Rose decided she wanted the same birthday party she had last year--a parent designed puzzle hunt. Like last year, it was not easy to put together, but John and I had worked a few of the bugs out and the planning and playing went more smoothly. I found logic and lateral thinking puzzles for the first half. Plus my brother-in-law Dan contributed the 4 4's puzzle (See below). (I have not included the answers. Feel free to ask me to post them in a follow up. John has them on his computer.)

There were seven kids at the party including Rose and David. We divided them into two groups to work on the puzzles, and John, his parents, and I were the puzzle masters, happy to give clues. We reminded the kids this was supposed to be fun. We also wore cute party hats. Fun, darnnit!

The kids did have fun. It took them about an hour to do the puzzles below. Then John's clues lead them on a more traditional treasure hunt. The answers from my part lead to clues which had them having a clandestine meeting, exchanging key words, and following rather easy leads for more clues around the house. Example: "Federation President Barry Fife says there are no ________ _________" Rose has recently become a huge Strictly Ballroom fan, and this is a direct quote from the movie. We just had new steps built for the back porch. Tada!

I think they found it very satisfying. Then delicious cake, presents and time to just play. A very good party.

Today the kids designed a puzzle hunt for us.

Puzzle A. Four children were born in different countries. Find out who was born in which country from the clues given.
Scarlett was not born in Europe.
Amelia's native language is not English.
David is not from the Americas.
Rose is not from the Northern Hemisphere.

Puzzle B. Your sock drawer contains ten white socks, ten red socks, and ten blue socks. If you're only allowed to take one sock from the drawer at a time and you can't see what color sock you're taking until you've taken it, how many socks do you have to take before you are guaranteed to have at least one matching pair?

Puzzle C. Logi-Number Puzzles are a cross between logic problems and mathe- matical puzzles. In each, you must determine what values the variables are equal to, using the rules of the game and the given clues. The rules are: (1) all the vari- ables are equal to integer values between one and the number of variables in the puzzle, and (2) none of the variables are equal to each other. For example, if there are five variables, each will equal a number from 1 to 5. Since no variable equals another, all five values will be used.
Find A, B, C, D, and E given that
B+A=6
E+B=C
E+C+B=8

Puzzle D. Adults are holding children, waiting their turn. The children are handed (one at a time, usually) to a man, who holds them while a woman shoots them. If the child is crying, the man tries to stop the crying before the child is shot. Explain! Answer key (get from a puzzle master – don't fill in yourself):

Puzzle E. A cabin, locked from the inside, is perched on the side of a mountain. It is forced open, and thirty people are found dead inside. They had plenty of food and water. Explain! Answer key:

Puzzle F. You can make lots of different numbers by combining four 4s and the four operations (+, −, ×, ÷). For example, 16 = 4+4+4+4 and 15 = (4×4)− (4÷4). Find formulas like this for as many of the numbers 1, 2, 3, ..., 10 as you can. The more numbers you get answers for, the better your next clue will be.