teams. Rather I thought (in keeping with the Lewis & Clark theme) the boys could be a band of explorers, and they all have to work together to solve the puzzles, find the clues, and locate the treasure.

What with the size of the garden and the hilly locale, the game could be pretty tiring. I'm thinking about 6 clues total - does that sound about right? Basically this is the basic plan:

* hide a series of 'artifacts' around the garden in the form of foreign coins or similar items. (This is stolen from the 'Treasure Hunters' TV show.) When the team finds the artifact, they can turn it in to me for their next clue.

The 'artifacts' would be hidden at locations that lend themselves to clues - for example, 'I'm white and curvy and used to live in the sea' (seashell), 'Where the birds go to eat' (bird feeder), etc.

* when each artifact is found, the team gets a clue to the next artifact, and a piece of the treasure map. At a couple of points in the game, the team has to either solve a puzzle or complete a task in order to get the next clue. Ideally, the tasks would be ones where the whole team could participate simultaneously (for example, the picking-up-peas game) and then once any one person (or perhaps two people?) have completed the task, then the entire team gets to move on. Other ideas I have in this genre would be kicking a soccer ball into a goal from a distance.

Thanks for your help!

Howard Sewell, Washington USA

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Lots of good ideas for July scavenger hunt

The scavenger hunt that I'm holding is scheduled to occur on 18 July. I'll let you know how it goes. I got a lot of good ideas from the materials.

Sandra Buckley, Massachusetts, USA

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Custom treasure hunt for sweet sixteen

Nikki,

Thanks for your suggestions I'm well on my way to piecing together a custom treasure hunt for my stepdaughter's sweet sixteen.

Thanks for all your help.

Best Regards

Adrienne Loder, California, USA

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Plans to have a lot more scavenger hunts

Hi Nikki,

our birthday scavenger hunt was a GREAT success. Your material gave me lots to choose from and I was grateful. I used the treasure map for the invitations and rolled them up to hand out. The list was on the treasure map and it was 8 items to look for or info to find and 8 were photos to take to make memories & proof of it getting done. It was a teen girl team against teen guy team and the playing field was the city of Wichita, KS so they had a certain time to be back complete or not and the one with the most done was the winner. They all came back with wonderful stories and had lots of fun. I learned though that the guy against girl wasn't the best cause the guys were too COOL to do some of the list, but the things they did they had FUN! Whereas if they had mixed teams the girls would have persuaded them into doing everything.

While planning this double birthday party it has prompted other ideas one for our leadership Christmas party at church promoting unity & working together to accomplish a task.

Also I have talked with our the coordinator who is up for the idea of a scavenger hunt during next summer's Family Reunion. Should be loads of fun.

Thanks for the great info! I am going to try to send a photo let me know if it makes it.

Dena Hudson, Kansas USA

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Easy to create Instant Treasure Hunt

Nikki,

We had out Pirate party on Saturday the 4th. The treasure hunt was a big hit.

I had my 14 year old daughter work on the instant treasure hunt game for me since I was running out of time getting the party ready.

We had 9 families with 1-5 kids per family. Lots of bodies. The parents had to participate with their

kids. Everyone said it was a nice way to involve them in the theme of the party. They all ended up with wooden treasure chests full of toys, candy & mini rum bottle (for mom and dad).

This was so easy, even for my daughter to handle. It was a great hit. And everyone was so

impressed with my daughter for putting together such a big project.

We will definitely use the game again.

Ann Kruger, Oregon, USA

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Pirate treasure hunt by the lake

No problems with the downloads! I've printed off the materials and will read through them tonight. My party is for 8 boys ages 9 - 12. It is a pirate themed bday party for my 10 year old son. We are holding it at our cabin at a lake. Lots of sand so the whole pirate theme should be great!

Our cabin is near Columbus, NE. The party is on Saturday, July 15th so I need to get going on the preparations!!!

Jill Geisler, New England USA

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Treasure hunt for last day of school

We are planning the hunt for May - the last day of school for my 11 yr old daughter there will be 10-15 children for the hunt and they are very excited!, We have a 75 acre farm so the hunt will keep them busy finding the clues and especially the treasure!

