I told myself I was just going to do a normal Easter egg hunt. Just hide eggs around the house and yard and make little Easter baskets with jellybeans and other treats for the kiddos.
But then, about a week before Easter, my oldest whispered to me, "Mommy, you can start the scavenger hunt outside my door so when I open my door in the morning I'll know where to start."
And that's how we got here:
It started with a traditional hunt. The kiddo and his two friends ran around the yard retrieving all 112 eggs stuffed with change (i.e. pennies, nickels, quarters, the occasional random Euro). While they were emptying the eggs and counting them up, I snuck out and set up the REAL scavenger hunt.
Enter Cate R. Pillar, a caterpillar who got stuck in a computer.
The kiddos helped Cate R. Pillar recover her memories by solving different types of puzzles around the house and yard. For example, Cate remembered "5 special things," and a photo (of our backyard) popped up with a few markers of where to look. The kids tore out of the house and ran to the tree line where they found flowers in little flower pots.
Hidden in the base of the flower pots were scraps of paper that, when arranged correctly, spelled out the word "transform." The kiddos then told Cate about what they found and then got their next clue.
This clue, plus a hint on where to start, and the kids were out the door again following strategically placed butterfly stickers, angled in such a way as to point to the next one. This lead them to the park and finally the Wheel of Knowledge.
The reported back to Cate who then asked a series of questions about the lifecycle of a butterfly which could be answered by consulting the wheel. The last puzzle looked like this:
To my heart's delight, my oldest Kiddo figured out that consulting the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar would be helpful, and he and his friends found the book and used it to solve the puzzle. One of the kiddos exclaimed, "that's called research!"
With all the information in hand, Cate tried to turn into a caterpillar. However, she was stopped by the following error message:
Here, the kiddos figured out at the butterflies were all secondary colors and, with a little support from the adults in the room, noticed a string of decorative butterflies containing a red butterfly, a blue butterfly, and a yellow butterfly. On the back of the red, blue, and yellow butterflies were unique numbers and added together gave the correct code number. For example, the red butterfly had a 1 one the back and the blue butterfly had a 4. Red + Blue = Purple -> 1 + 5 -> the answer for purple is 6.
With the transformation code provided, Cate was able to transform into a butterfly.
And of course as thanks for helping her out, Cate let the kids know that there was a special thank you gift (aka their Easter baskets) hidden in their room. The End.
Happy Easter!
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