Wednesday - and Daddy is still a bit under the weather. Mommy is doing better though. The temperature outside is improving, but the air conditioning at Daddy's office can be a bit intimidating. Let's just say we have to layer ourselves up here before heading inside the great frozen tundra.
Madison had a few tests today, and she seemed to shrug them off with no worries. She did a test on world history, one that Daddy helped her study a little. And then the math test. Both tests she thinks she did fine on. The book fair is tomorrow for her, one last visit to the Chestatee Elementary School for a Book Fair visit. Madison got some money from her grandparents for Easter, so she'll be using that to get some books. There was one we got her though, and we bought it online because it was eleven dollars cheaper. She was wanting a copy of "Wonder," so we bought it online, and told her to get anything else she wanted instead of just that one.
Daddy finished up something he started a few days ago, mainly because this year the rest of the family is gone for Easter. That being said, we were thinking of something to do that would be creative for Madison when hunting for Easter eggs on Sunday. Sure, there could be a bit of random, "Go look for eggs that I just spent the last twenty minutes hiding in various places." We could do that. But Daddy wanted to do something else this year, something like what he's been doing for the nephews these past few years. That being said, we got the idea to do a Nancy Drew Easter Mystery, as Madison loves reading Nancy Drew books lately.
Below is what we came up with - each page will be folded up neatly and placed inside a hidden plastic egg. You'll see some of the results of this on Sunday, hopefully posted here. But until then, the clues have been fun to write. They find Nancy, Bess and George joining Madison on a brief Easter egg hunt, each page giving a clue that leads to the next one.
Here it is:
PAGE 1
It was Easter Sunday! Nancy Drew had just come home from church with
her friends Bess and George, and it was simply a wonderful day outside. Walking up the sidewalk of their front yard,
Bess looked around at the blooming trees and beautiful flowers in the garden.
“I wonder if your dad has hidden any
Easter eggs?” Bess said, excitedly.
“I don’t know,” Nancy told her. “Dad’s been quite busy lately helping Mr.
Moto ever since that incident with The
Thirteenth Pearl.”
“Well,” George said, “Maybe he’s hiding
pearls instead!”
Nancy laughed and exclaimed, “I
wish!”
The three laughed, but their laughter was
cut short when they noticed something odd:
the front door was left wide open.
Even more mysterious, when the three walked into the house, all was
quiet.
“Dad?” Nancy called out. But no one had answered.
“Maybe he’s upstairs?” George suggested.
“I’ll go up and see if he’s there,” Bess
told the others.
“Good idea,” Nancy said. “I’ll look around on the main level, and
George, you can look in the basement.”
But just as they were about to split up,
they heard a creaking noise.
“That’s coming from the front porch!”
Nancy said, and led the others quickly out the front door. What they saw was completely surprising!
PAGE 2
“Hello there,” Nancy’s neighbor Madison
had said. She lived several houses
down. Her parents had moved to the River
Heights area a few years ago.
“Oh, hi there Madison,” Nancy said. It was certainly odd that Madison was
standing there at the front porch like this, especially with the door wide
open. Fortunately, Madison was quick to
explain as much as she could to the others.
“Your dad came by our house earlier,” she
started. “He wanted me to hand you
something. He said it would help you on
your mystery today.”
She handed Nancy a note. Immediately, Bess and George looked over
Nancy’s shoulders as she read it aloud, “Dear Nancy, first of all, I’m not
kidnapped again. So don’t worry! But I am hiding somewhere nearby, along with
some Easter goodies for you, Bess, George, and Madison too. It’ll be an Easter Egg Mystery Hunt, if
you’re up to it!”
“Yes we’re up to it!” Bess exclaimed.
Nancy, George and Madison smiled. It looked like they would go on their Easter
Egg Hunt after all!
“Okay then,” Nancy laughed. She continued reading, “Here is your first
clue: You searched for some manuscripts,
and found so much more, when you looked
in the attic, the very top floor. Perhaps near the entrance you’ll find
something new. In fact, you’ll discover
your very first clue!”
