The days of running around a big grass field grabbing at brightly colored, easily accessible Easter eggs are over.
My kids have to work for their treats now.
Sunday morning I set up a hunt that consisted of eggs with individual clues, each one leading to the next. A sort of National Treasure for Easter. At the end of the hunt was a basket with bigger treats in it.
The kids loved it, even though there were a few clues that made their brains hurt. The only downside is that now they want me to do this on a regular basis. I’m thinking maybe I should serve dinner this way. “Sorry kids, you can’t eat unless you decipher the 27 clues I’ve left for you all over town.”
Here are the clues I came up with, and the solutions that told them where the next egg was:
1. A penny, with the note “Read to me!”
At first they searched all the bookshelves in our house. It didn’t occur to them that the penny was part of the clue. Eventually they figured out that the next egg was behind my son’s framed picture of Abraham Lincoln reading to his son.
2. “I am a supporter of the arts.”
My daughter got this one, as she is the artist in the family. The next clue was in the basement, on her easel.
3. “Playful plural pronoun.”
This was funny, because they kept repeating, “We, they, you, them, ours….” After a few minutes it dawned on them. The next egg was behind our Wii.
4. “Say hello to yourself.”
The easiest clue. They ran straight to the bathroom and found the next egg under the mirror.
5. “Vasco Da Gama was looking for me.”
They immediately guessed India, then China, but couldn’t figure out where to look. Eventually they figured out WHAT Da Gama was looking for. The next egg was in our spice rack.
6. “What can you fill with empty hands?”
After a bit of brow scrunching, they made their way to the closet and found the next egg in our bag of gloves.
7. “The more I dry, the wetter I get.”
My daughter immediately guessed “the air” because of evaporation and water vapor. But she couldn’t figure out how I would hide an egg in the air. My son guessed a towel, and they found the next egg in the towel closet.
8. “Basil wants you to solve this: V=Pi times r-squared times height”
My son got this right away, thanks to his pre-Algebra studies. Basil is our cat, and the equation is the formula for the volume of a cylinder. The next clue was inside the cat’s food bin.
9. “Get ready to see the Hunter.”
Both kids ran to their bookshelves to look through their Warriors books, the author being Erin Hunter. But the next egg was actually in the book bag they use for their piano lessons. You see, their teacher is named Mrs. Hunter.
10. “With this gold, you can go far.”
The final clue led them to the garage, and into our car, which is colored gold.
First published in April 2010
