Wednesday 31 October 2012

Treasure hunt girls in pirate garb

The treasure hunt went great! All the girls dressed up in pirate garb. My daughter was totally surprised. They all enjoyed the treasure hunt part and everything worked out perfectly. Your e-book was a great guide to planning an exciting party. Thank you!

RobAnne Burns, California USA

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Easter scavenger hunt around the house

Hi Nikki,

So, just to let you know, everything went well. Easter is a big deal at our house.....always has been. My husband and I don't have any kids, but my sisters do, and have been coming to our home for Easter brunch for years...probably 15 years or so. I have always made a game of some sort for the kids...there are 8 of them. When they were little we had yarn woven in, around, under, on top of etc furniture, and knick knacks within our bottom two rooms....family room and recreation room. Slightly hidden along the trail where gifts/chocolate etc for the kids. As the kids got bigger it became more challenging. I've done Kim's games with them, word quizzes....oh many things....just can't think of them off the top of my head. I keep kidding the kids, that they are getting too old for this...the game...the gifts...the treats. But of course, they don't think so :) So, each year, it takes me awhile to come up with something a little different. Basically, what I'm looking at are 8 kids, each of whom is getting about 10 gifts (my Mum and sisters drop off their gifts to me to be included). This works out to 60 "places" within our home that I need to identify as the prize location somehow.

I don't know if this is making much sense to you, as I'm writing it. So I'd thought of a scavenger hunt of some sort for some time. So, I bought yours this year....and I was able to use the ideas. I took suggestions from the "Scavenger Hunt - Around the Home" and the "Memory Hunt". The kids

range in ages from 10 to 18. The oldest 2 brought their boy friends this year! I came up with 60 questions (5 questions per kid) ranging in difficulty eg. "How many holes are in the air tub?", "What brand name toaster oven is in the kitchen?" to "What was tested on November 13, 1996?". The answer to the last one is "the gas regulation pressure test". There is a tag that hangs off the gas pipe in the laundry room. Another one that had one of them stumped for awhile was, "Where do you find the number 39615119?". The answer is the "water meter". The kids like the challenge...they won't give up. I also had them each find 5 particular items in the house. For example....everyone had to find a tea light. These are normally around the house, but by the time eight kids have picked one up, kids #9 and 10 are having more difficulty finding one. I had a couple of other things for them to do as well.

So, it went well. I think they'll be 30 years old and I'll still be doing it. I'll read through your material again next year and come up with something else for them to do.

Thanks for the hunt/games and your emails. As I said, it went very well.

Tracey Stamp, Ontario, Canada

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Tuesday 30 October 2012

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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Helpful scavenger hunt lists

Found what I needed and the list were very helpful. Thank you for this

product.

Susan Thorington, Alabama, USA

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Monday 29 October 2012

Teen Easter treasure hunt

Hi Nikki!

Thanks for a great product and an even better time with friends and family enjoying our treasure hunt! We did this just yesterday for Easter and the youngest person in the group was 12. Everyone else was 15 and older, so I used a mix of adult/teenage clues. It was great. I stumped my kids....made others look like geniuses and the adults had just as good of a time watching the kids go crazy!

Overall, this was a huge success. I especially like that I was able to alter some of the clues to make them more personal to my family. I am certain that a lot more huge parties with many more great hunts are in our future.....

Thanks for everything!

Yvonne Kessel, Germany

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National Treasure hunt great success

Thank you for your interest. Our National Treasure Hunt was a success.

We had an awards ceremony and the winning team received medals. We also had a balloon toss, horseshoe games, a coloring contest and a chili cook-off, all those contestants receiving awards. A magic show capped the evening. 60-70 people were in attendance, ages 2-80 years old.

Our event was a success. Thanks.

Sandra Stegen, USA

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Sunday 28 October 2012

Treasure hunt is so creative

Hey Nikki,

The hunt was tonnes of fun, the crowd was 7 and 8 year olds so fairly easy to please. The treasure was a big box of loot bags full of candy, so like I said they were easy to please. Plus the tasks we came up with were fun.