Nancy stopped reading, and looked at the
others.
She asked, “Are you ready for an Easter Egg
Mystery Hunt?”
“Yes,” they replied!
PAGE 3
“Obviously we need to go to the attic,”
George told the others.
“Obviously!” Madison said, and took off
running upstairs. The others gave chase
quickly, but stopped when Nancy halted them.
“Don’t go into the attic,” she warned
them. “He said the clue is at the
entrance of the attic.”
“Search for something new,” Bess said.
Taking the hint, the four of them
searched for something new, or something out of place. Right off, Nancy discovered a book, “The
Secret in the Old Attic,” which told of their adventures looking for some hidden
songs. She smiled, remembering the
adventure the three of them had, and couldn’t wait to read about it again. Was this the clue that she was supposed to
follow?
“I found something!” Bess shouted out,
perhaps a bit too loudly.
The other three joined her quickly, and
found she was holding… an egg.
“It’s a plastic Easter Egg,” Madison
said. “Open it up and see what’s
inside!”
Bess did just that, and beamed. “It’s another clue!”
Nancy asked, “What does it say?”
Bess read the clue aloud: “You found the music sheets in that story,
and doing so brought fame and glory. Go
look downstairs: do, re, mi! An
elephant has one, and so do we.”
George yelled out, “That’s an easy
one! Let’s go!”
And the other three again were racing to
keep up with her.
PAGE 3
Quickly, but carefully, the four went
downstairs, trying to be the first to find the next clue.
“What does an elephant have?” Bess asked.
“A trunk!” George told her. And just like that, George was opening an old
metal trunk that the Drew Family had sitting next to their old piano.
“There it is!” George said, pointing to
the next Easter Egg.
“And look,” Nancy said, picking up another
mystery book. “It’s the Mystery of the
Brass Bound Trunk.”
This was quite an adventure some time ago,
one that took place on a trip overseas.
But before she could think about that amazing story any further, George
had anxiously opened the plastic egg inside the trunk.
“It’s another clue!” she said.
“What’s it say?” Madison asked.
George read this clue out loud, “Our trip
to New York and Canada got old, chasing fur thieves into the cold. But this place in the house is cold in any
season, a place to find eggs for any reason.”
Nancy knew the answer to this one. “Come on,” she told the others. “We’ve got an egg to go find!”
PAGE 5
There was a noisy rush to the kitchen!
Nancy entered the kitchen, and was about
to open the refrigerator door, when suddenly there was a noise behind her, and
a startled voice: “What’s going on?”
Nancy and her friends jumped, and turned
to face whoever it was that was speaking.
It was the Drew’s housekeeper, Hannah Gruen!
“Oh, hello Hannah,” Nancy said
cheerfully. “We’re on an Easter Egg
hunt!”
Hannah Gruen smiled and said, “Oh, now
that’s fun! I was wondering why your
father was sneaking around the house last night. At first, I thought it might have been an
intruder, and I snuck up behind him and was about to whack him in the back of
the head with a candlestick! But he
turned at the last minute, and it’s a good thing he did. I was going to clock him! Anyway, he told me what he was up to and we
had a good laugh. You kids have fun!”
With that, Hannah walked off, a knowing
smile on her face.
Meanwhile, Nancy opened the door to the
refrigerator in the kitchen, and there it was, the next egg in the egg
hunt. Not only that, but another book
was there!
“It’s the Mystery at the Ski Jump,” Bess
said. “I remember that trip!”
“That’s what the clue was talking about,”
Nancy said. “It was about our adventure chasing fur thieves in New York and
Canada.”
“That will be fun reading about again,”
George said. “But maybe not actually
going up there in the cold again. That
was chilly!”
“Speaking of which, we should close the
refrigerator,” Nancy said. She
carefully grabbed the small plastic egg inside, ready to read her next clue.
“This clue was easy,” George said.
