When Chris was a kid, his parents created treasure hunts for birthdays. He fondly remembers these hunts, which ended with finding his birthday gifts, and wanted to do something similar for Ada. She is now old enough to enjoy this kind of game, but as she does not yet read Chris came up with the idea of photographic clues. I snapped a bunch of pictures and we printed them out and hid them around the house the night before her birthday. On Sunday morning I ran outside in my pajamas to hide the presents, and then we told Ada to look around the living room for something that looked out of place. We told her that when she found it she'd have her first clue in her treasure hunt. She quickly located this photo:
That led her to this:
which she identified as magnets on our (metal) back door and which led her to:
the shoe basket outside the front door, which took her to:
an old Ikea cd shelf (empty as a baby-proofing measure). This one was a little tricky, but eventually she figured it out and found this inside:
An even older Ikea box with finger holes. And on to:
...our refrigerator. Though she easily identified the fridge, finding the next photo inside proved somewhat difficult. It was too close to her face, in the door of the fridge.
Next was a plastic basket with art supplies in it. The photo inside took her to:
A baby toy, which led her to:
The recycling container. This one was pretty hard. We spent some time talking about things that were blue and plastic in our house. Eventually that led us to the recycling, which contained a picture of:
A drawer pull. This was a little tricky, because we've actually been keeping these drawers in the closet because Ian and Mira were pulling them out and we were a little afraid they'd hurt themselves when they eventually dropped on their feet. (We put the drawer back for the hunt.)
Inside the drawer was the last clue:
A photo from Ada's third birthday party. It features her playhouse, so we ran outside and she found her presents inside the little house. We took them back in, where she opened up some gifts from Chris and me, along with an amazing knit crown from our pal Stephanie. Ada wore the crown all day, but somehow I managed not to get a picture of her. For once I put the camera down and just enjoyed the day. I think the trade off was worth it.
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