Everyone thinks I am a genius, and I didn't share my secret because I know everyone would said " you paid for a treasure hunt game? You could have thought that up yourself." Which might be true, since I am a creative sort of person, but I was in such a bind, and finding your website so randomly totally saved the day. It's easy to say I could have done this or that, but it is entirely another to actually do it and put it all together like you have. Thank you so much. There were many aspects that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

There were a few adults who seemed like they might be interested in have a scavenger hunt/rally i will definitely be checking your site for anything new and interesting if we get something together. I would love to host something like that, plain old dinner parties are so boring.

Cheers, Beena

PS I will try to get some pics for you soon.

Beena Patel, Ontario, Canada

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Fantastic fun at the pirate treasure hunt

Hi Nikki -- I'm finally getting around to answering your emails! We finally completed our Treasure Hunt last week! We had so much fun -- thank you for the great kick-start!!!

I ordered your Treasure Hunt software package way back in February.

Your software was just what I needed to get started, get me thinking about what I wanted to do -- and it was GREAT fun! Everyone, from kids to adults, had a great time! For me, it was like Christmas, having chosen wonderful presents for all -- and watching everyone Ooooh and Aaaah. My participants had a ball! Of course, now that everyone had so much fun, next year I have to come up with a game for EVERYONE -- the grownups want to play, too!!!

Ah, the challenge!

Here's what I did with your ideas:

I used your ideas for the 6 teams and 6 ports -- to avoid them running into each other. However, since I knew I'd be running the treasure hunt during out group camping trip (4 families, 26 people), I had to wait until we got to this year's campground to set it up. Didn't know where I'd bury the treasure or what the site was like until I got there!

I had six adults manning the six 'ports' of call... and four teams. I paired the two teenagers with younger same-sex kids (girls and boys ages 7 - 10)plus a teen = (2 teams). A third team was the moms and 'little ones' under age 2, and the fourth team was the dads and little guys (two boys age 4).

We had the 'group campsite' for 40+ people, so we had our six stations spread out throughout the campsite, in the woods, and on the trail leading to our campsite.

At each location, each young pirate could earn a doubloon by completing the task. After each trial, they had to bring their doubloons to the Master of Arms to buy a piece of the puzzle for their team. After collecting all six pieces of the puzzle -- they then had to use the puzzle to find the treasure map. Once they found the treasure map, they had to use the map to search for the buried treasure.

I made several copies of the treasure map, so as each team completed their puzzle, they could find the parchment map and begin the search for the treasure. You should have seen them combing through the woods! (I made parchment maps ahead of time from wrinkled, coffee stained paper -- then used burgundy marker to draw on the map once we were in the campsite and I knew where the treasure was -- I had one of my sons pace out the path to the

treasure.)

I worked it out so that each group could search for the treasure, but the team that found it had first pick of the treasure. The 'treasure' was a box of gifts from the dollar store. After the first team picked over the treasure, the rest of the teams chose their treasure, in youngest to oldest order.

This is what we did:

Pirate Beach -- each young pirate had to decorate a pirate head-scarf to wear and create a team Pirate flag to carry on their journey.

Doubloon Inn -- Learn to tie a pirate's ship knot -- all pirates need to know how to tie ship's knots. We had the younger children learn to tie a square knot, and the older children learned to tie a bowline. Each child received an 8 ft. length of rope to learn their knots, and wear as a pirate belt. Their ropes went with them everywhere!!!

Gold Digger's Island -- The 'logic' island. (The captain needs a pirate crew that can think!) Sudoku puzzle for the older kids (4 and 6 square for kids, 9 square for adults, 25 piece jigsaw puzzle for non-number kids.) This was the log-jam station. Too hard for most -- I'll change it next time I do this.

Five Mile Lookout -- I had 4 boxes sealed with one of the puzzle-pieces inside. Each box was tied up in 100' of rope knots... they had to really work to untie the knots to get into each box! My husband and son spent an evening tying up these boxes!

Smuggler's Cove -- this is where they had to learn to walk the pirate ship's rope rigging for the sails. Rope stretched out on the ground, the young pirate's must walk the rigging looking through the wrong end of binoculars.

A great favorite!

Hideaway Harbor -- Set up two rope swings (age appropriate). The young pirates in training needed to learn how to run and jump with a rope swing and land on the King's treasure ship (at target on the ground) -- ready to do battle for treasure! (Also a great favorite.)

