Birthday Musings

Today, my niece Kylie turns 13 years old. Tomorrow Emily will be 12. A couple weekends ago I took the birthday cousins out for a birthday adventure. Often, I ask them what they want to do, but this year I went with the element of surprise. They knew we would be spending the day together, but that's all they knew. 

For their birthdays this year we went on a chocolate scavenger hunt. At the beginning of our trip, I gave them each a bag to collect items,$20.00, and a list of items they needed to obtain/complete by the end of the day. For a little healthy competition, they competed against me in this little game. 

Here's the list of items we had to obtain/complete: 

 • Chocolate in the shape of a flower
 • A picture of you giving a piece of chocolate to someone over 6 feet tall
 • Chocolate in a neon green wrapper
 • A picture of you eating a piece of chocolate next to a bear
 • A piece of fruit-flavored chocolate
 • A piece of chocolate with a weird ingredient in it
 • Something chocolate dipped
 • A piece of white chocolate
 • A picture of you giving a piece of chocolate to a gas station employee
 • A piece of chocolate from another country
 • A piece of chocolate in the shape of an animal
 • A piece of dark chocolate
 • A chocolate bar with a funny name
 • A picture of yourself giving chocolate to someone in an orange shirt/coat
 • A picture of yourself standing in front of a chocolate shop
 • A chocolate vegetable
 • A chocolate insect
 • A picture of yourself smiling in a chocolate shop
 • Proof you visited at least three chocolate shops today
 • The name of every chocolate shop you visited
 • A picture of you at every chocolate destination you visited today
 • A picture of the word “chocolate”
 • A picture of yourself eating a chocolate dessert at a restaurant
 • An “unusual” piece of chocolate
 • Some Godiva chocolate
 • A picture of you with a chocolate shop employee

This is us (Katrina, Kylie, Emily) at the beginning of our adventure.

Picture of "the word "chocolate"

Picture of "yourself eating a piece of chocolate next to a bear"

Picture of "yourself giving chocolate to someone in an orange shirt" 

Picture of "yourself giving chocolate to a gas station employee"

Picture of "yourself eating a chocolate dessert in a restaurant"

Picture "in front of one of the visited destinations that day" (This was a Hallmark store in a mall where we picked up some Godiva chocolate). 

Picture of "yourself giving chocolate to someone over 6 feet tall" (The Bubba Gump shrimp mascot)

Picture of "yourself smiling in a chocolate shop" (okay, Kylie is smiling and Emily is almost smiling, close enough). 

Picture of the girls "with an employee of a chocolate shop". This particular "employee" of the Droolin' Moose happened to be the owner. We told her what we were doing there, which also broke the ice and allowed the girls to become brave enough to ask to get their picture taken with her. She was intrigued by our adventure and gave each of the girls a free T-shirt. She then became forever endeared to them. It was, by far, their favorite stop of the day. (And I was ever so appreciative of her kindness). 

This is our collection of items for the day. The girls won the contest (they did/got everything on the list). And we all had a lot of fun along the way.  

My friend, Kim, gave me the idea of adding things to the list like "giving chocolate to someone else". I recommend including that element in your scavenger hunts. It kept the day from becoming too self-focused, added a challenge, and forced us to learn how to communicate with other people. 

It was a fun day with the nieces. Happy Birthday, Girls!