Archive for June, 2010
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Nikki-
I wound up dividing the two groups and the party was an absolute blast!!!! I really appreciate you emailing me back. You have WONDERFUL follow up! It is good to know that in the future having a one group hunt is always an option.
I gathered many tips from your book and added, changed, revised, etc. It was an incredible layout for brainstorming. I can’t thank you enough. I was unsure of my age group (15-16 yrs). They are at a really delicate age… but one of the boys from the party told my daughter that now all future parties are to be at our house!!!
Thanks again and God Bless!
Laura Veri, Missouri, USA
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Hi 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
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010it was a hit and I will be using it again in June and September. 
Sandy Andrew, Wisconsin, USA
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010I want to tell you about the party we gave for our grandsons. The whole evening turned out wonderful for both the kids and adults. Everyone tells us they cant wait until we have our next party.
Winnie Jones, California, USA
Monday, June 28th, 2010Hello 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
Monday, June 28th, 2010Thank you Nikki,
We just got back from our Church Harvest Festival, and everyone had a great time. They were running around enjoying themselves, and I got a lot of compliments on the Treasure Hunt. I modified the game for our needs, but we generally followed your guidelines. Thank you for your help and inspiration in making our outing a great time.
Blessings,
Rebecca Walsh, USA
Sunday, June 27th, 2010Our treasure hunt is in Kansas, a birthday party with guests ranging from 4 - 14 yrs. We will be having a pirate theme
Selena Varady, Kansas USA
Sunday, June 27th, 2010We had a Mall Scavenger Hunt for my daughters 12th birthday last Friday. It was a blast. I used some of your ideas and then added some of my own. They divided up into two teams by pulling a color out of a basket. Each team was given a gift bag with $2, a digital camera (we have keepsake photos), a pen and the list of items they needed to obtain. I gave them one hour. Some of the items were pictures of different things with the group. They were very cute and the girls had a blast. Each team came back with stories and as the evening went on at our home, the stories got funnier and funnier. Thanks for the help. It was a really good time. We are going away this weekend and there are 3 families traveling in 3 different cars. We are thinking of doing the interstate scavenger hunt. Just not sure if I will have the time to get it together before we leave.
LouEllen Michel, Maryland, USA
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Hi Nikki;
I love your "customer service"—except that its more than customer service! It’s personal and warm and I feel like I have a friend instead of a business transaction.
Now the burial place! We are fortunate in that we have many options. We walked the property again this morning and will probably choose a place next to a creek bed—(dry at the moment as
we have had no rain— under a huge Oak tree— and behind a hedge of evergreen fir. We like this place because the losers will be able to watch the retrieval activities from solid stable ground —not on a hill and no rocks.
I was very excited to find a wonderful Treasure Box—perfect size & shape (just like you expect a treasure chest to look)–It was unpainted so I stained it brown–and best of all the treasures I purchased fit into it perfectly.
We still have to work on the puzzle part and plan the stations. Time is getting short so we are under pressure with all the other tasks for the big week end.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
Lou Wilson, California, USA
Saturday, June 26th, 2010The treasure hunt was great. I downloaded the new adobe version, and then it worked.! Every thing went smoothly and the boys loved it! I will be doing more treasure hunts in the future!
Thanks,
Laura Morreale, New Jersey, USA
Friday, June 25th, 2010The treasure hunt was great. I downloaded the new adobe version, and then it worked.! Every thing went smoothly and the boys loved it! I will be doing more treasure hunts in the future!
Thanks,
Laura Morreale, New Jersey, USA
Friday, June 25th, 2010The treasure hunt was great. I will be using the hunt for many occasions. Thank you for a great party.
Mary Millar, Michigan, USA
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Thanks 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
Thursday, June 24th, 2010The treasure hunt was great. I will be using the hunt for many occasions. Thank you for a great party.
Mary Millar, Michigan, USA
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Thanks 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
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010I want to tell you about the party we gave for our grandsons. The whole evening turned out wonderful for both the kids and adults. Everyone tells us they cant wait until we have our next party.
Winnie Jones, California, USA
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Dear Nikki:
I’ve downloaded the planner and at first glance, it looks like there are lots of ideas that will work for our event after I tailor them to our needs.