My daughter loves pirates, and the whole concept of treasure hunting, can you give me some more ideas on what to put in the treasure box?

I plan on burying the treasure by an old cabin that's been here since before Oklahoma was a state! I call it blackbeard's haunted hideout! Makes things more interesting for the kids!

Rob Waddle, Oklahoma USA

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Fantastic treasure hunt

Thank you Nikki. We had a fantastic time the last time we did the treasure hunt. I even got carried away with the fun and hid the birthday present for my son to "hunt" down. Thank you.

Cherie Bracher, Texas, USA

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Treasure in the Australian bush!

Hi Nikki,

Treasure Hunt was a hit, thanks. We had five stations that were in our back yard, front yard, neighbours and out in the kids hide-out in the bush behind our house. They had to do a basketball challenge, measure the driveway (28m), a crossword challenge, word unscramble and a balancing challenge.

Instead of having a competition to be first to find the treasure, we had two teams and one had to solve the riddle to find a map that lead them to the treasure, the other team had to solve their riddle to find a map that lead them to the key that unlocked the treasure. This way there was no losers and no unhappy party goers.

The treasure and the key (which was in an old gumboot) were hidden in the bush behind our house. (Not just one bush, I mean bushland, sorry, I used Aussie term).

When they had the treasure and the key they met in the hide-out to open the treasure. The treasure was filled with fake pearl necklaces, fake gold necklaces, glass stones (they were meant to be diamonds) and gold coins (chocolate filled).

Thanks again

Tania Keenan, NSW Australia

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Bought three treasure hunts and yours is the best!

Dear Nikki, many thanks. The party is over, and the treasure hunt went well. It was a very nice change from my usual treasure hunts. Good product. I actually bought and downloaded three different hunt games, and yours was by far the best. The calculator worked brilliantly! I changed it to match the combination on the lock which I already had, and it worked like a charm. How long did it take you to work out all the connections so every team would wind up with the same combination?

Thanks again

Laura Gordon, Pennsylvania USA

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Neighbor wants to know where treasure hunt ideas come from

Hi Nikki, The treasure hunt party was a great success. It was a lot of fun and my neighbor asked where I got my ideas from. Thanks,

Catherine Grote, Kansas USA

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Digital photo scavenger hunt

Hi,

The event will be at a farm with 30 high school students attending. I am thinking of combing the outside hunt with some of the digital photo ideas. I've enjoyed getting many ideas from this creative source.

Thanks,

Elizabeth Meyer, Montana, USA

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Looking forward to doing another treasure hunt

Just a quick note. It took about 2 hours for the boys to go through the stations and find the treasure - they had a lot of fun. I look forward to doing another treasure hunt for another party down the road.

Thanks,

Mortimer Howard, California USA

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Western theme treasure hunt for family reunion

Nikki-

I planned our treasure hunt for our Family Reunion. Our reunion this year had a Western Theme, so our Treasure Hunt was based on a train robbery. Each team had a "gang" name . We had 6 teams of five The Dalton Gang, the Hole in the Wall Gang etc... I had everyone pick their team then they all had to draw different colored bandannas out of an over sized novelty cowboy hat. What ever color bandanna they got was what gang they were in. I thought the idea of a family reunion was to get to know your entire family and this way we just didn't stay with the cousins we were familiar with, it was a neat "trick" and very funny! Each station was a train depot and they all had Western town names, Laredo, Death Valley, Dodge City etc..

At each station the tasks also stayed within our theme. We had hoppy balls that looked like horseys, there was a course they had to bounce along (it was so funny!), stick horse races, one station they had to apply a brand tattoo and wear a cowboy hat, it was all simple, fast and FUN. The final clue was placed on a swing at the campsite and the swing was shaped like a horse (that wasn't planned, it just happened!). The treasure wasn't buried, but hidden under a HUGE bush so the winning team had to actually burrow under the foliage to find the chest. The chest was a replica of a train chest, complete with a big ole rusty padlock.