I used the gold foil wrapped chocolates for doubloons, and although I had expected (and built) the game for three teams, I ended up with four teams.

This meant that the teams had to negotiate (with doubloons) near the end of the game to form a melded team with enough pieces of the puzzle to find the treasure map.

We had great fun!

Eileen Blackwood, Minnesota USA

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Saturday 27 October 2012

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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Treasure Hunt for my Grandson

I am in Montreal, NC, USA planning a birthday party for my grandson and his friends ages 10-12, though some younger brothers and sisters and parents will probably join in. I am the grandmother writing on the grandfathers e-mail. We live on the side of a mountain with steep slopes, lots of stone steps, a creek, a large goldfish pond and lots of good places to hide things. The party is an annual occasion with most of the children running wild, chasing each other, in what appears to an adult to be an aimless fashion. A few stay inside quietly playing board games. So...

this year the treasure hunt seems like a good idea and maybe all will engaged. I think they are definitely old enough! The party is scheduled for Sunday, June 5. I like the fact that you are interested in feed back and so enthusiastic about what you do! Sincerely,

Gale Hussey, North Carolina USA

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Friday 26 October 2012

Wonderful time for teenage treasure hunt game

It was a great success and the girls (18) HAD A WONDERFUL TIME. Couldn't have done it without your treasure hunt game/ideas.

A beautiful way to spend a fall evening in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Denise Cox, Alberta, Canada

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Sixth scavenger hunt

Thanks Nikki-

This is actually the 6th one for my son who is 11 but the past have been a little on the younger side and they are ready at this age for more difficulty and I'm going to make it an hour long at my house for his pool/scavenger/manhunt party...

I have to read through your stuff and as I'm traveling up to CT for the weekend I will have more comments by Monday and maybe ask for some assistance or I will definitely let you know all the details, etc. I'm also enlisting my neighbors, using a camera, and a park behind my house...this is

more work than my real job :)

This was one of the best I saw, so I look forward to this~

Thanks!

Elsa Pine, Connecticut, USA

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Thursday 25 October 2012

Friends talking about the treasure hunt at school

Hi Nikki

Thanks for being so prompt in replying to the problem I had downloading the e book. I used some ideas from the e book and it gave me a good idea on how to plan the party. I then modified it to suit our party, which we held around our local area.

My son loved the party and I think his friends will be talking about it at school today!

Yvette Atkinson, Auckland, New Zealand

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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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Wednesday 24 October 2012

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 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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Tuesday 23 October 2012

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 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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Monday 22 October 2012

Mall scavenger hunt

This was designed for the participants to buy a gift for the birthday girl, during their hunt. We were at a upscale outdoor mall.

I divided the teams into two groups, and changed the order of things on the second list so the teams would not run into each other.

This took one team 45 minutes, and the other team and hour and 25 minutes. We waited for them at lunch, while sipping on champagne... I received thank yous, and gushing kudos from everyone, they all had a fantastic time.

Sincerely,

Mary Guleserian, 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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Sunday 21 October 2012

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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Still recuperating from Halloween treasure hunt

Nikki,

It is Sunday and we are recuperating from the Halloween Party we hosted for our 10 year old son. The boys loved the treasure hunt! Thank you.

I had the boys eat and drink gross looking candy ( a bug, blood and vomit). I also bought 2 paint guns (they are manual and without CO2 or battery) and had them shoot at a skeleton that I painted on a piece of plywood (very easy). I am considering an adult party next year. Any advice? Thank you,

Patty Lamp, Illinois USA

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Saturday 20 October 2012

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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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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Friday 19 October 2012

Time saved in treasure hunt planning

Hi Nikki,

I was in a bind for a party TODAY that I promised my daughter a scavenger hunt for. I was not able to focus on any ONE idea to get me started when I pulled your info up on the internet. I'm so excited because we are the "party home" of both my daughters' schools and now I feel I can do this by tonight. Thanks for sharing--and you're right...it's well worth the money in hours of time saved in planning alone. And all this is said before I've even gone through all your info. I can tell it's been well-planned though and that's huge to me.

Shelley Springhetti, Wisconsin, 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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Thursday 18 October 2012

So many do not know what a scavenger hunt is!

