Because Valentines

I'm in danger of turning my own personal Valentine's day into Christmas-like intensity. It's been that way for a few years. I don't know why I like to have so much personal satisfaction sunk into Feb 14. And it's not about what's in it for me as much as what's in it for me when I watch the kids do their treasure hunt and what's in it for me when I sit down to a heart-shapes-and-shades-of-red-infested table at dinner time.

I guess I do it for love. And if that isn't a bad pun, I don't know what is.

I just love to do it. I love making up puzzles. Thankfully the kids are receptive to the idea of brain teasers and tests of random knowledge based on family favorite TV shows, movies, and silliness mixed in with general knowledge.

A small sampling of the puzzle clues from this year's treasure hunts for Matt and Hayley:

Where souffle girl crash landed
The poltergiest who fears only the Bloody Baron
The message John thought he got from the flashing lights on the moor
The last airbender
What a Minnesotan's legs are like especially in winter
One of the reasons I would go see the second Hobbit movie
MST3K's Shadowrama effect
A weird thing with rainbow hair who holds a plunger and stands on a ball (Matt argued with me that this thing doesn't hold a plunger. It's a wand. I argued back that I was the one writing the clue and it looks like a plunger. Plus he knew what I meant. Also I like to describe stuff in such a way as to provoke arguments with him)
Things that totally cannot exist because fungi cannot achieve sentience (there again, a clue for Matt that provoked an argument. "Mom! It's a video game and they can do whatever they want!")

Anyway, I have as much fun watching and listening to the kids solve the clues and then get frustrated looking for the prize as they do when they finally get their candy. Hayley was so SURE that she had looked EVERYWHERE relating to quilt fabric, as her puzzle suggested. And I told her, as I tell them every year, "Then you aren't looking hard enough." I LOVE saying stuff like that.

Matt works on his acrostic puzzle with the help of the internet on his phone

Hayley works on hers while listening to music. She says she and her friend worked on it together in school during a class where they had some free time.

One of my valentine food offerings. Red velvet cupcakes

Another food offering. Layered jello with a squirt of Reddiwip. And OJ in the background. He's cutting up strawberries. He has been so compliant with requests for help. Seriously, this kid has learned to serve with a smile on his mission. He's even learned to look around to see what needs to be done and then do it. I LOVE OJ! The money I paid for him to go WAS SO WORTH IT.

Answers to the clues above (because I'm pretty sure you didn't get all of them although you probably tried to guess and now want to know the answers):
Asylum of the Daleks
Peeves
UMQRA
Avatar
Pasty
Thranduil
Silhouette
Lemmy Koopa
Goombas

How many did you get right?