The winning gang had to return to the shelter house to open the chest after we had gathered all the teams back. The treasure was play money, gold nugget gum, bubble gum foil coins and foil chocolate coins. I also had suckers shaped like stars, and cactus and cowboy boots, and mardigras beads. I curled metallic ribbon and when they opened the chest there were a lot of oohhh's and ahhh's. This game was a BLAST and everyone was talking about it, I can't wait to see the pictures! It was a lot of prep time, but it was SO worth it. My cousin and I are talking about doing a version for Homecoming this fall!

Thanks so much.

Debbie Leaming, Oklahoma, USA

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Treasure hunt sets new standard for harvest festival

Nikki

Here are some details of our successful treasure hunt.

It was for our church, at a farm, during our Fall Harvest Festival. We wanted a harvest theme, but not so much a Halloween theme. We also wanted large motor activities so small children would participate in the whole thing. And, we wanted a few team building activities since families were encouraged to sign up as a team. So, our 6 stations were:

1. Ship's Cove: each member of the team had to walk the plank looking backwards through a pair of binoculars.

2. Walleye River: each member was given a "stepping stone", and they had to get to a certain point only using the stones.

3. Spider's Web: We created a 4' x 4' spider web out of twine and attached bells. Each team picked 2 people to pass through the web without ringing the bells.

4. Hide Away Cove: We hid 15 stamps, and they had to find 10 of them and stamp a piece of paper

5. Mummy Cave: We wrapped one person in the group with Toilet Paper

6. Apple Lake: One apple per team mate needed to be bobbed. Not everyone had to bob, someone else could bob for you.

I gave everyone an envelope with their starting spots. As they completed the stations, the station judges would give them a stamp on their envelope (we had 6 station judges) and they had to be completed in the correct order.

We had 9 groups of 4-8 people

We buried 1st, 2nd and 3rd place treasures, and gave them each a map when they completed the journey. Everyone else got a glow stick when they completed.

It was great watching the families really enjoy themselves! They were running from point to point (kids dragging laughing parents) and working together to complete the tasks. They had to think and

challenge themselves a little, and we had a 100% smile-success rate. What a fantastic idea, and thank you for all your work. We'll be using it again. I think I just set a new standard at our yearly Fall

Harvest Festival. I'm already planning the next one!

Blessings,

Rebecca Walsh, USA

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Digital photo scavenger hunt

Hi,

The event will be at a farm with 30 high school students attending. I am thinking of combing the outside hunt with some of the digital photo ideas. I've enjoyed getting many ideas from this creative source.

Thanks,

Elizabeth Meyer, Montana, USA

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Treasure hunt fun for 8th birthday

It was a lot of fun for my daughter and her friends (8th bday). We did a water balloon toss station, maze/jump rope/run around cones station, word find station, question station, basketball (must make 5 baskets each) station, and a math station. We have a very large field with a section of woods where we buried a lock box with treasures in it. It all went very well with the exception of my hiding of the map the night before and not being able to find it until minutes before the party!!!!!oopps. The only thing I would do differently is have a second and third price for each of the teams to win something, though they shared nicely.

Thanks, it was worth the purchase and we will probably use again with adult friends.

DeAnn Steinhorst, New York, USA

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Treasure hunt planner was user friendly

We had our treasure hunt Sat night. It was great. The students enjoyed it and so did the adults that were working the different stations. I was so relieved to have something already complete and ready to use. It was user friendly. We changed the font and copied it onto brown aged paper and it looked so real. We had middle school age and college age. They all enjoyed it. We had the stations set up among a pirate town and they had to go through the town to complete. We used it to eliminate the teams to two and the two completed a treasure hunt that was extra. Thank you for such a good product.

Pam Bennett, Tennessee USA

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Best birthday EVER - treasure hunt

Thank you - "It was the best birthday - -EVER" - my 15 year old had a total of 6 girls and they went around the neighborhood to 6 different house to complete the tasks. We had the party last week and the girls at school are still talking about it. Thank you sooooo much.

Siobhan Fox, Florida, USA

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Easer treasure hunt made easy!