“What’s the new one say?” Madison asked
Nancy.
Nancy read the clue out loud: “The cold in here blows in unseen. Perhaps it comes from upstairs, from the
queen.”
The four of them stood there in the
kitchen, trying to figure the clue out.
What could it possibly mean?
PAGE 6
Madison figured it out right away: “Queen Elsa!”
“What?”
“Queen Elsa,” Madison said again. “We were just in a ballet recently, so it was
fresh on my mind. If there’s a queen
that the cold comes from, it’s just got to Queen Elsa from ‘Frozen.’”
“But there’s nothing like that in my house,” Nancy said.
Madison told her, “She’s at my house, upstairs. And… I think there’s something you should
know. Your dad was over there,
Nancy. He came to visit my family, and asked
if we could do an egg hunt there.
Everyone was game, so… I think we’re supposed to go over there to my
house now.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” Bess
said, and with that, everyone said their goodbyes to Hannah Gruen, and ran down
the street to continue the egg hunt.
Later, at Madison’s house, they made their
discovery: another egg. It was hidden behind an Elsa Styling head,
right where Madison thought it would be.
She grabbed the egg quickly with a beaming smile.
“Good job, Madison!” Nancy said.
“Open it up,” George called out. “See what it says! What’s the next clue?”
Madison read it out loud: “If you’re going down the drive, why not go
check out eight, eight, eight, five.”
“What is that?” George asked.
PAGE 7
“It’s an address,” Madison said.
“It’s your
address,” Nancy agreed.
Bess said, “But we’re at your address.”
“Well,” George asked, already knowing the
answer. “What here has those numbers on
it?”
The four of them ran out to the mailbox,
opened it up, and peered inside.
“It’s your mailbox,” Bess said. “Did we get a letter from the Easter Bunny?”
“Nope,” Madison laughed. “Just an egg!”
She reached in and pulled out the egg,
opening it up so she could read the next clue.
“And….?” George said, teasing her.
Madison read the note out loud: “Upon your head, this just might
flatter. But to wear it everywhere?
You’d have to be mad as a hatter!”
“And…I’m lost,” Bess said.
“It sounds like something from Alice in
Wonderland,” Nancy said. “Do you have
anything like that in your house, Madison?”
“Perhaps,” Madison said. “If ..you can
answer this one question.”
“What’s that?” Bess asked.
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
Bess looked completely confused, but
Nancy got it.
PAGE 8
It didn’t take long for everyone to head
upstairs in Madison’s parents’ bedroom, where a strange hat rested on top of a
dresser. It was a replica of a Mad
Hatter Hat, and quite skillfully made.
“Okay,” George said to Nancy. “You’ve got
to put that on your head!”
Nancy did exactly that, and in picking it
up, they discovered the Easter egg beneath.
The funny thing was this: nobody
was looking at the egg so much. Everyone
was looking at Nancy in that ridiculous hat!
But when the laughs subsided, she picked
up the Easter egg there on the dresser, and opened it up to read the next clue
out loud to the others: “If you want
your eggs real clean, don’t put them into this machine. And don’t add detergent. Don’t at bleach. Just lean over the rim, and reach.”
George said, “Clean eggs and ham?”
Nancy told her, “George, that’s crazy.”
George answered, “So says the one wearing
a mad hatter hat!”
Nancy laughed and took off the hat,
putting it back where it came from. She
turned to the others and said, “So? We
all know where to go next, right?”
PAGE 9
Bess led the way down to the washing room,
where there was a washing machine and a dryer.
“Fortunately, nobody had to do any laundry
today,” she said, turning to Madison.
“Right?”
“Uh…” Madison said. She had no idea.
“Only one way to find out,” Bess
said. And she reached into the washing
machine, pulling out a completely dry Easter egg.
“Egg-cellent!” George said.
Bess opened up the egg, and pulled out the
next clue, reading it out loud right away:
“The Thirteenth Pearl took
place in this land. Behind a Small
World, reach your hand.”
