A Mother's Day Treasure Hunt

It's a long-standing tradition around here to hide clues and make the Mom  (or Dad, if it's Father's Day) search for the prize.

Clue 1:

So..."number of children I got right away" (5).
The second part had me wondering.  Every other reader in the room seemed to know the answer already and couldn't believe it took me so long to figure it out.

Hmm...could it be that they were in on the planning?  At any rate, I finally came up with the answer.  "K" is the eleventh letter in our 26-letter alphabet.  The clue was "5K".  That could only mean one thing!

Clue #2 was hidden somewhere on the treadmill.

A logic puzzle!  This one was taken from a book and modified to fit members of our family.  Of the six people named, I had to figure out who the "giver" was.

This took me a very, very long time but I loved every minute of it!  Especially when I figured it out.  Sean!  Sean was the giver. 
What did that mean?

I looked from person to person.  "What does it mean?"  Nobody said anything.  I thought of the Amazing Race.  "Sean, do you have something to give me?"
"Yes!  I do," he said.

With that, he handed me Clue #3.

Hey!  I recognize that mouse-brown hair.  That's me, and it looks like I'm teaching school.  I'm writing science stuff on the board.  The next clue was either hidden in somebody's science book, or on the dry erase board.


I hobbled down the steps, limped into the classroom (my left foot is not fond of my couch-to-5K efforts, but I am continuing anyway), screaming happy children following close behind...to find Clue #4 written on the dry erase board.

"cara libro" it said.

Hmmm...must find the Spanish-to-English dictionary.
caro-face, opposite, ...and a whole lot of other words. 
libro I knew was "book".


Opposites Book?  We have several children's books that could fit that description. 

The clue-makers groaned.  They couldn't believe I didn't get it right away.

Not "opposites book?" I queried.  Ummm..."face...book?"
OH!  FACEBOOK.

Off to check my FACEBOOK messages.  There was one.  It was from Holly.

It read something like:   enw tincbae  which I quickly (ha!) deciphered to be "new cabinet".  Off I went.

Inside the new cabinet was Clue #6.  A tough one.  "A stamped clue!"  I was so excited.

What could it mean?  What could it mean?...What could it meaaaaaan?  I began spouting off phrases and words that came to mind. 

"Brain time"
"Thinking time"
"Time to Think"
"The Space-Time Continuum"

They laughed.  They rolled their eyes.  They couldn't believe I hadn't figured it out yet.  Finally they gave me a hint.  "What was the first thing you said?" and eventually I figured out that the design wasn't the clue, but the tools used to make the design was the clue. 

"STAMPS!!!!  The clue is in my stamping room!"  I was giddy.  Once again, I hobbled down the steps and limped into my stamping room, followed closely by six observers.  There it was--Clue #7 nestled safely under the brain stamp.

It was another jumble of letters.

To their delight, and my dismay, this one took way, way longer than it should have to figure out.

 "care mice?"
No.

 "camera?"
No.

 "rice came?"
No.

"crime ace?"
No!



Oh.
"ice cream!!!"

YES--off we all ran, back up the steps to the kitchen.

Clue #8 was set on top of a box of ice cream in the freezer.

Another scrambled word.  I was sure it was "fount", but since that made no sense I had to keep working on it.

Turns out, the word is "futon" and that is where the presents were hidden.  Behind the futon!

Liam wants to make sure I get to the futon.

Hurray!

They gave me wind chimes.  They gave me flowers and chocolate.  They gave me stamped cards, and not-stamped cards.  It was wonderful.

 Later in the day, Liam picked some purple flowers from the lawn for me.

Our center cabinet is waiting on doors and shelves, so this seemed the perfect spot to display the
beautiful cards and flowers.

This was taken before the fun began.  Declan just woke up and is not yet in a treasure hunt mood.

He soon will be.

Thank you, children and Thank you, husband. 
What a memorable and fun day it was!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Grandmoms and Godmothers!

Waffle Thursday

Most days of the week we have cold cereal for breakfast. Sometimes we have bagels. There is the odd omelet or pancake breakfast. The most special of breakfasts though, include freshly baked waffles.

On many, many occasions my children would plead for waffles. I felt guilty each time I said, "Not today" and then witnessed their disappointment at having to eat boring old cereal again.

The thing is, I love waffles as much as the next guy, but they are not something I can just jump into at a moment's notice. There are ingredients to measure, equipment to assemble--an appliance to retrieve from the cabinet and plug in for goodness sake. I have to be mentally prepared for such a task at so early an hour.

To ease my poor children's suffering, and to add a little routine to our weeks I suggested that we institute "Waffle Thursday". The deal was that I would bake waffles every Thursday morning, and they would not ask for them ever again. Sweet deal! Since September we've kept the bargain. I half expected the waffle-lust to have fizzled by now, some nine months later, but no. Their zeal is as strong as ever.

Having an excuse to eat chocolate before 9 AM is worth the extra cleanup in my opinion. I sprinkle a few chips onto the waffles just before closing the lid.


If my husband were home, he'd slather them with massive quantities of butter, then load them up with syrup. Since I do not wish to serve my poor, sweet, young children a cardiovascular event on a plate, we slice the waffles into strips with a pizza cutter, then sprinkle on a little powdered sugar.

Cutting them into strips makes it easy to eat them with our fingers--another treat!

Sometimes we have to wait for the waffles. I make them stand in a line. Any "me firsts" go to the back of the line.
Sean looks like he could use a nap.
Happy Waffle Thursday!


Recipe follows
The Dry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar

The Wet:
2 eggs
1-3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Additional Goodness:
about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon the batter onto a hot waffle iron and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Makes 16 waffles.