Archive for the ‘Mixed Age’ Category
Thursday, September 13th, 2007The party will take place at Citigroup in Amherst, NY US in April. It is a Spring Pirate Treasure theme party for the employees children and every year we have between 100 and 200 children ranging in age from 2 through 14. In the past we always had a Easter, Halloween, and Christmas party. Due to our increasing size, we are now only having a Halloween and a themed Spring party. Each year will be a different theme. All children attend with parents and we usually have anywhere from 20 - 30 volunteers (without children) who run the party.
Judy McEvoy, New York USA
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Nikki,
The reason I purchased the Treasure Hunt game was for use during our annual family vacation at a beach house in the Charleston SC area. The house we have rented for the week is directly on the beach and I am running a treasure hunt for our family.
Jack Taylor, Florida USA
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007Dear Nikki
I can’t tell you what a life saver you are. My Halloween invitations were all sent; advertising a Treasure Hunt and I became ill. I didn’t know how I was ever going to pull it off, but 2 days before the party I logged in (log in info in your purchase confirmation email) and within 1 hour I had edited
the clues you provided to fit our surroundings. I then mailed them to my office; printed, cut and separated. Trust me…now that I know how wonderful your made to order ”hunts’ are; we will be having them at every party. The kids and adults had a blast.
Please keep me informed of anything new, especially for adult parties.
Thanks again to my new party planning best friend!
Darlene LoBue, Florida USA
Saturday, July 28th, 2007I am looking for a unique idea for a company party. There are about 15 employees and their families so a total of about 30 people. I would like to do this in a park and have all ages participate—mix it up a little so people get to know each other.
Laurie Oliver, California USA
Friday, July 20th, 2007Hi 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
Thursday, July 19th, 2007I am planning a treasure hunt activity day with my youth group at church. I have a small group but it consist of stair step ages (don’t think I even have 2 the same age). We are on a limited budget.
Tami, Orlando, USA
Saturday, July 14th, 2007Thanks for all the emails and help. I am interested in your help and ideas. Our event is an annual event (which if all goes well I would like to make the scavenger hunt an annual part of it).
The name of our event is called ‘Livin, Lovin, Luau’. It is a luau for Dads and kids ages 0-6 years. We host it at our local YMCA. We are confined to one large gym. My idea was to have all the dad/kid teams who wanted to participate follow a series of clues that would lead them from one station to another throughout the room. Some of the stations or games that we will have are: Play dough station, Coconut Bowling, Crazy Totem Poles, Fish craft, Infant Island (area for small child and infants to explore), coloring station, Photo station (we always take a picture of each child/ren with their dad to take home), Pin the Tail on the fish, Ring toss, Snack area, Fish Flying, Limbo, Shave your dad, Fishing game, Reading area, Pin the Banana on the tree, Hanging Monkeys.
I am sure I can come up with a great hunt. The last item would be at the area where the dad fills out an evaluation of the event and the child gets a special treat bag of goodies. Thanks
Cori Laux, Wisconsin USA
Thursday, July 12th, 2007We had a wonderful treasure hunt. The adults and kids both had a great time.
It took 40 minutes for them to complete it.
Thanks for your interest and I will be making more treasure hunts in the near future.
Dawn Pinson, Ontario Canada
Saturday, July 7th, 2007I just downloaded the info and skimmed it - will seriously read it all today and start planning my party. I give lots of different types of parties, mostly for my family. We have had our own Survivor and Amazing Race parties, and others.
I plan to have the treasure hunt on Jan 22 for my husband’s 58th birthday. We live in Hawaii - have a 2 acre property at Mokuleia which is on the north shore of Oahu. The age range of my gang is 2-68…a real challenge for team games.
I will be happy to send you details of our hunt, if you wish, once we’ve done it. We have a very competitive and enthusiastic game playing family! Thanks for sharing your expertise with us!
Aloha,
Ibby Jenkins, Hawaii
Thursday, July 5th, 2007I am planning a picnic for our church group, and it will be over 100 people there. We are having it at a local park and will have access to it only 1 hr before people will start arriving. The park is a large grass area with a shelter in the middle.