Thank you,

Everything went well. I think the item they had the most fun with was finding something with the letter M. My son's name starts with the letter M. They had about 50 questions about what they could use. Of the 25 items on their list, they were unable to get only two items a postage stamp and a 4 leaf clover. What surprised me the most was the number of parents and kids who had no idea what a Scavenger Hunt was.

Thank you again for your help.

Mindy Richard, California 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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Wednesday 17 October 2012

Dog themed treasure hunt

Hi Nikki! We had our treasure hunt yesterday. It was awesome. The kids had a blast. Age ranges were from 7 to 10. Since my daughter had a dog theme going, I changed the team names to The Pink Poodles, the Golden Doodles, and the Blue Bulldogs. Kids laughed at the names and were proud to be one of the 3. I also structured the activities you suggested to include the dog theme. For ex, the toilet paper wrapping... I pretended that one person was a hairless dog and the kids needed to put fur on by covering themselves with the toilet paper. Then they would create a furry doggy! Also, instead of a pirate flag, we made a dog flag by putting dog stickers, words to describe puppies, and drew bones. As for the treasure, we actually buried it in our yard and gave them shovels. They had a ball! Not only was it fun for the kids, it was fun for the adults watching the kids run all over the yard to complete the 6 stations.

Thanks so much for a great party idea! This is a keeper!! What a memorable experience!

Sherri Shaner, Ohio, USA

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Impressive treasure hunt Logistics

Our treasure hunt took place last weekend and was a success. The book helped a lot and everyone was impressed with the logistics of the game. Thank you for a well designed book.

Patrick Racine, Ontario Canada

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Tuesday 16 October 2012

Wild treasure hunt at mother's 50th

I have been searching the internet for ideas for my Mothers 50th birthday....I thought this might be a fun way to celebrate.... we love to dance, drink some and are wild!

Christyl Seymour,

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Superbowl treasure hunt hit

Thanks so much Nikki - did a quick treasure/scavenger hunt for the kids at our Superbowl party and as always it was a super duper hit!

Leslie Suhy, California, USA

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Monday 15 October 2012

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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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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Sunday 14 October 2012

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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Scavenger hunt on a cruise ship

Hi Nikki. Well everyone had a blast with the Cruise scavenger hunt !! I took some questions right off your list and then using your other items as suggestions... I went on line with Royal Caribbean and printed off each decks floor plan and used that to help me get information. Thank you for all of your help !

JoAnn Seckus, Illinois USA

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Saturday 13 October 2012

Modify treasure hunt to work in your unique situation

Hi Nikki,

Thank you for your email, our party was on Saturday, the 22nd. As it turned out, I did not bury the treasure, I modified the party plans provided in your game and the party was a great success.

Thank you for your help.

Sherry Staub, Indiana, USA

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9 year old birthday party treasure hunt success

Hello Nikki,

Thanks for the e-mails and suggestions. I have enjoyed your treasure hunt ideas and games and gave them a try at my daughters birthday party. She is 9 and the girls had a ball. We had a backwards party and it was definately the hit of the party. I also run a kids program at a guest ranch in Colorado and look forward to using many of your ideas with them. I have done many "on skis" treasure hunts and look forward to incoporating many of your ideas with my own outdoor twists. It is a nice way to spark new ideas as well as using the ones you provided.

Thank you for the follow up!

Kelli, Colorado, USA

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Friday 12 October 2012

Hi Nikki,

The treasure hunt was a success. Some of the kids were just a little confused in the beginning, either they were not listening to the instructions (typical teenagers) or my instructions were not clear. I should probably have shown samples of what they were supposed to look for like the station's names, next destination and the challenges.

But finally they got it and everybody had a great time. Thanks.

Catalina Alter, Hong Kong

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Pirate treasure hunt for 40th wedding anniversary

Hi, Nikki! I have received the party planner The party will take place in Concord, North Carolina, USA, and it will be on August 5th 2006. The occasion is our 40th wedding anniversary party. The age range, I think, will be 'no kids', but I'm not sure about that, yet. And the theme of the treasure hunt is your pirate theme! We think it's going to be a lot of fun!

Judy Quickel, North Carolina USA

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Thursday 11 October 2012

Excellent customer service for treasure hunt products

Nikki - You are patience personified. Thank you for your excellent customer service. I will download now. Hooray!

