A Newton Scavenger Hunt

Our son-in-law was the guest speaker on Sunday morning at our church while they were here for our Christmas celebration. 

He spoke on Forgiveness.  It was really good.  I noticed people wiping away tears at the end, even some men. If you'd like to watch it, check it out.  He starts at the 29 minute mark, but you could worship along with the worship team too! 

Some people take sitting with their families at church each Sunday for granted.  The LORD has a different journey for our family.  And for us it is such a sweet privilege that does not happen very often.

After church, we went to Braum's for lunch.

This is regular Al, expounding on things, and it usually involves hand movements!  Check out Adam and Jill.  They are intently listening. Josh seems more interested in his food, or maybe figuring out a rebuttal.

Mr. Mac, the kids' high school science teacher was there eating with his family.  He also taught Josh piano lessons.  They enjoyed catching up.

Time for ice-cream! 

I think Nehemiah enjoyed it.  They don't have Braum's in Illinois or Wisconsin.

After we were finished, we told the kids to gather in the lobby.  We explained that they would be divided into 2 teams.  Josh would be on one team, and Jill on the other.  They did "schoolyard pick", choosing their teams.

We handed out a scavenger hunt and explained the rules.  They would need to drive around town and take a selfie of the team at the location.

The teams talked strategy.

Al and I went home to rest, while the teams took off.  The teams didn't go the same route as we had switched up the order on their pages. The pictures below are of the some of the same spots they went to.  They did meet at up at one spot. 

Train and cannon at the public library.

This team got it all in one shot.

 

Phil Epp Blue Skies - (I LOVE his blue cloud paintings!)

Neither team got the water tower as instructed.

Papa's great-grandma Mary Graber's log house is inside the Kaufman museum.  They got extra credit getting the picture of the house.

Didn't quite get the house in this picture.

One of the places Nana goes bird-watching in North Newton.

Mennonite settler

Road Kill

(they'd seen it on our way to church that morning)

The pharmacy

Victorian house (Warkentin House)

Location of processing Turkey Red Wheat

I meant for them to get a photo of the old mill.  But they got the sign of the location.

The funny thing was that Josh's took a photo in front of Prairie Harvest.  I think they do grind some wheat, although that wasn't what I was after.

Bread Basket

Where the DQ used to be.  Oh, if it were only still there!  Sadness.

There is nothing like a dip cone!

COME BACK, DQ!

We love ice-cream!

 

Train Station

Jill's team got the railroad in the picture, but did not pose like it was a hot day in front of the fountain.

Drubers!

Our children went there many times when growing up!

This picture gets both Prairie Harvest AND Drubers in one shot.

Sunflower mural - This is a new mural and Jill's team looked it up on-line. 

Josh's team came across it accidently after leaving the library, where the cannon and train were.

Court house

Who won?  Well, Jill's team came home first, but they didn't get the photo of great-grandma's house, or the picture at the fountain.  So we decided they

TIED!

The loser was going to have to do the dishes, and it was a LOT of dishes, because we did sukiyaki!  It would have been even more dishes to wash, except we've Americanized this dish and put the sukiyaki on top of the rice. The kids just prefer it that way.  But it still took a long time to do them.  Several helped wash and dry.

Sukiyaki !

        すき焼き     

Games we play

We had so much fun playing games with the family at Christmas.

We found this one one-line.  We filled these cups with little gifts, wrapped them in tissue and then people took turns throwing a bow on top.  

When a bow landed on a cup, they got to punch in the tissue and pull out the gift.

Fish Bowl:  

Everybody writes a noun on a slip of paper.  Some words written were chicken wing, candles, Papa, pigs, Trump.  These are folded and put into a bowl.  There are 2 teams.  Team 1 begins and can describe the word on the slip of paper however they want (except they can't use that word).  As soon as their team guesses it, he picks another word and describes that word.  They have 30 seconds.  After 30 seconds, they count how many words they solved.

Team 2 does the same for 30 seconds.  Once all the words are solved, there is a 2nd round.  In the 2nd round, the same words are used, however, this time you can only use 1 word to describe the word you pick from the bowl.  Since the words have been heard before, it is possible to guess but sometimes the clue is not very good and in the 30 seconds, the team may only have 1 slip of paper in that time.  Other times, the team may guess 6.  Once all the slips are used, again, count how many words were guessed.

In round 3, you again go through the same words, but this time you pantomime the words.  Same format.  It really was fun!

Of course we had to play "Murder in the Dark".  We played it EVERY night!

You turn off all the lights in the house except a few night lights may be on.  In our home, they all start in the kitchen and come in one at a time past the person in the chair in the living room who decides who the murderer is.  As they walk past, they would shake their head yes or no as to if they are the murderer.  They go downstairs after being told and once everyone has filed through, the game starts.

Everyone has to keep walking, upstairs, downstairs, bedrooms, etc, all around the house.  When the murderer feels no one will see him, he "kills" a person making a "slicing the neck" motion.  Kind of gruesome, yea? 

They fall down dead.  The murderer might actually stuff them all in a closet or shower nearby too.  As soon as someone stumbles upon a dead person(s) (the murderer can kill several at one time as in the pictures below), they shout "Murder in the Dark!!"  Lights are turned on and the guessing starts to try to figure out who the murderer is.  The dead can't participate in that part, of course, cuz they're dead.

If the correct person is not selected, lights are off and the game continues.  Sometimes the "it" can get everyone, other times just a few people before they are charged with the crime.

"A Quiet Place" is a blind Nerf gun game.  Everyone quietly walks around and the blindfolded "it" listens intently and tries to shoot them. If you get shot, you're out.

Sometimes they would throw things to try to get the "it" to shoot elsewhere.

You're Getting Old card game.  (Josh is using little hands, which has nothing to do with the game.)

Qubic game.  This is a game from my home before I married.

(again with those silly little hands)

Jill had purchased these silly hands on-line

Hide 'n' Seek in the neighborhood

I hid behind the bridge and under some brush.  I heard Jill's footsteps pass over the bridge, but she didn't see me!  We were on a text chain and as people were found, a text went out.  "Eli has been captured."  One by one they were caught.  I saw them go pass on the other side of the creek.  I won!  I was the last one to be found!

Eye tag: Everyone gets in a circle, looks down as they close their eyes.

One, two, three.  

Everyone looks up and stares at someone.  If you happen to be staring at the person staring at you, as Papa and Jill are below, you're both out. Last one left is the winner.

Volleyball in the dark

This isn't a game, but it was something that happened to us.  When we went to get the mail one day, we got this Christmas card.

We don't know a Joe and Tina Smith.  We tried to snoop on Facebook to see if someone popped up that we might remember.  Nope.  

We were so confused.  We even looked up the return address on Google Earth.  It just didn't ring a bell.  We racked our brains for some time, to no avail. Then as we looked at the envelope again, we realized it was a trick.  Our granddaughters had pulled a fast one on us!!  All made up! Ha Ha!  Can you tell what gave it away?

I have another game to share.  They all loved it!  Next post.