Nancy turned to Madison. She knew where her own adventure took place –
it was unforgettable. But did Madison
have anything from there herself? And
what did ‘small world’ mean?”
Nancy asked Madison, “Have you got it
figured out?”
PAGE 10
Madison knew exactly where to go this
time. She told Nancy, “I’ve got some
Small World dolls upstairs.”
“Is one of them Japanese?” Nancy asked.
Madison just nodded.
Nancy said, “Let’s go!”
Nancy and Madison took off upstairs,
followed by Bess and George. In moments,
they were in a spare room, looking at some dolls themed from the ride, “It’s a
Small World.”
“There’s the Japanese one,” Nancy
said. She reached behind it, and right
behind it, she found exactly what she was looking for: the next Easter egg.
“What’s it say?” Bess asked.
“Let me open it first, Bess,” Nancy
laughed, trying to open the small plastic egg.
Once she got it open, she pulled out the next clue, then looked up at
everyone.
“Well?
Read it! Read it!” George
playfully urged her.
“Here it is,” Nancy said. “A photo of a family three, and each a
pirate’s life for me!”
“Arrrr!” George said, laughing.
“Aye,” Bess agreed. “Is it time to search for buried treasure?”
“Madison,” Nancy asked. “Is there a picture of three pirates
somewhere? It sounds like they are
related?”
PAGE 11
Again, Madison led the way, this time back
down the stairs again.
“Well at least we’re getting our
exercise,” Bess said.
As they got to the bottom of the stairs,
they noticed an unusual family portrait in the great room. It was of Madison and her two parents, all
three of them dressed as pirates.
“Arrr!” George said, as the four of them
crossed the room to look around where the picture rested.
“I don’t see a dotted line, or an x marks
the spot,” Bess said.
“But I do see an egg,” Nancy said,
pulling yet another Easter egg out from behind the picture. “Easy peasy.”
“That’s not very piratey,” George said.
“Shiver me timbers!” Nancy shouted.
“Much better,” George smiled.
“That’s a picture we took while on a
cruise,” Madison said. “We went last
year for a few days in the Bahamas.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Nancy said. “I could use a trip to the Bahamas, just to
sit back and relax.”
“Like that’s going to happen,” George
said. “Everywhere you go, there’s a mystery about to happen.”
“Hey, just like here,” Nancy grinned, and
opened the plastic Easter egg to reveal another clue. She read it out loud: “By plane or horse you make your trek, but if
you see a phantom, hit the deck!”
This time, Madison was stumped. And so were Bess and George. But Nancy thought about it a moment, and had
a pretty good idea where the next clue could be.
PAGE 12
“Come on, follow me,” Nancy said, and she
led Madison, Bess and George outside to the back deck.
“What was all that about planes and
horses?” Madison asked.
“I think that’s a clue about an adventure
we had,” Nancy said. “Do you remember
the one where we had a hijacked plane and a horse thief?”
“The Sky Phantom!” Bess cried out. She didn’t actually see a sky phantom, but
she actually just saw that very book on the back deck, sitting out in the
sun. Next to it rested the next Easter
egg.
“Now there was an interesting adventure,”
George said, picking up the book and the egg.
“I haven’t heard of that one,” Madison
said.
“Oh, it’s a good one,” Nancy told
her.
George handed the book to Madison, who
greatly appreciated it. She added, “Just
be sure to ask Bess about that handsome cowboy.”
Bess blurted out, “Oh, George. You had to go there, didn’t you?”
George only laughed, as Madison wondered
what was going on.
George told her, “Just read the book. It’s all in there.”
Bess tried changing the subject: “Can we just find out the next clue?”
George said, “If you insist. It says this:
‘Your next clue is one you’ll see.
It’s underneath the fighting manatee!”
“Fighting… manatee?” George asked.
Nancy said, “It’s the name of a high
school football team. Madison, you don’t
have anything to do with football in the house?”
Madison replied, “No… but I do know where
there’s a manatee.”
