Archive for the ‘Children’ Category
Friday, August 10th, 2007Party was last Friday, boys had a blast! I cut and paste from your scavenger lists to make a great mall hunt! Funny to see 11 year old boys looking for sale items, washing hands in sink at Bath and Body Works, getting nails painted, etc…Thanks for your help!
MariBeth Smith, Arizona USA
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007Hi Nikki,
We celebrated our son’s eleventh birthday with a pirate themed party. Well, you can’t have a pirate party without a treasure hunt and we procrastinated a little too long. Your website helped us out tremendously.
We put together a 26 riddle treasure hunt that kept the children engaged and they had a great time searching for the treasure. And your step by step process made it very simple.
Thanks,
Peter Kleinhenz, Ohio USA
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007Nikki,
I purchased the Halloween game in addition to the treasure hunt. I am having a children’s Halloween party and maybe you could give me some pointers since you plan parties all the time. The agenda that I have come up with goes as follows:
Arrival 5:pm.
Upon entering the house each child will get a Halloween printed painter’s smock and flashlight.
Children will then go through the haunted house. (in the garage)
Once they come out of the haunted house they will go in to the living room which will be set up as a carnival, there will be different booths with different activities. These will include things such as, the fishing game (easier for the young kids), painting mini pumpkins and little wooden snakes, face painting, draw a pumpkin on a paper plate on your head, penny toss, we are still deciding on the others.
After they play and run around for a while visiting the different booths, getting little candies and toys to fill the pockets of their smocks.
Then it will be time to eat. (while the kids are eating, the Halloween game is being set up)
After they are done eating. The kids are split into their groups and the activity begins. They visit each station completing the activities. Once they have completed the activity they get a clue. (one of the cards from the treasure hunt game) once they have completed each station they will then fallow the clues on the cards they have received. At the end will be a treasure box hidden for each team.
The children then have the option to go though the haunted house a few times before the party ends.
I have never thrown a children’s Halloween party, so this will be fun. The ages range from 2 years to around 8 years of age. The majority of the children are between 5 and 8.
Kathryn Sepulveda, Nevada USA
Monday, August 6th, 2007Hi Nikki,
What at wonderful resource your scavenger hunt e-book is. The hunt is tonight and I have already spent about three hours prepping with at least 3 more to do. It’s raining here so we are keeping game inside the house, on the porch and in the screen in porch too.
The boundaries, rules and age appropriate list were extremely helpful. Our group is ages 8-9 girls. There are 9 girls coming all of whom will be randomly divided into three groups of three. Unfortunately one of the babysitters cancelled last night so I’m now wrestling with three teams and two supervisors…..
Got to go, but I will f/u with news and feedback.. You are amazing to have the care and concern to email me.
I dearly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Lee Anne McClymont, North Carolina USA
Friday, August 3rd, 2007Hey there,
Thanks for the follow up emails on the treasure hunt game. I’m using your party as a ’springboard’ for a bigger event… I’m integrating some cool coins, actual treasure, a cool map, and a cryptex, over 3 different birthday parties between August and December for 7-10 year olds (and helped by their parents)
I’ll let you know how it all goes! Thanks so much,
Jewels Hanson, California USA
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007Nikki,
The pirate treasure hunt was great. The kids had a lot of fun. The only thing I changed is I had the kids put their colored bandannas on first so everyone would know what color they were. I also replaced the gold earrings with tattoos at that station. The winning team really got into digging up the treasure. It was great to see girls really get into the game. Thanks for everything!!
Catherine Ferguson, Utah USA
Monday, July 30th, 2007The treasure hunt went very well, thanks! I was in a big rush, since my daughter decided last minute she’d like to have a birthday party, but we had it yesterday for a group of older teen girls. I’ve done several treasure hunts before–some of my own devising–but yours was a nice ready-to-go package, which is what I needed. Definitely worth the money. I especially liked your suggestions to have a variety of challenges that would speak to all the teammates various strengths. We live on 5 acres and also have various buildings that can be part of a hunt, so ours lasted about 1 1/2 hours! The girls kept very busy!
Anyway, thanks for making a good product.
Celia Ramsey, California USA
Sunday, July 29th, 2007Hi Nikki,
Yes we are planning a secret agent party for our ten year old boy, Matthew.
We plan to set up the stations as ‘training grounds’ with tasks of mental, physical, disguise, agility, teamwork and code breakers. We will be using our yard and house as the playing area. We have a dark little room downstairs where we are planning to set up a ‘laser grid’ for them to master and then get to one of the activities (which will be set up under a single light :).
