a treasure hunt
We had a quiet day today: Zion wasn't feeling well, and he spent pretty much all day on the couch. In the early afternoon I was worrying that the rest of us wouldn't get outside at all, but before I could suggest am activity to get us moving Harvey came up with something better than anything I would have thought of. He'd been thinking of treasure maps, and yesterday and Grandma's house he found an old yellowed piece of paper that was perfect for an antique chart. So he drew a map of the yard, and then headed out to bury some treasure.
Ideally he would have had Zion to solve his puzzle: I got it too fast, and Lijah has very little treasure-finding experience (in treasure hunts as in many things he just wants someone to give him the answer; none of this process business for him!). But the two of us working together did well enough. Harvey didn't do things by half: when we dug at the spot shown on the map we found a tupperware with a piece of paper giving us clues to another spot to dig. That time we found candy, much to Lijah's delight. Then half an hour later Harvey had another hunt for us, this time with two clues before the final payoff.
I was pretty impressed with the whole thing—the map-making of course, but even more the digging! Of course as a joyless old person I tend to think that there are very few places in the lawn that should be dug up, but I tried to suppress that grumpy thought. After all, who cares about grass or perennials when there's treasure to be found!