Over months, we all pack nearly 500 plastic eggs. But the best part is the gold, silver, and bronze egg. They are hidden so that no one could find them, unless they figure out my puzzles. While they have been described, in whiny tones, as “unfair” and “too hard”, the motivation is there; the gold egg means a trip with the grandparents to near anywhere.
Easter is coming fast and all I have is this year’s silver egg puzzle (and I’m not too happy with it). Any ideas?
Recently, I’ve used crossword puzzles, simple substitution cryptography, sudoku (the solution gave the combination to a lock on a cage holding an egg :-)), picture hunts, treasure map-like directions, word search, and I’m probably forgetting a bunch. Typically I use their names as part of the gold egg puzzle, and I’m not committed to it but I’d like to this year again. I can’t though think of anything new (there are 31 grandkids, and so, for example, they were the crossword solutions and then certain letters in the solved puzzle had to be unscrambled to reveal the egg location). The kids range in age from 4 to 30, and the older kids do try for the gold egg (we try to make it so the 13 or above crowd get it, but also so that all of them can do some of it), so it can made be kind of hard (I’ll endure the whining :-)).
Just for fun I’ll post an old one. See if you’re smarter than my nieces and nephews :-). They couldn’t finish this one without hints. Posted below is part of the silver egg puzzle from two years ago. It’s the old catchphrase game; each one represents a common word or phrase. The twenty-fifth is missing, as it had my name in it (and they didn’t get it) :-).
The letters of the phrases helped lead to the egg but I’ll leave that out.
(Looking at it again, I’m not proud of one of them, too vague, but oh well…)
Anyway, if you have any new ideas, they’d be appreciated. If you have a good one I’ll put it together the night before Easter if needs be and so feel free to comment them in long after I post above this (well, make that the Saturday before Easter; most our family wouldn’t come if it were on Sunday :-)).
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5 comments:
??? "The kids range in age from 4 to 30 ..."
Does this mean that I'm too old to still be a kid?
I’ll always think of my nieces and nephews as kids, even those a couple years younger than me and even when we’re in our 80’s. :-)
Hm... 31, eh?
That's a calendar's worth of information... and their names... hm... what if it was a combination of having clues to people's names ( a getting-to-know-your-cousins thang ) and a calendar?
Ooo, I like using the calendar. I have done and like doing the getting-to-know thi-ang (great for cross word puzzles).
Maybe: Clues -> Names -> birth days -> directions to egg (or another combination lock)
Or Maybe Numbers -> dates -> birthdays -> names and use the letters of the names to makes words in the clues
I could maybe just hide numbers in the eggs corresponding to each bday, 314 for example, for today, and use letters from the names from each... I need more work :-)
(Anyone got all of 'em on the puzzle I posted?)
Two words:
Guitar Hero
XD
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