Every July our church puts on a camp called, ‘Summer Hummer’. Ages 4- 5 stay only half a day, and each day I need to develop a new treasure hunt because the same children repeat the activities every day.
Ages 6 to 14 stay all day and the treasure hunt will be an activity the age groups participate in once. The groups are divided up, such as: ages 6-7 is one group, ages 8-9 is another, etc. All together there will be close to 900 kids! Wow, that takes my breath away. It’s really a blast, kids have a ball and so do the counselors. About 300 counselors participate. There’s craft people, snack people, story tellers, water slides, zip lines, luge racers, all sorts of field games: soccer, races, etc.
A theme is established by a company called Gospel Lights where we purchase the course. This year’s course is ‘Sonforce Kids’. During the week we emphasize a different element of the course. Monday is Trust, based on Exodus 1-2:10: Moses: Boy in a basket.
Tuesday is Unite, based on Esther 2-8: Esther: Queen at risk. Wednesday is Train, based on Daniel 1: Daniel: Servant of God. Thursday is Follow, based on Jeremiah 36-39: Jeremiah: Prophet in trouble. Friday is Lead, based on Numbers 13-14:9: Joshua: Spy in a strange land.
The setting is on a space station full of adventure and high drama leading the children to make good decisions based on the day’s Bible stories. I’m going to attempt to fashion clues and puzzles with a space theme.
I’ll have some help during the treasure hunt itself, but it will be up to me to figure out all the details and logistics of the hunt. It should be great! Thanks for all you do, you’ve given me some confidence and the beginning of some ideas to pull this off. I’ll keep you posted.
Regards,
Patty Pynch, Washington USA
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Hi Nikki;
I love your "customer service"—except that its more than customer service! It’s personal and warm and I feel like I have a friend instead of a business transaction.
Now the burial place! We are fortunate in that we have many options. We walked the property again this morning and will probably choose a place next to a creek bed—(dry at the moment as
we have had no rain— under a huge Oak tree— and behind a hedge of evergreen fir. We like this place because the losers will be able to watch the retrieval activities from solid stable ground —not on a hill and no rocks.
I was very excited to find a wonderful Treasure Box—perfect size & shape (just like you expect a treasure chest to look)–It was unpainted so I stained it brown–and best of all the treasures I purchased fit into it perfectly.
We still have to work on the puzzle part and plan the stations. Time is getting short so we are under pressure with all the other tasks for the big week end.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
Lou Wilson, California, USA
Monday, June 21st, 2010Nikki,
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
Monday, June 21st, 2010Our treasure hunt is in Kansas, a birthday party with guests ranging from 4 - 14 yrs. We will be having a pirate theme
Selena Varady, Kansas USA
Sunday, June 20th, 2010it was a hit and I will be using it again in June and September.
Sandy Andrew, Wisconsin, USA
Sunday, June 20th, 2010Thanks 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
Saturday, June 19th, 2010Hello 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
Saturday, June 19th, 2010Hi Nikki;
I love your "customer service"—except that its more than customer service! It’s personal and warm and I feel like I have a friend instead of a business transaction.
Now the burial place! We are fortunate in that we have many options. We walked the property again this morning and will probably choose a place next to a creek bed—(dry at the moment as
we have had no rain— under a huge Oak tree— and behind a hedge of evergreen fir. We like this place because the losers will be able to watch the retrieval activities from solid stable ground —not on a hill and no rocks.
I was very excited to find a wonderful Treasure Box—perfect size & shape (just like you expect a treasure chest to look)–It was unpainted so I stained it brown–and best of all the treasures I purchased fit into it perfectly.
We still have to work on the puzzle part and plan the stations. Time is getting short so we are under pressure with all the other tasks for the big week end.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
Lou Wilson, California, USA
Friday, June 18th, 2010Nikki,
We had our Treasure Hunt tonight and it was a great success! The occasion was our daughter’s 16th birthday party and we wanted to do something different that would also be challenging. There were 3 groups and they all really got into the game. The treasure was a treasure box pinata and because Sara will soon be getting her permit we tried to include a car theme. The treasure map led the winning team to the keys to the car that would unlock the trunk. The prize was found and all the partygoers enjoyed batting at the pinata!
Thanks for guiding us through the process with your great instructions and planning help. We’ll certainly use this game again!
Theresa Cook, Pennsylvania, USA