It's all how you spin it...

J loves treasure maps…she has a soft leather map that came with her cowboy costume that she pulls out from time to time. This past weekend she decided to recreate the map in our home for S and I to follow. She found the different landmarks on the map and made them within the house. We had to find the landmarks. There was a rock, a pond (to her credit, the pond was represented by an empty water cup) and the treasure of course.

After this exercise I offered to make a treasure hunt for the girls. I made them each a list – S doesn’t read yet so hers had pictures – and the winner would be the one that returned the most stuff to the designated spots in the living room.

I carefully walked through the house identifying certain things for the list…I presented the list and explained the rules. All the items would be found outside of the spot where they were normally stored, so if it was a hairbow you couldn’t get it from S’s basket of hair accessories, if it was a shoe you couldn’t get it from the closet.

The timer was set and they were off….odds and ends were quickly piling up in the living room…a tennis shoe, hairbows, a homeless sock…At the end of the contest J won with the most items collected. I picked up the shoes and said “I’ll take these to the closet, J put the socks in the laundry and S put the hairbows in your room”, to which J replied, “Hey – we just cleaned! I’ll always clean like this!!!”

Score one for mom.