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Mystery Party (8-11yr) Notebooks and Pens

December 2009

Katie in Phoenix, Arizona U.S.

Honorable Mention

Mystery Party I had a Mystery Party this year. It was SO fun!

INVITATIONS: I had a lot of fun ideas for invitations. I thought maybe we could have a Who, What, Where, Why, When invitation. But in the end, it was white folded card stock with a red stencil font on the cover. Then it had all the information inside, and some of it was really small writing. I added a small magnifying glass in the envelope so guests could read it. Just to be funny, a small list of silly side effects was printed at the bottom of the card.

COSTUMES: Casual, unless you want to create a fake crime scene in the background. Take pictures of the kids with adult trench coats, artificial mustaches, plastic sunglasses, and a brief case.

MYSTERY: When everyone arrived, each person got a small notebook and fuzzy pen. My dad explained the mystery. I didn't do a murder mystery because it wasn't very appropriate for the girls that were there. We had bought mini flashlights, and my dad pretended that the lights were out in the garage, so we had to go in the dark with our flashlights to see the clues.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: We had a pinata that was black with red question marks painted on. I had made the pinata a few days before. When I did it, I blew up a medium sized balloon and mixed glue and water together (Equal amounts of water and glue. Keep adding some more water and glue when you need it.). I ripped long strands of newspaper and made one layer of it around the balloon. I let that dry outside, and then I kept adding layers. When I had three or four layers that dried, I popped the balloon inside. Then I painted it. When we broke open the pinata, spoons and clothespins were inside, and that was part of the mystery (someone had stolen the contents).

Everyone had a blast when we decorated our goody bags with stickers, stamps, and markers. We also played a game called Murder by Winking. We all sat in a circle and one person was chosen secretly to be it first. Then that person winked at different people, and when they saw that person winking at them, they pretended to be dead. The goal of the game is for you to guess who the Winker is. No tricks. You can't guess after you are dead. If you guess wrong, you die too. If the winker kills everyone, they win, if someone guesses who it is and they are right, they win.

The last game we played was Who Am I? Each person had a piece of paper pinned to their back with tape or a clothespin. On the paper, there was a famous person or a Disney character. Each person walked around the room and asked yes or no questions about the character on their back. The game ends when everyone has guessed their character. It's a tradition to dance to the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance at every party of ours.

CAKE: We had a question mark cake that was cut out of a square cake. If you want, you can hide a small toy in the bottom of the cake or in the small dot under the question mark. Insert it AFTER you bake it. You can also just make cupcakes and arrange them in a question mark.

PARTY SNACKS: We had the basics-chips, trail mix, and candy. But another fun idea I had was to have food matching my theme colors. 

DECORATIONS: I decorated the house with red and black balloons and streamers. Confetti was sprinkled on the black tablecloth. My theme colors were red, black, and white, so I did as much as I could to really show that. I cut out red question marks and taped them all over the house. I usually decorate with paper chains, too.

FAVORS: We didn't do any favors because each girl got a fun pen, a notebook, candy, and a mini flashlight during the mystery.

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