We will have about 10 boys all together who are pretty bright and agile so we are trying to come up with some good puzzles, etc… We are having trouble thinking of a teamwork challenge but otherwise, we have supplies for the spy disguises (mustache, dark glasses, spy hats, fake ids, etc..) and we will use the walking on a line activity in conjunction with our physical training (ie, obstacle course, which includes low crawl, jumping rope, push ups, etc…). We are excited about all of it–my husband is helping me think up some ideas too.
I was thinking of wrapping chocolate bars in gold paper to look like gold bricks to put in the ’safe’. All of your ideas were a great jumping-off point to go with our theme. Thanks so much for the boost’
Kim Lloyd, Illinois USA
Thursday, July 26th, 2007Nikki,
The treasure hunt party this past weekend was a huge success. We had an away sleep-over at our family mountain house and had the treasure hunt on day 2. It went extremely smoothly and the ten girls had a blast! Last week was an insane week and I had little time to prepare, and now that I’ve done the hunt I feel like I could do it perfectly next time. Your product is exceptional and you truly saved me valuable time and stress!!! I look forward to having another hunt sometime very soon.
Thanks so much
Kirsten Salas, Georgia USA
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007My kids love the treasure hunts. I am getting ready to print out the THIRD on today!!
Michelle Hippensteel, Pennsylvania USA
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007We did log on and use the instant treasure game. It was very easy to use and the kids loved it! I did it twice once for the kid party and once for the family party. The first time the group was a bit big, next time I will do two teams so they all have a chance to figure out the clues.
Melinda Ayala, Oregon USA
Thursday, July 12th, 2007Hi Nikki,
You have a great product. We just might be your first customers to conduct our treasure hunt in the nude. Our events calendar had a kids’ treasure hunt scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I used some of your ideas to design the hunt, but I am saving the full version for next season when we will have better attendance in the warm weather months. The kids (ages 5,6, & 9) loved it, and I can’t wait to put on the full program next year. Thank you.
Stuart Antrim, Georgia USA
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007Hi
We had the treasure hunt party last Saturday. The kids all loved it!!!!
Also - I think that once you plan the first one, they should all be a lot easier in the future now that we know what we’re doing.
Thanks for the ideas!
Pamela Gamble, Wisconsin USA
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007Yes, indeed, our Treasure Hunt was successful and fun.
We had about 10 children ages 4 to 14. The event was a neighborhood block party. I broke them into two teams and started them in different spots of the hunt. They only were to pick up the clue for their color team. I’m attaching the list of clues that I used. It seemed hard enough and yet easy enough so as to not frustrate. Both teams found a clue and a puzzle piece put in a plastic bag at each spot. For the puzzle I glued two pages together–one side was a picture of a pirate and the other was the final clue to where the treasure map was hidden. I then cut that into puzzle pieces that I put with each clue. They were to put the picture puzzle of the pirate together then turn it over to read the clue to the treasure map. The final clue or treasure map I typed in several different fonts and printed it large. There were about 10 pages that I taped together and rolled it into a scroll. It took them to their treasure of candy and necklaces and gold chocolate coins. I will attach the final clue/ treasure map as well.
It certainly entertained the children and had them running all over the neighborhood. Both teams completed the hunt
Mary Ann Anderson, Illinois USA
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007Hi Nikki,
It was a GREAT party!! We live in the bush, we had 2 teams of boys going to 6 stations to get the map to find the treasure….the theme was a dress as someone from a Medieval Castle…so it was the Shields and Spears….albeit we weren’t encouraging high competitiveness….swimming in the dam followed…
After the last ones left we were dancing the dance of joy, delight and exhilaration….a couple of boys came back to say it was the best party they had ever been too.
Thanks for spreading your expertise which in turn is spreading joy in the world.
Regards,
Belinda Gross, Victoria Australia
Monday, July 9th, 2007Nikki,
We are having a St. Patrick’s day theme. March 17th, they will be searching for ?the pot of gold?. I have purchased a black pot from Hobby Lobby and filled with candy with hopes of the children sharing (age 9).
I wrapped the candy in the top with gold wrapping paper to resemble gold. We have all the stations taken care of. The teams and stations all fit around St Patrick?s day. I now need to get the clue and the treasure map done. We have a huge back yard fenced and that is where we are planning to have the entire treasure hunt. I was just going to set stations up around the back yard.
