Archive for July, 2009
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Dear Nikki,
We had a wonderful "Americal Halloween Party" in the midst of Austria (Europe). I teach english for kids with a program called "Show Me The World" and like to do some extracurriculum activities with the kids. I tought them about the jack-o-lantern and where the name halloween comes from. we made stuffed apples, i brought pumpkin pie and after the scavenger hund we broke the jack-o-lantern piniata and had a great time.
The scavenger party planner I found to be very useful, would you have anything on treasure hunts as well?
best wishes,
Genia Lackey, Austria
Friday, July 10th, 2009Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the instant treasure hunt game-it was a blast and so much fun! For next time, we will need to better prepared-my daughter wanted to do it all and selected 45 clue-too many for this party. She also wanted to have colored envelopes which I made from paper-that was fun but too time consuming. I am looking forward to using this again for my little one’s 6th birthday in October. Or maybe we will try out the scavenger hunt.
Thanks so much!
Karen Kruidenier, Pennsylvania, USA
Friday, July 10th, 2009Thanks so much Nikki. Having your email and your quick responses have given me a lot of confidence in the product. I have downloaded but have not yet read through the book. The party isn’t scheduled until May 25 - but it will be sponsored by our parent’s guild (a group of parents that do fundraising for a grammer school) and since we need to have our school year calendar of events completed for printing prior to school starting, it was really vital that I was able to determine if a treasure hunt would work. The venue will be our annual family picnic in a large community park and this will be the 1st year we will introduce a planned, structured game at this event - I am hopeful that it will become part of the school tradition. I will keep you posted!
Thanks again for all your help.
Take care,
Coleen Peters, massachusetts, USA
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Our treasure hunt is scheduled for December 15th and is going to be a big one. This is for my son’s 9th birthday party and is the 4th year that we have done a treasure hunt. The kids in our church, family, and neighborhood look forward to it every year so I am excited about this year’s to see how it compares to the past years. I am an early planner because there are so many kids participating and I will be finalizing the details for the hunt this week. You may be hearing from me needing some advice. I will be sure to let you know the turn out.
Excitedly Awaiting,
Melissa Vance, Arkansas, USA
Thursday, July 9th, 2009We had the treasure hunt on Saturday. It was great! Thanks!
Erin 
Erin Kenneally, California, USA
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009Found what I needed and the list were very helpful. Thank you for this
product.
Susan Thorington, Alabama, USA
Monday, July 6th, 2009Dear Nikki,
We are holding my son Andrew’s 7th birthday party at a bowling alley. The theme is "Pirate Bowling". I am not quite sure where I will hide the treasure (which will be an actual wooden priate chest filled with rinestone "jewels", plastic "gold coins", and ring pop lollipops), but it will have to be somewhere in the party room we have been delegated, so… I thought maybe I would hide it under one of the tables inside a cardboard box, then the last clue could be: "This very last clue will lead the way, and you will find the treasure today. Set sail right away for the party room, to sing a happy birthday tune, then dig through cardboard if you are able, to find the chest buried under the table."
We are also giving out "party bags" in the form of small plastic treasure chests (that lock with a key) filled with plastic gold coins, skull lollipops, gem gummies, pirate rings, and a small keychain compass (that actually works), as well as a pirate map, rolled up and tied with a red ribbon.
The invitations are the Oriental Trading Company’s "Invitation in a bottle" that comes with an eye patch. I am also considering hiring a "pirate" to come to the party and "lead the treasure hunt". I purchased a lock for the chest and a bunch of "dummy keys" and I thought we could put all of the keys in a glass bowl and let each child pick one, then when the treasure is "found" each child can attempt to unlock it with their key. When even the birthday boy’s key will not open the lock the pirate will reveal that he actually has the key around his neck on a red ribbon. He then gives the key to Andy to open the chest revealling all of the goodies.
Thanks
Laura Greenberg, California, USA
Sunday, July 5th, 2009Nikki,
We did our treasure hunt for a Halloween party we hosted. It was a huge success. I had 14 boys, ages 5-10, and we did it in the house. I spent countless hours after my kids went to bed getting prepared. I couldn’t wait and was hoping the kids would have as much fun doing it as I had planning. I had great parent helpers. Surprisingly, the winners were the "little" guys team.
You are a genius!!!! As a non-creative thinker, I could never have come up with something so much fun. The only major change I made was the bobbing for apples station. I felt it would be too messy, and not so sanitary. Instead, I had them remove some "body parts" from the patient in the Operation game. They got a big kick out of that. Otherwise, I followed the Halloween version very closely.
Thanks again!
Gretchen Birch, ohio, USA
Saturday, July 4th, 2009It 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
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Hey 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
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Nikki,
Just wanted you to know that our 4th grade treasure hunt was a great success. The kids had a ton fun and requested that we have another one later in the year. Thanks for putting together such a well organized party.
Kim Licken, Ohio, USA
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The Treasure hunt went well. I intermixed some clues we personalized. I think this went over well and they were the more exciting clues for us. All had a great time and it got the kids out of the house enjoying fresh air. Cheap at the price! Thank you! Sorry no photos taken, too busy keeping up with the kids!
Cathy McDermott, New York, USA