18054

Scavenger Hunt Sleepover -9yr- Leads to Restaurant

May 2008

Ann in Miami, Florida

Runner Up

Hello everyone! My daughter is 9 nine years old and she really loves doing crossword puzzles and wordsearches etc… I chose to do a scavenger hunt party! I highly recommend this because it gets the kids out of the house, running around, and excited. We live in Miami so its nice out pretty much year round but if that does not apply for where you live, wait until the summer or a time when its sunny out!

INVITATIONS: I made a wordsearch online and enclosed a crayon to do the wordsearch with. They were told to look for five words in the wordsearch then arrange them in a way to display a secret message! The five words were: Come to Lily's Sleepover Party! The parents all thought this was really cute. In a smaller envelope, I wrote, after you complete the word search, open this envelope and put the puzzle together. On the computer I just made a simple sheet and printed it on colored paper. I wrote, Lily's Super Scavenger Hunt Sleepover Party will be on ( date ) at ( adress) from Friday at 4pm to Saturday at 12:30pm. You should bring a sleeping bag, pillow, pjs, and anything else you will need to spend the night! Hope to see you there, RSVP to (phone number and email) After I printed them out I glued the computer paper to a different colored construction paper then cut it into 1-15 pieces. The more color you use the better! Parents awarded me the most creative, hands on invitation maker ever!

DECORATIONS: We had to get quite creative on decorations to go with our theme. It became more like a detective theme. My husband is a graphic designer so he made an enormous word search which we hung up and circled HAPPY BIRTHDAY within it. Each letter was half a page. At my work, I used an overheard projector and colored my thumb with red marker and made a print on the glass then I put a piece of paper on the wall and traced the lines of my thumbprint then I made copies of this and took them home. Using black construction paper we made magnifying glasses. We just used a simple circle and long rectangle for the handle. Then we posted these thumbprints on the wall and put the magnifying glasses over it to expose the prints. I also got some free maps of Miami and hung them up on the wall because the girls would be running around Miami searching for clues! Finally we covered the floors with balloons and the ceilings were strewn with streamers! It looked fantastic.

ACTIVITIES & GAMES: I told the girls to come over at 4 so as they arrived Lily took them to the attic where they would be sleeping and then they came downstairs to do wordsearches and crossword puzzles about parties. I also made these online using words like PARTY, BALLOON, CANDY, DANCE, etc… Around 4:20 all of the 10 girls had arrived. I explained what was going to happen with the big scavenger hunt. The ten girls were going to be divided into two teams of five. They would receive their first clue in the house then have to travel all around Miami by either chosing to take a car (drivers were my husband and our 21 year old daughter). They would receive no guidance from drivers they could ask for help along the way but would have to direct the drivers. They would also receive a backpack with supplies: 20$, a map of Miami, five bags of snacks, a key for all the locks, five juice boxes, a cell phone ( if one of the girls already didn’t have one ), a bag for supplies they need to collect, a quick developing camera and one free pass (if they couldn't find a location they could use this pass for help from the driver).

They started the scavenger hunt around 4:30 and it lasted until about 730. They were also told to save all their clues! The girls really got into this!! They started at our house and ended up at Ruby Tuesday's where they all had dinner together! Ok so the first clue was:

CLUE 1: If you went to Lily's fifth birthday party, you'll remember the cake fight that happened here! This led them to a park near their school. At each of the locations, I placed a lunch box with lock on it so no one could open it with the clues in it. In case something happen I gave an extra set up clues to the drivers.

CLUE 2: At the park they were told to make some sort of human pyramid and take a picture of it. They they were to drive back to the house for their next clue! At the house I waited for them in the front and in the backyard we set up big wooden boards were spray painted RUN TO THE KITCHEN. Then we used shaving cream to cover up the whole message.

CLUE 3: use the water gun in the backyard to reveal your next clue. The girls loved this!! Then when they ran to the kitchen I gave them the next envelope with a clue that said,

CLUE 4: Go to Grab a Slice Down the Street Twinkle" in exchange for the clue.