My husband has said that he was going to put the treasure map around some bricks in the back yard. Also the pot of gold will be in the shed in the back yard. (my husband has built a shelf over the door and that is where the pot of gold will be! This is the first treasure hunt, and I will be planning another one (Easter) three weeks later for my 11 year old
Jennifer Hatcher, Alabama USA
Sunday, July 8th, 2007Hi Nikki:
We had a fantastic time. Our Pirate themed treasure hunt party was a ‘treasure!’ The hunt was superb and the tools that you provided made it easy to customize to our group. The children loved it! I appreciate that you kept checking with us to make sure things were progressing well as we planned the event.
Again thanks!
Youth Pastor, Bonsack United Methodist Church
Tim Burns, Virginia USA
Saturday, July 7th, 2007Nikki:
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
Friday, July 6th, 2007I’m still working on the details. I have 12 9-10 year old girls coming to a birthday party. We are going to have the presents ’stolen’ while they are eating dinner and the teams have to work to find the gifts. I’m working on coming up with 6 or so different things they must solve to get a piece of the final clue.
Michael Cox, Illinois USA
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007Nikki,
Thank you for checking on me. I was really reluctant to agree to the treasure hunt, but after getting your manual, I am getting excited.
I have an idea where I am going to bury the treasure and have decided to prepare 6 individual treasure chests and these will be buried in a bigger treasure chest.
I purchased a disposable ice chest and will spray paint it black, brown or gold, not sure yet on the color. I bought the smallest one available because it had a rope attached to it and I wanted to make sure it is not too heavy for the kids to pull it up.
I will fill each treasure chest up stuff for the winners and place them all staked on top of each other in the ice chest. I will then place filled individual goodie bags on top of the treasure chests that the winners get to ’share’ their spoils with others. The individual bags will contain coins, gems, etc and a thanks for participating note.
I have read your instructions several times and think I have a good handle on it and feel pretty good about what I need to do to make it successful.
I haven’t told my children that I’ve planned this for their party because if I tell them anything in advance, they will ask day and night millions of questions and will not allow me a moments peace.
Angel Epps, California USA
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007Dear Nikki,
Just wanted to let you know we used your treasure hunt at a party yesterday and it was a big hit. There were twenty ten year olds and we put them in five teams which was great. It all went well and it really was enjoyed. Your pack was great and I was happy with the product and would do it again.
Thanks,
Monica Eskin, New York USA
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007Hi Nikki,
The party for our son turning 9 was a huge hit! Once the boys got warmed up they were running in and out of the house for clues. In order to have everyone feel included we rotated who read the clues. I also emphasized this was a ‘team’ approach. It worked out really well and it was fun to see which riddles stumped them and which ones they figured out with ease.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was money very well spent!
Thanks again,
Amy Anderson, Washington USA
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007Hello Nikki,
It’s taken awhile for me to respond, but my daughter reminded me of it today so I thought I should reply before I forgot again.
I had my treasure hunt for my 10 year old daughter?s birthday. It was a bit unorganized but hey I had to work the morning of the party. We had 17 kids over. My husband was uneasy about how we were going to keep them all entertained and having fun for 5 hours.
It was great! I scattered the stations all over the place. Finding the treasure map was the best. My husband hid it in a bird house. It took them like 10 minutes to clue in. They ran around it who knows how many times. The next best thing was the actual location of the treasure chest. Instead of burying it we strung it up in a tree. Of course, no one thought of looking up. It was right in the middle of all the action throughout the whole hunt. We were laughing. It was a blast.
This party took place middle of July. On this past Monday, one of kids mentions to my daughter that that was the most fun at a party. Now the other kids want treasure hunts too. Next year it will be even better since we had the trial run and it went over amazing. Thanks for your help.
Doris
Doris Traeger, Ontario Canada
Monday, July 2nd, 2007Hi Nikki,
I have logged on and played around with planning our first treasure hunt.
This one is for our son’s 6th birthday party on Saturday, October 7th. His birthday is actually the 8th but because of other activities, the party is a day early. I’m very excited about the treasure hunt. His party has a pirate theme and this is a perfect game. I was having trouble being very creative with clues for the hunt and while snooping around the internet I found your site and couldn’t wait to try it out. So…I’m off to fine tune the treasure hunt for the kiddos and I’ll let you know how everything turns
out after the party!
Thanks,
Anna Quist Anna Quist, Texas USA
Monday, July 2nd, 2007The Instant Treasure Hunt was very easy to use and the kids loved it! I did it twice once for the kid’s party and once for the family party. The first time the group was a bit big, next time I will do two teams so they all have a chance to figure out the clues.
Melinda Ayala, Oregon USA