My wife and I had decided that we didn't particularly like younger children swinging a bat at a pinata. Also, we didn't feel confident about having children search for clues around our house and yard. Instead, we came up with an idea to have a treasure hunt that would be similar to an easter egg hunt. With the assistance of my family, candy was scattered around my backyard, as well as on the playground. I also spray painted a couple dozen plastic eggs gold. Inside of the eggs I had lots of candy, coins, necklaces or paper with numbers on it. The numbers corresponded with larger gifts. In addition to the candy and eggs, we also had mardi gras beads for the children to pick up. The children were then led outside where they were given another paper bag with their name on it. On the signal, they were allowed to begin picking up anything they could find. It only took about 5 minutes to clean up everything, but they loved it and each of them got a bunch of stuff.