Not to toot my own horn, but I did so well in last year’s Easter treasure hunt I didn’t know how I was going to top that one. All I knew was that I wanted this year’s to incorporate a bit of reading, a bit of maths, an incorporation of our native language and traditional childhood games… you know, treasure hunt but make it educational. A huge ask.

I don’t know why I set myself up for these overwhelming tasks when most moms simply hide eggs around the house and get their kids to look for them and call it a day. I take it to the next level and then hate myself for complicating things when I’m not congratulating myself for being a bloody genius.

I was so close to telling her the Easter Bunny doesn’t exist. But I didn’t have the heart to break her heart. Not when she was so excited to show me the Easter paper basket she made during vacation care that she said we could use for our treasure hunt.

Oh, yeah, because I promised her a treasure hunt. Or maybe just casually mentioned it but the idea stuck and she held on to it tight.

It was so cute how she left her Easter basket on the bedside table on Easter Eve before she went to bed. She said she was going to leave it there in case the Easter Bunny stopped by.

What wasn’t cute was that I did not buy any chocolate eggs at all because I bought Ferrero Rochers instead. She doesn’t eat them, but I do. A little Easter treat for me. Tee-hee.

I didn’t want her to wake up to an empty basket so I called Jeff to bail me. Grab me a chocolate egg or two at the petrol station on his way home from a shoot. But not the solid ones that are choking hazards. So he was there at Coles at 11:00+ in the evening squishing every brand of chocolate egg he could find and buying the most squish-able one. Threw a bunny in for good luck.

So when I said was a genius, I googled a lot of ideas to help me with the hunt. Those that applied to my theme, I stole. Like the catchy clues here and there. Not everything, though. At some point, I got pretty inspired to come up with a bit of my own poetry. Nothing that will knock your socks off but enough to maybe earn me an A for ayffort.

So the object of the game was to follow the clues and do whatever activity it said before she could move on to the next clue where the Ferrero Rocher reward (for me) will be waiting. The series of clues would lead her to the location of the treasure. (No dodgy treasure maps this year.) Her Auntie El was her partner in finding it.

So she did the whole XOX game where she was the cat, of course. El was the dog. She had to win a round. Even made her play tanday-tanday, which is this Filipino game I used to play as a kid wherein players throw their rubber bands on the floor and whoever overlaps them gets to keep both rubber bands for themselves. Something like that. An introduction to Filipino culture.

In the process of brainstorming, I knew I wanted her to play Hangman but an even better idea occurred to me. I made it a title of the book her next clue was in. She knew to look for it in her bookshelf. But to make it more challenging, she had to read a couple of pages of the book, as well. For literacy purposes.

For maths, I set up a mini shop with prices on her wooden kitchen toys. She needed to buy everything on the bunny’s list and then add them all up at the payment counter manned by a teddy bear.

The hula hoop challenge was just for fun. Because I love watching her shake her little bum. Maybe file it under PE.

Now, for the final clue, I took this inspiration from an online source so I can’t really get credit for it much as I want to because it’s a brilliant one. It’s like a game of crack the code, but Lego version. The answer was hinayhay, a bisaya word for ‘clothesline.’ That was where I hung the treasure.

As for the treasure, I got her some Smiggles stuff that I secretly bought the day before. It was a bit of a challenge as Raven was there as well but I somehow managed to sneak them in to the cashier after some whispered negotiations of how it was all going to be an Easter surprise.

Too bad the squishee broke the day after. Oh, well.

Big thanks to Beverly of Bebz Cakes & Sweets for this really cute Easter cookie package. Definitely a work of art and lots and lots and lots of love.

*Raven at 5 years old