Hi! Around here we don't celebrate Halloween, so we've made up our own fun holiday! :o) We have a treasure hunt every 15th of October!

I buy lots of plastic gold coins, cheap, toy "jewel" rings, and candy and hide them in a metal tin or something that can be buried in the ground. Sometimes, I just put the treats in brown paper bags that I've drawn fall leaves on, and then I hide them in bushes or under piles of leaves or at the park in the barbecue chimneys there. :o) The really fun part, though, is when I think up clever, little rhymes - always in "pirate's English" ;o), and print them out on fall-colored paper of red, orange, yellow and brown.

FOR PARENTS ONLY:

Next, I very, very carefully - because this could easily start a fire - burn around the edges of each paper that has a clue on it, with a lighter. (I just print out the clues on sheets of paper and then cut them apart before I burn around their edges.) I have to light a section of paper on fire and then blow it out right away, light a section on fire and blow it out right away, so as not to burn up the whole clue! :o) I strongly suggest doing this over the kitchen sink, where there is water right there, and please make sure the kitchen, window curtains are NOT blowing around!!! Tie your long hair back too, and don't wear lose clothing, etc.! This part is definitely very dangerous! This is definitely something that children should NOT do!!!!!!! This is a "Mommy" project! :o)

After I've finished all the clues, I leave the first one for the children to read at the start of the hunt. Ye first clue be the one that leads ye to the second one! ;o) When the children find the second clue, it tells them where to find the third clue and so on. Ye can be makin' as many clues as ye like, mate, but be ye shore ye last clue leads them little mates to ye treasure! If you have children that are very far apart in age, no problem! Just draw pictures on each clue that leads to an object where the next clue can be found, ie: in the mailbox, in the branches of a bush, or under a chair on the porch. It's fun! :o)

The children always have a blast with this fun holiday activity! We've invited neighbor kids to our Octoberfest Treasure Hunt, and they turn out for this even if they don't show for anything else! :o) One year, the children all dressed up as pirates for the hunt. :o) I've got a very adorable photo of that mutinous crew on my refrigerator! ;o) We've had great fun making the invitations to our treasure hunt, as well.

Year-before-last I sat down with some fall-colored construction paper and made every invitation look like a treasure chest. : ) I glued a few "pearl" beads on the fronts of them and sprinkled glitter over the front of each invitation. Then I try to write something clever in each one, along with the time and place, etc. Like this: "RSVP to (phone number) to let Captain Smith know if ye be comin' or not, or be ye thinkin' .....mutiny?"

Have Fun!!! :o)

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