I have planned treasure hunts for my childrens parties for years, but when my soon to be 17 year old daughter asked for one for her birthday party it surprised me.  So we put a new spin on our old treasure hunts. Instead of running around the yard like we had done for years...I solicited the help of a few friends with cars, and the hunt was all over our small town.   I spent one week coming up with different clues for the hunt.  One clue was a word find that I made with the help of the internet. Another was a picture of my friends' mailbox that looks like a watermelon. (I cut the picture up into a puzzle) I hid the clues the morning of the party.  And then called each clue site" to make sure each of the cashiers/friends knew where the clue was and to clear up any last minute questions.    I also stopped at the local pizza place and pre-ordered and prepaid for pizza to be ready for pick up about the time the kids headed out on their hunt. I picked it up on my way to the park.  (You may want to use a cooler decorated to look like a treasure chest to keep this warm this can easily be done with brown paper and a black magic marker. Or have it delivered to your party site.) The night before I baked the cake and froze it. Just before lunch I took the cake out of the freezer and then after lunch I decorated it.  It actually only took about 1 hour to construct the cake. (I googled "treasure chest cake" there were tons of pictures to get ideas from.  It was a lot of fun for not only my daughter and her guests but also for the few cashiers and friends that were "clue holders."  At their first stop the cashier actually made my daughter do the macerana to get her next clue!!    But the best part is that my daughter did not even know where the party was to be held (you have to swear parents to secrecy if you are not providing rides home). The treasure was the party.  I had 10 clues and it took them about 45 minutes to go through all ten and reach the party which was at the park.   So while they were hunting I was decorating. I used gold coins and sprinkled them on the tables I hung streamers and "happy birthday" banners.  And when the kids got to the park I served pizza cake & ice cream and soda. After that the kids just hung out and had a blast.  It was fun to watch the 14-18 year old age groups play on the slides and swings.    Her party was a huge success!!"