PAGE 13
Together, the four of them ascended the
stairs once more.
“One more clue up these stairs and you’re
going to pick me up down there at the bottom,” Bess said.
“Nothing like burning a few calories,”
George said, poking a bit of fun at Bess.
She, Bess, and Nancy followed Madison
across the upper floor of the house, and straight to a basket that had a
stuffed animal on top of it. That
stuffed animal was a manatee.
“It’s a fighting manatee,” George said.
“This manatee doesn’t look very
aggressive,” Nancy said, smiling. “But
perhaps he’s hiding something underneath.”
Nancy reached underneath the manatee, and
found what she was looking for: the next
Easter egg. She began to open the egg,
revealing yet another clue inside.
“How many of these are there?” Madison
wondered aloud.
“I
don’t know,” Nancy said. “But this clue
has me puzzled.”
“What’s it say?” Bess asked.
Nancy read the clue out loud: “You think I’m just a scary bug. But my eight arms just want to give you a
hug.”
“Okay, that’s creepy,” Bess said.
“Something to do with spiders?” George
suggested.
“I think you’re right,” Nancy agreed. “What do you think, Madison?”
PAGE 14
“The garage,” Madison groaned.
“What’s in the garage?” Nancy asked.
“A giant spider,” Madison said.
“Ew!” Bess said. “No thank you!”
“Don’t worry, it’s not real,” Madison
said. “It’s a big rubber spider. It’s a prop we used at church once.”
“Still… gross!” Bess said.
“Yes,” Nancy agreed. “But that’s where our next egg is. So, are you ready?”
“Back down the stairs again?” Bess asked.
Everyone laughed, and once more, went down
the staircase towards the garage. Once
they opened the door to the garage, Bess let out a gasp.
“Okay, why is that there?”
“Like I said,” Madison explained. “It’s a prop from the church. It just hasn’t found a home yet.”
George added, “But it does look like it
found something else. Look – a book!”
She picked up a copy of “The Mystery of
the Tolling Bell,” resting right next to the giant rubber spider. She wasn’t at all squeamish about the creepy
prop.
Nancy pointed out, “That was the adventure
where we visited a haunted cave. That
was fun!”
“Speak for yourself,” Bess said. “I don’t do well with ghosts, or spiders, or
anything icky. What does the clue say? Read it, and let’s get out of here. I don’t like the way that spider is looking
at me!”
Nancy picked up the egg resting next to
the spider, opened the clue, and read it out loud: “One more clue, and you are through. Just go look out for a cockatoo.”
“What is a cockatoo?” George asked.
“It’s a bird,” Nancy said. “Sort of like a parrot. Is there something like that in this house?”
PAGE 15
“There’s one upstairs,” Madison said,
looking at Bess with a smile.
“Again?” Bess groaned. “Your dad is going to hear about this,
Nancy!”
Nancy laughed, and said, “Come on,
Bess. One more trip. You can do it!”
So one last time, the four of them went
up the stairs for what they hoped would be one last clue. Madison knew that there was a sculpture of a
cockatoo in a guest room upstairs, and sure enough, when she opened the door to
the guest room, there was something inside:
a large Easter basket! It had all
sorts of candy for everyone inside. And
even better than that, there was Nancy’s father, standing nearby.
“Happy Easter!” he cried out. “I knew it wouldn’t take long for sleuths
like you!”
Nancy beamed. She said, “Together, we got through another
mystery – though not as dangerous as some of them.”
Bess said, “Speak for yourself! That spider down there was looking like it
would jump at us any minute!”
George told her, “But you just read the
clue. He just wanted to give you a hug,
Bess!”
Bess replied the only way she could: “Ew!”
Everyone laughed, and then Nancy’s father
reached in to grab a jelly bean from the Easter basket.
“You’d better grab a few of these before
I eat them all,” he joked.
And so they did. Together with their new friend Madison, they
had a simply wonderful time. It was a
very special Easter Egg Mystery Hunt!
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