Treasure Hunt Party

This weekend we had Annalise's seventh birthday party. According to her, it was, "the best day EVER!!" We did have a great time. Did I mention before that she wanted to have a rock star party? I thought this was a great idea; we could do karaoke. All well and good except that half of her friends can't READ! So the rock star party was out. Somehow we ended up on the idea for a treasure hunt. Here's what we did:

Invitations: For invitations, I always have a picture of the birthday kid. For this one, we "hid" Annalise in the plants with her binoculars. The invitations read, "A treasure is hiding somewhere on our street. Where could it be? The puzzle's incomplete..." And a word to the wise about inviting kids to a party in September -- they all come. Not so in July, but in September, if you want 15 kids, then only invite 15 kids.

Preparations: This party had a lot of prep work before the kids got there. I divided the kids into 5 teams (4-5 kids per team, plus one team of 6 younger siblings). I wanted to divide the teams so that everyone knew at least one kid in their group. This meant the groups changed a bit as I got RSVPs. Then I mapped out where each group would go. It took some cross checking to make sure that the groups were spread out across the neighborhood and not all on top of each other. For the clues, I took pictures around the neighborhood, plus in our front and back yards. (I got the neighbors' permission first.) Then Jason printed them out onto cardstock and I wrote the address where that picture was taken on the clue. Then I cut them up and placed them in numbered envelopes, color coordinated with each team's color. (If you're doing this yourself, make sure you label each envelope with a post it saying where each clue is to be hidden.) Before everyone got there, I ran around the neighborhood hiding clues. (Another time saving hint -- group them by address so you can do them all at once.) This sounds kind of complicated, but it was actually pretty easy.

Activities: For a "craft" and something to do while waiting for all the kids to come, we decorated t-shirts. I had divided the kids (18 big kids and 6 younger siblings) into 5 groups. I ordered t-shirts online for just over $2 a piece. Each group was a different color and decorated a t-shirt in their color. (We used fabric markers and ribbons.) It was amazing what the kids came up with to decorate their shirts. One kid drew an awesome pirate. Lots of the girls made belts out of the ribbon.
When everyone was there and had decorated their shirts, I called all the kids inside for "rules:" things like you have to find all ten clues; don't take a clue that isn't your color, etc. Plus I showed them what they would be looking for and what their clues would look like all put together. (Meanwhile, Jason hid the front yard clues.) They got into their groups and introduced themselves to each other. Once again I had my incredible tutoring kids come to help; one kid per group. Then I gave them their first clue and they were off. It was great to watch them all working together to put together their puzzles and then running all over the neighborhood in their matching t-shirts.
The treasure boxes Jason hid at a point when all the kids were out of the backyard. (We have a hill in our backyard, and he hid all 5 boxes up there.) For the boxes, I found smallish used cardboard boxes at Ralph's market that were ready to be recycled. They were happy to let me have them. Then Zachary and I painted them each the five different colors with tempra paints. We filled them with goodies from Target. Each kid got a Halloween pencil and eraser, some gummy Lifesavers and a pack of gum. Also, I found those punch balloons, so they each got one of those. But the big hit were these balloon launchers. Each pack came with a pump and 20 balloons that blew up to be about three feet long.
When the hunt was over and we had sung happy birthday, we still had some time to kill. So the kids all took their balloon launchers into the street and launched balloons way up into the air. I was nervous about having time left over, but they were all having a great time playing with their balloons, so it actually turned out to be great.

Food: All we did was water bottles, pretzels and popcorn. (I find that kids are generally too busy to eat much at parties and I can't stand the waste.) For cupcakes, we frosted them with either chocolate or vanilla frosting and then put frosting polka dots in our five colors.

This party was soooo much fun. I think all the kids had a blast. And, aside from what went into the treasure boxes (which really could be as simple as you wanted), it was pretty inexpensive. I did no decorations, and used regular table cloths instead of the cheap plastic ones. And since the party was in the middle of the afternoon, I didn't feel like I needed to provide a whole lot of food. Also, since most of the set up was in making the clues, we didn't have a whole lot we had to do the day of the party. (In fact, Jason and Annalise were gone at soccer for most of the morning.) It was totally age appropriate and lots of fun!