Our family treasure hunt

As we flip the last pancake and scrape out the last of the Nutella.

My clock begins.

40 days and 40 nights until Easter day.

Years ago, I began a game. Now I have created a monster!

Living in Italy, Easter is perhaps the holiest of holidays, however it lacks playful traditions.

We are a mixed family, a crazy English mum and Italian dad.

Italian Easter eggs are so dull, a chocolate egg with a disappointing plastic toy inside.

I wanted to make something different.

I wanted to create a family memory.

The first years of my game were easy.

The kids were young and let's face it, easy to fool.

My family tradition was to be a treasure hunt, not an Easter egg hunt, that's just too simple!

Our treasure hunts were a thing of legends!

Every clue solved, sent the kids flying to another part of the house.

Riddles and puzzles at every point, and a sweet treat to add to their basket.

Every year when it ended my daughter high on excitement would say "Mummy, next year make it harder"

Whist those around me abstain for lent, I am filled with ideas and searching for inspiration.

I want to amaze them, I want our Easter treasure hunts to be passed down for generations to come.

Ask my kids, and they will say their favourite holiday is Easter.

Christmas is left way behind.

They struggle to explain our antics to their friends, it's just not an Italian thing.

In Italy there are no Easter egg hunts, and definitely no Easter bunny. In fact, I have to inform you that you might find the Easter bunny, cooked and served for lunch!

To start the day, Daddy takes the kids for a bike ride, this has become a bone of contention, the kids are suspicious!

Whilst out riding, the Easter bunny always arrives.

They return to see a trail of smarties leading to the first clue. Hallelujah the Easter bunny is here.

I have my secret box, where I store my thoughts and ideas throughout the year, jokes, riddles, and clues all in the making.

I have scotch tape, stick glue, card, paper and of course scissors.

Scissors in my house must be stealthy hidden.

Buy a pair of scissors and I can guarantee within 5 minutes, you will never see those scissors again!

My mother tried to tie the scissors with string inside the cutlery drawer. Obviously we used the scissors to cut the string and set them free.

I will deny the following until my dying day.

My mother claims that when I left home at 18, she found 17 pairs of scissors in my bedroom!!

This is something I will neither confirm or deny!

So I have my secret stash, a plain box, my treasure hunt box. Hidden in plain sight, labelled simply paperwork.

Inside I have everything I need.

I work late nights, and early mornings, it's me against them!

I look back on those early days, when the kids were young.

Seven or eight simple riddles was enough to create the excitement.

Every year now, the stakes become higher!

My daughter is 14, and my son is 10.

Embarrassingly we took an IQ test and my daughter beat me by 10 points!

However, she is a child, a bright one, yes, but I have years of sneaky craftiness, I can come up with ideas they cannot imagine.

I can take them down.

There is nothing simple in our game anymore.

I have frozen clues in blocks of ice.

I have attached clues to hidden mobile phones, then rang them.

I have used different languages,

I have photographed close up images of items and locations.

I have cut up words and phrases to make puzzles.

I have soaked paper in tea, to make authentic treasure maps.

Counting steps, North, South, East and West.

When all the clues have been collected, the final challenge begins.

Answer a riddle or lose all you have earned.

For example:

'What has 4 fingers and a thumb, but is not a hand?'

If you are wondering, it's a glove!

The kids don't seem to tire of my silly games, and as they get older, their excitement is still there.

It is our thing, it makes our Easter special, it's our family tradition.

The Easter treasure hunt.