Rainy Halloween: Trick-or-Treat Scavenger Hunt

Last night, our Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating with Emily’s and her sister’s kids got RAINED OUT! But never fear, it is re-scheduled for Saturday! So, while you’ll have to wait an extra couple of days for copious photos of costumed cousin cuteness – they WILL be posted! In the meantime, I have another “treat” for you.

When I heard that Beggar’s Night was going to be postponed, I was like, OH NO THE KIDS ARE GOING TO CRY AND I CAN’T TAKE IT! Immediately my mind-brain sprang into action. I only had about an hour before they got home so I had to act fast. And really quickly, an idea formed: I’d make the kids a trick-or-treat scavenger hunt – complete with actual tricks. I had a few items I’d bought on clearance recently for stocking stuffers and I decided those and a few pieces of candy would be their treats. I grabbed 10 paper bags from the pantry and numbered them with a Sharpie. Then I filled them with various tricks and treats and set about writing clues to tell the kids where to look. Then I had to hide them all really quickly; I finished the set up with about 10 minutes to spare.

When the kids got home, I gave them the bad news but then told them to grab their trick-or-treat buckets anyway because I had a scavenger hunt for them. They were SO excited! So I got my silly clues ready and read them aloud one by one.

The first bag had treats: two pieces of candy for each. The second bag was my favorite. It was a trick – a bag full of pine cones from the trees in our front yard. The clue for it was: “Here’s a clue that’s kind of naughty! Search in the place where you go potty!” I placed the bag full of pine cones on the toilet seat and with “#2” written on the bag, I thought it was a pretty hilarious potty joke! The kids didn’t get that part of it but I had a good laugh and they thought the trick in general was hi-larious. They loved all my tricks: a bag full of socks, a can of three-bean salad, and some of Jonah’s old shoes. Their treats were things like LEGO Friends pencils for Sophie and an Ironman notebook for Joshua. They cracked up at all my silly, rhyming clues and we had an awesome time.

At the end of the scavenger hunt, they had a small bounty of treats, (only 4 pieces of candy because they are still going to get plenty on Saturday) and we all had very happy hearts. I am glad my spontaneous idea worked out and that I went for it. For once, being a “fun mom” worked out for me.