The Treasure Hunt or How What Started with an Accent Ended with a Cupcake.

I have a thing for accents. I like people who have them and I like using them myself. I must say, however, that does not mean that I am any good at them.  Seeing as I use accents mostly around kids who laugh instead of cringe when I try, this usually doesn't prove to be a problem.  And though they may be thinking it, they never tell me that my accents all start sounding the same after awhile.


I find that accents come in handy when spicing something up. Take for instance the phrase, 'I love to dance'.  If you say it like an American it falls flat.  Say it with a Spanish accent and BAM. Spice.  (You know you just whispered that out loud to yourself.)  Or take the phrase, "If you don't clean your room, I will string you up by your toes and feed you to my pet cockroach."  When said like a Russian pirate, it has a better effect on children than just raising that eyebrow and shaking your index finger in their face.


It was this Russian pirate voice (which is never consistently Russian, or pirate, for that matter) that started the legend of Captain Katinka almost four years ago with my little charges, Bella and Gabbie.  First it was an accent, then it was a name for this alter ego, then it was a map I drew.  This map. (No, it's not Africa.  Africa doesn't have place names like Faerie March, Triton's Landing, or The Caves of Glimmerglen, now does it?)

Then this map did something extraordinary.  It became a story.   Every day I was there, the girls would grab pillows, seat themselves in front of me, place the map on the floor in between us, and ask me to tell the next part of the story which, of course, was about them -- the two princesses who were kidnapped by the evil pirate Katinka, Captain of the Rusty Mermaid.  Animals spoke, trees walked, faeries fluttered, trolls lurked, mermaids sang, paths were lost, treasure was found, pirates were fooled, and the girls returned home to the good King and Queen of Castle Paricelle.


But, as stories do, it ended.  The map was put away, Captain Katinka's accent only came out when the bed was left unmade, and other things occupied our time.  Until...


One day, very recently, the girls unearthed the map in the deep recesses of their toy room and Captain Katinka came back in all her glory with her Russian ... no, French ... no wait, Spanish ... well, whatever accent she has.


Bella and Gabbie vocalized their wish for a real treasure hunt and my imagination went wild!  I turned their house and yard into our made up world and set the girls on a search for a treasure that I promised them they would love.

We started with the map.

The girls made and colored destination signs that correlated with places on the map.  I set these up inside and outside the house while they were sequestered in a room I didn't need.

I wrote over a dozen clue cards, then gave the girls the first one at the start of their hunt. By figuring out the rhyming hint on the card and finding the right destination sign, they were led to each consecutive clue.  Inspired by the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read in my youth, I wrote clues that led to two different endings: one path led to disappointment and the other path led to the treasure.

At the point where they had to decide between following the faerie lights or going through Wildwood toward Rainbow Pass, the girls chose to follow the faerie lights.

They found their way to Zephyr Lake...

through the hidden pass of the Black Rock Mountains and down the dangerous path of Shadow Gorge.

When they came to the Bay of Mermaids, they had to sing a song to call the dolphins that took them across the treacherous waters to the Tanglewood Jungle...

where they had to undergo great and arduous physical feats to retrieve the final clue.

The last clue led them into the Caves of Glimmerglen where they had to locate the treasure marked by the pirate flag. And if you're wondering if they chose the right path ... they did.  If they had taken the path through Rainbow Pass, it would have led them to the Lake of Pearls where they would have almost been eaten by a Kraken, then on to Tadpole Marshes where they would have gotten lost in the mist for days, then to the Bay of Mermaids where they would have had to swim across without the help of dolphins, and finally limp their way into the Caves of Glimmerglen JUST to find out that the treasure was already gone.  It's a good thing these girls are smart.  I had no idea what to do for a Kraken anyway.

And now of course, the best part: the treasure!  Once they found the Treasure Card, I whisked them off to Icing on the Cupcake where they got to pick out a cupcake of their own.  Bella chose Death by Chocolate and Gabbie licked all the icing off her Rootbeer Float cupcake.

I'm pretty sure this is the face of delight.  Which means the treasure hunt was a big success.  And could ya really ask fer more, me hearties?  (You just said that out loud, didn't you?)