This morning I woke up and Alex had already been up for almost 1.5 hours, working hard on a project and running around the kitchen. Henry was sent up the stairs to tell me to start thinking about getting out of bed for breakfast, but ended up climbing under the covers instead for his morning snuggle.
Alex trotted up the stairs with a gorgeous plate full of food (yes that's our bedspread underneath the plate):
Croissants, bacon (from Will who has been on a keto diet), eggs with paprika and red pepper, and a heart-shaped pancake with lilikoi syrup. It was gorgeous! We brought it downstairs to eat with Ellie and the rest of the family, and it was the best start to a birthday.
After Alex's track meet, we came home and started the scavenger hunt. Alex had several steps planned in the hunt.
Clue 1 - The Map
The key to this clue was the sideways note: "The blood that drips, the axe that spears. Lost, but found once. Where do I live? GO THERE AT ONCE."
From this cryptic message, we had to discern that the "Footless Man's Den" was where we were headed next. Then we had to notice that this map was actually a map of our house, and the "Footless Man's Den" was Will and my bedroom (see the bed and light fixture drawing).
Once we were in our bedroom, a very enthusiastic Henry and bursting-at-the-seams Alex helped us find the next clue.
Clue 2 - The Letter
The kids found this note which continued the gruesome storyline from the first clue. Apparently the poor Footless Man had a love (Alma) and was writing out his last words ...
The rest of the note from the Footless Man was basically completely unintelligible:
Luckily, we had a (rather impatient) translator who had also created the whole scene, so she was fantastically accurate at telling us what the note said. The note was basically
this riddle:
As I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St Ives?
After much shouting at me (I was especially dense that morning and kept making Henry do multiples of 7), I finally figured out that only 1 person was going to St. Ives. As a result, we were "gently" pointed towards #1 on the map, the "Creepy Cat's Cottage," which judging from the picture of the chair was Henry's room.
Clue 3 - Creepy Cat Drawing
Right in the doorway of Henry's room was this Creepy Cat drawing, continuing the theme of blood and gore.
The note at the bottom says that "something seems peculiar" in the drawing, and my eye was immediately drawn to the dead face-down BunBun on the bed. Scanning the room, we saw that one of Alex's bunnies (the pink bunny with the black sequin dress) was on Henry's bed, face down and "dead" just like in the drawing. Upon picking up the bunny, we saw Clue 4 underneath it.
Clue 4 - Go In Dining Room
Thankfully, Clue 4 was pretty self-explanatory. I did also appreciate the supportive little note that Alex left for me at the bottom of the page!
Upon going to the Dining Room, Miss Alex the Master of Ceremonies told us that this is a "hot and cold game," which apparently means you walk around the room with Alex yelling, "HOT HOT HOT COLD COLD COLD" at you as you get nearer or colder to the item.
We finally found the next envelope, one of my personal favorites of the game.
Clue 5 - The Book Page
Clue 5 was an envelope that said, "Open and find Book of ripped up page (put ripped up page together OR ELSE").
Inside the envelope was a bunch of ripped up pieces of paper, which the whole family worked as a team to tape together. This one was really fun but did turn everyone into complete control freaks which I think really says something about the personalities of my family.
Finally we saw "Old Dan" on the page and Henry started yelling, "It's Where the Red Fern Grows!" and Alex started yelling, "STOP IT HENRY IT'S MOM'S BIRTHDAY" but eventually we reached consensus, found the book, and saw the next clue tucked into it.
Clue 6 - Help from Generative AI
Clue 6 was a cipher code and I was hoping that ChatGPT could help us figure it out:
TLLW QLY, NLN!
XOL GSV YVV!
We put it into ChatGPT and asked for help, but the megaAI was generally useless trying to use various Caesar ciphers and coming up with nonsense. Finally Henry (or maybe Will) said it was probably a reverse cipher instead. Henry started deciphering it by hand (you can see his notes on the paper) but ChatGPT was finally able to get it (kinda) right:
"CLO THE BEE" is of course Clover, whom Alex had dressed in her New Orleans fuchsia sweater in honor of my birthday:
Not sure if you can see the lump under Clover's sweater, but it turns out that was the final item of the quest.
The Prize
The prize for all of this was a drawing of several medals, which included every person present including a nice ribbon for her brother as well, which I deeply appreciated.
Alex is so breathtakingly talented and this was basically the best birthday present ever. It was an incredible birthday. You can
click here to see a video of Alex explaining the hunt herself.
On my beautiful birthday, I also got a gorgeous lei from Nonna and Nobbin, and lots of time with Ellie, and my handsome husband took us all out to dinner at one of our favorite French restaurants. I felt so blessed!
Love, Lauren
