This weekend was just so much fun……we had a typical but absolutely fabulous nutty family time…
On Friday, the last official day of the school holidays (bar the weekend) “Im Busy” who is the only one still at school and Miss Nearly Independent, who has been with us for the University Hols and will also be going back to her routine life, decided that something special had be to be done….but what?? I needed to walk the dog and get some exercise but a promise I had made the night before about playing a game with everyone still lingered around me…..( and the righteous faces looking at me…)…so…I came up with an idea! A scavenger hunt!! We could form teams and I could take the dog and it would require lots of walking and running around! All stations covered…and it was a family game! Yes! (Wow I’m good!)
This is how we did it (just in case you’d like to follow suit). We formed three teams…imbalanced, but workable and the way everyone liked it, which in a biggish family is important…no arguments, no tantrums, peace…. ‘Stop hassling Me’, Miss nearly Independent and her boyfriend were on one team, ‘Im Busy’ and her school mate were on team two and by default ( because I appear to be least popular and my hubby who was going to partner me, wimped out,) I and the puppy were team three. Each team added six items of dubious and various nature to a list of findable objects and we set off into the surrounding town and area to find these, within an hour and without funding…tardiness would incur a fine and each item earned points…Hubby decided to have a lie down on the couch and wait for our return so that he could be an impartial judge of our efforts…hmm..
It was fun and each time we haplessly met up on our fevered run around laughter and excited screams could be heard…and a lot of resourcefulness was shown too!
Team one had an extra person advantage, but according to the boys Miss Nearly Independent was a handicap because she kept saying ‘no…you can’t do THAT….Oh my Gosh, you cant ask them THAT…someone is looking …’ etc as they behaved like only young boys can, climbing pawpaw trees on private property to obtain a Green Pawpaw off the list, rummaging through council bins to find an empty Beer bottle, and knocking on dubious doors to ask for a salt shaker….not a grinder, a shaker!
Team two was the most organized, thinking ahead and including items on the list that they already had a pretty good idea how to obtain ( some think this may have been cheating…I believe it was a sign of great creativity ) and so the Mermaid on the list was actually gettable for them in the form of a small statue found at said school mate’s house down the street…the others made do with a fairy statue and some lateral thinking and I made do with a piece of driftwood, seaweed and imagination…( everyone didn’t appear to share my imagination when it came to judging though).
Team three ( me and the puppy) felt severely handicapped by age( me), lack of discipline(puppy), and my fear of looking like a bag lady as I poked around for bits of rubbish while literally carrying a big bag to manage it all…but it was fun, and such a great way to get out of one’s comfort zone…people were really into the idea when I explained it to them while begging odd items on my travels…an especial thank you needs to go to the building site workers near the beach, the garage owner, the gentleman cleaning out his shed and the craft shop ladies…all of whom didn’t blink an eye at a sweaty, breathless, slightly distracted middle aged lady and a yappy over-friendly puppy, loaded down with an old broom, bits of wood, plastic containers and other luxury items…
So enough of that….to follow up on Saturday we all (Including hubby this time!) made our way to Alstonville where Miss Independent lives, to have lunch with her and friends at the Amazing Place. This little café has a hedge grown maze and a sheet of puzzling questions to answer as you go around the maze…and hopefully out of the maze…
Again we formed teams and tried, often in vain, to find and de-puzzle answers to the cryptic questions. It was another great family day….
While eating and drinking pretty good coffee etc, we availed ourselves of the many mind-bending puzzles that they leave out for customers to use. Lots of laughter and exasperation ensued!!! I was mortified that my patience levels were so low (this remains my only excuse for not solving one puzzle and I am sticking to it!), but definitely happy that I was responsible for producing such canny kids!
So….in the midst of all our busy-ness, awkward distances and the various complications of life, it is always rewarding to take family time…there is without a doubt nothing quite like it!
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