I made a game for Easter. I do it every year, but your website helped me tremendously!! It has become a tradition in our house that the Easter Bunny leaves clues throughout the house for the children to find

their Easter baskets. I used to spend so much time making the clues, but your website cut down on the time tremendously.

Katie Ohlmann, Indiana, USA

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Excited pirates waiting for their treasure hunt

Nikki,

The party is happening this Sunday coming. At the moment we have 18 very excited 10 & 11 year old boys looking forward to the upcoming treasure hunt.

The invitations were a huge hit. I hand delivered in the darkness of night, washed wine bottles. The outers were wrapped in a printed map with a poem that I had made up -

"This bottle comes to you on shore,

Floating 11 years from days of yore

.......................

It went on to say that the recipient of the bottle had to work through a series of clues to work out where and when the party was and who it was for. Inside the bottle I had tightly rolled another larger

map which had all of the clues. I had also wrapped some scull and crossbones fabric around the neck of the bottle (all of the kids have been asked to bring this to the party on the day and they can wear this twisted with some coloured fabric that I will hand out as soon as we have selected the teams as per your instructions eg Black brigands will get black fabric and twist with the scull and cross bone, Blue, Yellow, Orange etc)

Also tied to the neck of the bottle was some fairly roughly hacked paper, which had the child's name and his pirate name for the day eg Mr. Peter Piper, Pirate name - One eyed Scurvy dog

The feedback that I have had from children and parents has been sensational. Now just hoping that I can pull the party together so that all goes smoothly and the kids have fun.

Best regards

Anita Sawrey, Victoria, Australia

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Great scavenger hunt

Our scavenger hunt was GREAT!!!!!!!!! Thanks. The book was priceless :)

Sherita McLamore, Maryland, USA

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Great scavenger hunt

Our scavenger hunt was GREAT!!!!!!!!! Thanks. The book was priceless :)

Sherita McLamore, Maryland, USA

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Baby shower treasure hunt

Hi Nikki,

We had our Treasure Hunt game yesterday & had loads of fun...... I had planned this treasure hunt for the baby shower of my sister & we had loads of fun & people really loved it....it was well planned, very simple & easy to use.

I really didn't have lots of time to sit down & make my own treasure hunt & wasting lot of time in planning the game.....but with this game it made my life easier & the party lovelier.....

Thank you for all the help.

Heena Kapdi, Bedfordshire, UK

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Will definitely do another treasure hunt

The treasure hunt is done and the kids had fun. Your suggestions were very good and I think we will do another treasure hunt in the future with our other kids.

Thanks

Toni Hudson, Texas USA

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Planning bigger treasure hunt next year

Hi Nikki,

We had the party last weekend. I had a hunt in our neighborhood park for some 10 year olds. They had a really good time. I decided to have it at the last minute so your list was a big help in planning a hunt in one day. Next year with more time I'll make it much bigger.

Diana Reed, USA

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Plans to have a lot more scavenger hunts

Hi Nikki,

our birthday scavenger hunt was a GREAT success. Your material gave me lots to choose from and I was grateful. I used the treasure map for the invitations and rolled them up to hand out. The list was on the treasure map and it was 8 items to look for or info to find and 8 were photos to take to make memories & proof of it getting done. It was a teen girl team against teen guy team and the playing field was the city of Wichita, KS so they had a certain time to be back complete or not and the one with the most done was the winner. They all came back with wonderful stories and had lots of fun. I learned though that the guy against girl wasn't the best cause the guys were too COOL to do some of the list, but the things they did they had FUN! Whereas if they had mixed teams the girls would have persuaded them into doing everything.

While planning this double birthday party it has prompted other ideas one for our leadership Christmas party at church promoting unity & working together to accomplish a task.

Also I have talked with our the coordinator who is up for the idea of a scavenger hunt during next summer's Family Reunion. Should be loads of fun.

Thanks for the great info! I am going to try to send a photo let me know if it makes it.