Martha Wiedersheim, New York, USA

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Mall scavenger hunt

This was designed for the participants to buy a gift for the birthday girl, during their hunt. We were at a upscale outdoor mall.

I divided the teams into two groups, and changed the order of things on the second list so the teams would not run into each other.

This took one team 45 minutes, and the other team and hour and 25 minutes. We waited for them at lunch, while sipping on champagne... I received thank yous, and gushing kudos from everyone, they all had a fantastic time.

Sincerely,

Mary Guleserian, USA

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Wednesday 10 October 2012

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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Two scavenger hunts on consecutive nights

Nikki,

I have read through the game planner and it was helpful. I am having a 9th birthday party for my son this month and I have invited 13 other guests. It is a road rally scavenger hunt, so we will be driving around in teams. I am currently compiling the list. I've decided to set a time limit and have plenty of tasks that are each worth a point value. I hope this works well. I'm not sure how long to make the game, it's difficult to judge how long it will take to drive around and do each task. The list isn't meant to be completed. I am planning on having 3 teams of 4-5 boys each. I have purchased bandanas in 3 colors and will have the boys pick one out randomly from a bag to choose teams. We also plan on having them decorate the cars with glass paint and streamers. If the weather here in Chicago area is terrible the day of the party, we have a back-up plan to move the party to the mall. Because I am so insane, my 12 year old daughter is having her party the next ni ght and we are also doing a neighborhood scavenger hunt for that (15-18 boys and girls). Not as complicated, but we are trying to keep them occupied until the DJ arrives for a 2 hour dance party at our home. Wish me luck!

Cathy Wilson, USA

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Tuesday 9 October 2012

Treasure hunt suggestions appreciated

Nikki

We had the party and it was great. Appreciate all the suggestions in the book. Have a great holiday weekend

Tracey Ivaldi, New Jersey, 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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Monday 8 October 2012

Treasure hunt book is worth every penny!

I ordered your Treasure Hunt for Halloween about an hour ago and I am so impressed!!! I have a big Halloween party every year and I'm always looking for something new to entertain the kids – I can't wait to play this Treasure Hunt!! Thank you for saving me so much time and effort – this is worth every penny for that reason alone. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

Lorraine Turkel, Florida, 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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Sunday 7 October 2012

Time saved in treasure hunt planning

Hi Nikki,

I was in a bind for a party TODAY that I promised my daughter a scavenger hunt for. I was not able to focus on any ONE idea to get me started when I pulled your info up on the internet. I'm so excited because we are the "party home" of both my daughters' schools and now I feel I can do this by tonight. Thanks for sharing--and you're right...it's well worth the money in hours of time saved in planning alone. And all this is said before I've even gone through all your info. I can tell it's been well-planned though and that's huge to me.

Shelley Springhetti, Wisconsin, 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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Saturday 6 October 2012

Help makes treasure hunt go great

Nikki,

Yes, we had our Treasure Hunt on 11/18. I had a little panic moment for the preparation since we didn't quite know what to get and stuff, but with great help of my 15-year-old daughter on that day, we could make it to a very exciting, fun treasure hunt. So everything went well after all. Thank you.

Rie Bach, California, USA

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Treasure Hunt for my Grandson

I am in Montreal, NC, USA planning a birthday party for my grandson and his friends ages 10-12, though some younger brothers and sisters and parents will probably join in. I am the grandmother writing on the grandfathers e-mail. We live on the side of a mountain with steep slopes, lots of stone steps, a creek, a large goldfish pond and lots of good places to hide things. The party is an annual occasion with most of the children running wild, chasing each other, in what appears to an adult to be an aimless fashion. A few stay inside quietly playing board games. So...

this year the treasure hunt seems like a good idea and maybe all will engaged. I think they are definitely old enough! The party is scheduled for Sunday, June 5. I like the fact that you are interested in feed back and so enthusiastic about what you do! Sincerely,

Gale Hussey, North Carolina USA

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Friday 5 October 2012

4th July Treasure Hunt

Hi Nikki,

Our treasure hunt on the 4th of July was a lot of fun. We had 35 kids(and adults) running all over the yard in the rain.!! After they solved their riddles the hunt then took them into the woods with compasses and shovels and they had to find the "buried" treasure. It certainly was a memorable day--thanks for the help in getting me organized.