Calvin Hairston,
Monday, June 25th, 2007Hi Nikki,
Our church had our treasure hunt this past weekend. It was a great success and so much fun. This was a family event so all ages were able to participate. We used cities in the Bible (Paul’s Journey) as our stations, and challenges that Paul would have faced in these cities, some mental some physical. We have 60 people participate and everyone had so much fun and could not believe how well the treasure hunt worked out and how organized it was. Your planner kits was great I would recommend it to other churches and groups. Thanks for the help.
Hawkins Church Vicksburg Ms.
Julie Townley, Massachusetts
Friday, June 8th, 2007Michigan USA on memorial day weekend.
35 family members get together at our cottage for a fishing tournament and other games, softball, cards, cocktails, boating, tubing, etc.
Age range is 6-70 with about 10 under 13 years of age.
The theme title is the 5th annual Gregor family & friends fishing tournament.
Since the main event of the weekend is the fishing tournament the following day, many of the items in the treasure chest will be fishing related (fishing lures, and other tackle box items and kids fishing games and craft projects.)
Diane Gregor, Michigan USA
Friday, June 1st, 2007In San Diego on November 5th. A wedding with guests ranging from 2yrs to 80yrs!
Kristen Spoon, California USA
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Once we got the treasure hunt started, it went pretty smoothly. I had teams of one adult and one kid, and I mixed them up, so usually the parent didn’t get their own kid. I thought that would help the neighbors get to know other people’s kids a little better. Everyone had lots of fun and much laughter was heard. The only thing I regret is not having it all in the same room, because some of the tasks were quite funny! The tasks were a bit of a challenge because I had to configure them so that all can participate (we had ages from 2 to 54). So some tasks were better done by the small kids and some tasks were better done by the adults. All in all, I was very pleased and am looking forward to planning my a treasure hunt for my daughter’s birthday party in two weeks, which means I better get cracking now!
Thank you very much, that was $30 well spent.
Terri Harmon, Illinois USA
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007I am planning a treasure hunt in Washington, USA. Saturday April 23rd, For my best friend’s birthday. Guests are aged between 21 and 70.
I appreciate your e-mails ~ checking up on me to see if I am progressing at an appropriate pace, and I think I am. Thank you for your concern.
Good Luck with your endeavor, I will drop you a line when I can tell you how the party turned out.
Genie Sunshine, Washington USA
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007I had no problems downloading ‘the treasure!’ And I’d be glad to share my plans, as well as a final review, after the event. I’m currently printing out the rest of the document (of course, I ran out of paper this week, so it is a staged process!) and starting to plan my hunt, using your ideas and theme to construct this year’s treasure hunt event.
Here’s the story — a tale of two families. Rachel and I were neighbors while our children were young (we each had 4 kids). Although our families are mostly grown up now, we are still best of friends, as are our children that were essentially raised together. Once a year, we ALL go on a 4 day tent camping trip together. This has become a gathering of 30 people.
Adults, young adults, teenagers, elementary children, and now a couple of toddlers! Every few years when my kids were young, I’d do neighborhood treasure hunts or scanvenger hunts for their birthday parties. Then, for the kids on our annual camping trip I’d do some sort of hunt.
Last year, no hunt. I ran out of ideas. It turned out, the kids were disappointed. So I started searching the web and libraries early this year for ideas to beg, borrow, steal, or buy! And I found you!
* This year, Fr. Hennepin State Park, Isle, MN. * Every year, we assign a new committee of 2 to decide * where next years camping trip will be. * We are Minnesotans, so it is always in MN, WI.
* July 20 - 24. The actual hunt will depend on the weather * and scouting out the campground locations that I can use.
2 - 62 age range. But, while I debated on whether it would be better to set up separate hunts for elementary, teen, adults — or maybe build the teams with members of each age group; whatever I do, I need to take the teen’s competitiveness into account. THEY WANT TO WIN!
* This year, I’m going to go with your Pirate theme. * I appreciate very much that you offered to help with questions. * But, your ideas that you published will keep me going * for awhile yet. * However, if I get a brainstorm wonderful idea, * I’ll let you know.
* Thanks, again!