Dena Hudson, Kansas USA

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Video scavenger hunt for teenagers

The video scavenger hunt was such a success with the kids (17-18 yrs of age). They thought it was going to be stupid but they haven't stop talking about it. Their videos were hilarious! Some of the things I made them do:

Order an ice tea from Starbucks with two straws stuck in the nose (I provided money)

Sit on a whoopee cushion next to someone in a bookstore without showing the whoopee cushion

One person must wear a dog collar and leash and carry a bone in the mouth while crawling through a major pet store (other person holding leash and petting the head) - I provided the items from the dollar store

There is a long list of things they had to do. The best part was seeing just how funny these kids were. I got to see a different side of them. I never knew my son was so funny or that he could actually dance!

Thanks,

Julianne Lewis, California, USA

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12th birthday treasure hunt turned out real nice

Nikki,

Yes, we have had our treasure hunt. I don't know what I was looking for when I purchased your book....However it did help. I put the kids (age 7-13) into three teams. We used the stations where the teams had to go and complete a task as a team to earn clues. Each team had to figure out their clues to find their party goody bags. So the kids had a good time and it took them about 1 1/2hrs to do it.

My daughters 12th birthday turned out nice...

Kathleen Noriega, Arizona USA

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Personalized treasure hunt is a great success

I had the treasure hunt. Although we made changes from what you suggested, I was able to use many suggestions from your material. It was so awesome, I'll be doing another one for the family children at Thanksgiving (about 12 kids from 4-12).

Eric Waddell, North Carolina, USA

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Great treasure hunt for summer vacation

I used the Treasure Hunt Game ('The Great Hunt for Summer Vacation') for a group of 1st through 5th graders (about 80 kids) as part of our last day of school activities. They had a great time. Several kids asked me if we'll be able to do it again next year. Some of the parent volunteers and teachers encouraged me to keep all the props and signs so we can use the game again. The teachers really enjoyed it.

I'm planning to use the game once again for a class party for my son this summer ... probably with a different theme. It was easy to set up, and the challenge ideas were awesome. Thanks!

Julie Keller, Wisconsin USA

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Great pirate treasure hunt

Originally I was going to use the Treasure Hunt and plan a 'Trip to Britain' with a Visa as an invitation and serve fish and chips in Newspaper. My son didn't really get that whole theme so we are going with the Pirate Treasure Hunt you sent me which he is very excited about. Glad I got both-thanks so much

I found a great web site 'deadmentellnotales.com' which has pirate stuff galore' so prop wise we are well on our way (I even got Pirate music from the web site). I think I will put a lock on the treasure chest anyway, and give out three numbers at some of the stations. With three numbers they should be able to work out the different combinations and open the chest.

I won't do teams, they will all work together. I would like to add one additional station. I like the mummy idea from the regular game-do pirates do anything similar?

Do you have suggestions for food at a Pirate party?

I am having a great time planning this party and couldn't have done it properly without your assistance.

Now I just need to learn to talk and act like a pirate!

Michelle Caragol, Colorado USA

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Age appropriate treasure hunt clues

The kids loved the treasure hunt, and it was great to have the clues age-appropriate.

Thanks!

Elizabeth Dessen, Pennsylvania, USA

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Easy to create Instant Treasure Hunt

Nikki,

We had out Pirate party on Saturday the 4th. The treasure hunt was a big hit.

I had my 14 year old daughter work on the instant treasure hunt game for me since I was running out of time getting the party ready.

We had 9 families with 1-5 kids per family. Lots of bodies. The parents had to participate with their

kids. Everyone said it was a nice way to involve them in the theme of the party. They all ended up with wooden treasure chests full of toys, candy & mini rum bottle (for mom and dad).

This was so easy, even for my daughter to handle. It was a great hit. And everyone was so

impressed with my daughter for putting together such a big project.

We will definitely use the game again.

Ann Kruger, Oregon, USA

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I like the riddles type clues in the instant treasure hunt

Nikki,

I have had 1 small treasure hunt so far to 'test' it out- that was fun. Have another one planned for my grandchildren which will be at their home. 'Treasure' will be treats that each one favors! I have found your plans very easy to use- especially like the riddle-type clues.

Fran Berkes, New York USA

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