Egg Hunt

I have "children" that still like to hunt Easter eggs. So that they could all hunt, they set me with the task of hiding the eggs. They also thought it would be fun if it was more like a scavenger or treasure hunt with clues to work out where the eggs were hidden.

So with 80 acres to work with, I thought I could come up with the 50 clues they wanted. We wanted the clues to be a little challenging without being impossibly hard. We planned to use our two four-wheelers to get around, so we decided to have two teams. To complicate things, we also decided to have the two teams hunting in opposite directions so they wouldn't be going to the same places at the same times.

I rode around the property one day in the Mule to get ideas. I drew a map to remind me of the locations. Then I spent a couple of hours coming up with the clues. I'm so glad I decided to type them out on my computer, because it took me awhile to work out the logistics.

I'd bought 100 colored plastic eggs from Walmart for about $4. Daughter helped divide them into two color groupings for two teams that we called Yellow-Orange-Green and Blue-Pink-Purple. I printed out three sets of clues (one for each team and one for me) and cut the clues into little strips. Guv'nor drove the Mule around as I put the clues in each set of eggs as we hid them in the various locations. It took us a couple of hours and we ended up hiding the last few in the dark.

After our Sunday lunch of shepherd's pie, everyone changed out of their Sunday clothes and were ready for the hunt. The teams were previously decided. YOG: Daughter 2, Daughter 3, and Son. BPP: Daughter 1 and Fiance'. After a few clues the green four-wheeler died so Team YOG had to abandon it and use the Mule. Guv'nor and I watched from the porch. With my extra set of clues I could tell which clues they were on and if they had gone wrong. Each team phoned home a couple of times for extra hints.

Team BPP finished first in 1 hour, 10 minutes, but had a slight advantage since their four-wheeler hadn't broken down. We gave Team YOG an extra 10 minutes for their trouble with the four-wheeler and they came in just as the extra 10 minutes was up. So we called it a tie.

I think I'll have to make the clues harder next year.

The plastic eggs were very colorful.

Each clue was on a strip of paper stuffed into the egg.

Here's my little map.

Here's a sampling of my clues.

The two teams at the starting line.