Treasure Hunt

One of my Mama goals this year is to do more fun stuff. Fun for the sake of fun and family and sharing the limited time we get when our kids are little. I am not super crafty, creative, or particularly good at dreaming up fabulous things for Anni and tribe to do. But I want to. Oh, please I really want to be better about planning and doing family fun nights, creating new traditions that our kids will remember and cherish, heck... I'll even take laugh at our cheesiness one day. So I started small: A Treasure Hunt. I really wanted Annikah to have a blast and get to do something special just for her and friends. And it helped the formally mentioned funk for me too! I made a big ol' list (ok, not so big as being creative here takes a bit more energy) of fun stuff we can do. So far: camping in our shamba, a scavenger hunt, relays at the beach, and family game nite have all made the list (ideas?). Well, Friday we had a scavenger hunt of sorts that ended in a hunt for treasure in our shamba. I thought up some clues of things the kids could do around the neighborhood or house: go to the duka and buy one yogurt, pick 7 flowers, sing the ABC's, jump rope 10 times, find a piece of a coconut, search for something yellow, fill the washing basin with water using plastic cups, complete the puzzle together, find 10 pieces of taka-taka (trash) and throw them away (like how I squeezed that one in), etc. The big thing was team work! They had to work together: the lil' watoto and the wakubwa. We talked it up all week and Anni asked everyday "how many more naps until the treasure hunt?" She was pumped! We included Lusi, Mika, another friend of theirs, and our team leader's 4 kids. Watoto from shule heard the commotion and jumped the wall and opened the fence to see if they could join in but after promising that we would play this game for our Christmas party at shule I chased them away. They acquiesced because I explained they could not play later at our party if they discovered the secrets now (note to self: plan Christmas party for shule). Wazungus are always up to weird things and I think they were satisfied :) Before the kids got the last clue to search the basil plants for a water bottle containing the treasure map we read some passages form scripture in English and Kiswahili about real treasure. I guess that came from the teacher within and I do hope my kids enjoy hiding the Word in their hearts even more than they love searching and uncovering a shiny "treasure" box full of pipi (candy), shiny new pencils, and cookies. Oh and at the bottom of said treasure box was 100 shilling coins for all...Anni is still debating of what to do with her riches...
Welcome to our Treasure Hunt (and thanks Doro for taking pictures since I managed to not take even one!)
listening to the "rules" of the game

singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

ready for the next clue

even Evy was in on the teamwork....ok..she mostly tried to eat the puzzle peices

Anni was very pleased that she found the water bottle with the map inside!

where, oh where could the treasure be? The best was when I pointed out the "shimo" or water hole as a landmark on the map and asked "what is this?" The answer: "the ocean." (because of my universal wave=water drawing). Nope, not quite but they got that the treasure was under a tree and after only one try they found it:)

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.