Sharon Kloter, Connecticut, USA

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Company picnic and treasure hunt

Nikki,

We are planning a company picnic on July 30 of this year in Morrison, Illinois, USA. We usually have around 175 people there with ages ranging from 0-70. I'm sure not everyone will want to play, so everything should work out well.

I read the book over once on Friday, but today I will actually sit down with a committee and start planning.

Thank you for support!

Christy Hackett, Illinois USA

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Thursday 4 October 2012

Many combinations for the instant treasure hunt

Hi Nikki, I did log on and enjoyed the clues. What a time saver. Can't wait to play around with it some more. So many wonderful combinations.....

Trish Nickerson, New Mexico USA

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Huge success scavenger hunt

I had the scavenger hunt last Friday. It was a huge success considering I put it together in 3 days with the help of your documents. The hunt was at a Community park with a huge playground area. The kids and parents had a great. The teacher appreciated the thank you cards.

This weekend I'm doing another one for my son's birthday pool party.

Thanks!

Heather Swift, Pennsylvania USA

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Wednesday 3 October 2012

Hi Nikki,

Thanks so much for your info! We had a beach party for 3 graduates with all ages attending and had a great time.

Since we weren't in a familiar area, I made a list of "Something (with) ______." The small kids had a wonderful time and felt very included.

With appreciation,

Gail Fletcher, USA

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Scavenger hunt in Manhattan

Hi Nikki,

The scavenger hunt is taking place in NYC on May 6; it is a night time activity for a corporate event during that week. Age range is 22-50's and there are about 25-35 people participating.

The part I am still trying to figure out is if groups should just use their phone cameras to take pictures or something else. Any thoughts?

The theme is really just sight around the city - this is the list of places and the clues that I have so far. I got a few ideas from the planner and most of them are just from research. I am trying to keep it to midtown and lower manhattan and will provide subway cards for each person but I tried to keep some of the sights within walking distance of each other.

Whitney Chernoff, New York, USA

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Tuesday 2 October 2012

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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Pirate ship in the garage

Dear Nikki,

We had a great time!! The treasure hunt took about 3 hours to set up. I had 25 children over. We used compasses and shovels. The groups of kids went from clue to clue. Some were even tied on a balloon and placed an a pond to float around. (The actual clue was in a ziplock bag tied to a balloon) Each clue had an additional piece of a 'clue'. When each group collected all 6 pieces of their additional 'clue' we met at the main pirate ship (the garage, which was decorated). Each team put their 6 pieces of the 'clue' together (we had 6 teams so 36 pieces total). The 'clue' was Spongebob's theme song. They had to sing it. The reason for the additional clues was that a Spongebob pinata actually held the real treasure map and a key to the truck the treasure was hiding in. All the kids took a swing at spongebob and finally it broke. Candy and a treasure map an key came out. They read the map and unlocked the trunk for their treasure. The party was 3 hours long.

Thanks

Chantel Prater, Indiana USA

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Monday 1 October 2012

Two scavenger hunts on consecutive nights

Nikki,

I have read through the game planner and it was helpful. I am having a 9th birthday party for my son this month and I have invited 13 other guests. It is a road rally scavenger hunt, so we will be driving around in teams. I am currently compiling the list. I've decided to set a time limit and have plenty of tasks that are each worth a point value. I hope this works well. I'm not sure how long to make the game, it's difficult to judge how long it will take to drive around and do each task. The list isn't meant to be completed. I am planning on having 3 teams of 4-5 boys each. I have purchased bandanas in 3 colors and will have the boys pick one out randomly from a bag to choose teams. We also plan on having them decorate the cars with glass paint and streamers. If the weather here in Chicago area is terrible the day of the party, we have a back-up plan to move the party to the mall. Because I am so insane, my 12 year old daughter is having her party the next ni ght and we are also doing a neighborhood scavenger hunt for that (15-18 boys and girls). Not as complicated, but we are trying to keep them occupied until the DJ arrives for a 2 hour dance party at our home. Wish me luck!

Cathy Wilson, 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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