Eileen Blackwood, Minnesota USA
Monday, May 28th, 2007Hi Nikki: I am planning a hunt for my fiance for his 51st birthday. We are having family (ages6+- 73) and of course his contemporaries. We should total about 40 people. He is a man with everything so when friends were telling us of cache hunts I got inspired and started my search. We live in a 15,000 sq foot home on a mountain top in Huntsville AL so many places to hide things. His birthday is in July right after our wedding which is two days earlier so obviously lots on my plate. I am sure I will have many questions and am grateful for this contact with you-very kind. Warmest Regards,
Cathleen Jackson, Alabama USA
Monday, May 28th, 2007Treasure hunt is in Illinois November 18th and October 30th I bought it for my daughter’s 11th birthday and thought it would also be great to use at a neighborhood halloween party (50s through 2s).
This looks like it will be a lot of fun.
Terri Harmon, Illinois USA
Thursday, May 24th, 2007Dear Nikki:
Our treasure hunt is in Sapporo, Japan, it’s a mini summer ‘festival’ for my students, aged 5 - 12
As for the challenges: at one station, the students have to ask & answer 30 English questions in their group; at station 2, the students have to ‘fish’ for English words (reading each word before putting it into their bucket); at station 3, the students will have to look at picture cards and say the words before getting their piece of the puzzle; and at station 4, I will say a word then the students will have to go through some obstacle course in order to get the item; at station 5, the students will have to answer ‘What Am I’ quizzes in order to get a puzzle piece; and I’m stumped for a station
6 idea (possibly have each group dress up in crazy costumes–which I must supply–and take a group photo)……
Sincerely,
Cheri Hayashi, Japan
Thursday, May 17th, 2007Hi Nikki,
I have actually purchased the Treasure Hunt game for two parties. The first one involves my Sunday School class (I am one of the leaders, not in the age group of 18 to 30!!!). The class is College Aged Young Single Adults from age 18 to 30. We are planning a retreat weekend and thought this game would be perfect for them. We are always looking for games for that age group.
The second group is for a state convention for pulmonary and vascular medical workers. Their meeting is in April but the lady in charge for this year’s event wanted to do a treasure hunt and have me come up with the ideas. When I saw your website it looked perfect.
The first group will probably do their thing outside, the second group will be inside at an Embassy Suites. Any help you can give me will be much appreciated.
The Sunday School group will be themed from the Bible, probably from the Old Testament.
The second group would need something with heart and lung theme.
Thanks for the follow up!!
Connie Wilson, Ohio USA
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Hi 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
Monday, May 14th, 2007Thank you the email. It’s nice to see an individual is associated with this purchase.
The party is taking place in Texas, USA.
The party will be September 9.
The party will be a birthday party for my son-in-law and husband.
The age range will be child to adult.
The theme is ‘Treasure Hunt’.
I’ve read through the planner today and will begin the planning process tomorrow.
Talk to you later.
Angie Pavlcek, Texas USA
Monday, May 7th, 2007Hi Nikki,
Thank you for your email!
I am looking forward to getting started planning our treasure hunt.
For the week of The 4th of July, I am having 25 close family members come to town…so this treasure hunt will be a fun event. The family members range in ages from 5-80; however, about 1/2 are kids and 1/2 are adults.
We have a small yard, big community park and lake nearby.
Thanks a million!!
Susan Robinson, North Carolina USA
Sunday, April 29th, 2007Hi Nikki, I must admit that I am not computer savvy and rely mostly on my 16 year old son to get me out of most jams I find myself in 
I was able to access the treasure hunt and Easter bonus hunt (which was awesome by the way) As for the hunt, my family is big on these type of events and I have been doing some variety for years.
Your kit was awesome, it saved me countless hours on the planning end and everyone really had fun. We do this event each Easter for my husband’s family. There are 4 brothers and we divide them into teams for the hunt. This was by far the most organized and stress free event. We did find that at the end only having one team retrieve the treasure map was a problem as two teams solved the puzzle simultaneously.
This is a great service and I truly am grateful that I found your web site.
p.s. the egg challenge was by far the most entertaining…..
Susan Rossi Cook, Massachusetts USA
Friday, April 27th, 2007Hi, 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