CLUE 5 said "You study here You work here Now it's time to have some fun here!" This was supposed to bring them to their school. The clue continued saying "Start at the front door then work your way around the school looking for words on the walls. Write them down then arrange them to reveal your next clue. I used pink chalk and wrote them on the walls the night before.

CLUE 6 said "GO TO LILY'S CHURCH ON UNION STREET" This was kind of far away so both groups used their passes for this. I placed a lunchbox with a clue near the door.

CLUE 7 said go inside and spell something with your bodies then take a picture. Then search through the swimming pool of paper to find one sheet with a clue on it! I used our little blow up pool and on three sheets of paper I wrote the next clue which was

CLUE 8 "GO TO 507 LEXINGTON AVE. and LOOK FOR A BOUQUET OF ROSES BUT FIRST GO INTO THE KITCHEN FOR A SIDE TASK"  (there were tons of other crumpled up pieces of paper in the pool). In the kitchen there were two whipped cream pies and next to it there was a paper that said TAKE ONE OF THESE PIES and CHOSE ONE MEMBER TO BE PIED IN THE FACe then take a picture!!" Onto the next clue.. 507 lexington ave. is my sister's flower shop. Lily knew this immediatley but it took the other group a little longer. At the flower shop my sister gave the girls a bouquet and said that one of the flowers was fake and they had to chose which one was fake by smelling them. If they did not guess the right one after two tries they would have a five minute penalty before they could try again. Then she gave them their next clue

CLUE 9 said "Head to the shopping center and buy the following items then put them in the bag: a pencil a pair of earrings one piece of chocolate a bottle of nail polish a hair clip and something yellow." They really liked this! Once they presented the items to the driver they were given the next clue.

CLUE 10 said: "GO to the pool where we cool off in the summer and ask the cashier for your next clue!" Our cousin works here and he agreed to doing this. He said in order to receive their next clue they would need to chose two members to run four laps around the pool and then they could get their next clue.

CLUE 11 said: " I hope you saved all your clues. On the corner of all of the cards there are letters.. Write them down and unscramble to reveal your final destination where you will be eating dinner. Go quickly! Whoever gets there first is the winner. Because there were 11 clues there were 11 letters.. R U B Y  T U E S D A Y . They didn’t need to direct their drivers there because some of them had never been there before. We chose this restaurant because they have a salad bar and Lily really likes it. So we just had everyone use the salad bar and the girls could pick five appetizers to share. This worked fantastically. PRIZES for the big scavenger hunt Winners- 5$ Claire's gift certificates little bath sets and a lot of candy. Second Place lots of candy and bubbles!

I waited for the girls to finish eating while my husband ran home to set up more games!!

GAME 1: Hershey Kisses UnderCover On our dining room table we set up a huge layout of Chocolate Kisses and underneath them was a sheet that said THE PRESENTS ARE MISSING. The girls lined up and each girl had to pick up one hershey's kiss to try to reveal the message. Once they thought they knew they called over my husband to say the message. The winners got to pick lotion from a prize box.

GAME 2: Present Search. After the Hershey's Kiss Message was uncovered.. We told them that the burgular of the presents posted sticky notes with letters of where the presents were hidden BASEMENT. So the girls all worked together. We told them they were eight letters. As they started looking my husband hopped down to the basement where the presents where hidden and wore a black and white striped shirt and a black bag over his head like a robber! Once they found all the letters they concluded it was basement and headed down there where they were SPOOKED to find my husband with his costume on down there! They giggled about this all night! Then they opened presents downstairs and my husband kept a list of who gave what for thanks yous!

GAME 3: I didn’t want to overdo the scavenger hunt/searching games so next we played LAP TAG. This is how you play.. Everyone gets a partner except for one person my 21 year old played with them also. One partner sits on an outside circle and straddles their legs. The other partner sits in between their legs cross legged. Then the person without the partner calls out two names of the people on the inside circle. When their names are called they try to get to the person with a partner as quickly as possible. However their partner on the outside circle is trying to hold them back by wresting with them our grabbing their legs and arms etc.. Whoever gets to the person without a partner first becOMES that person's partner. The winner's previous partner now does not have a partner and they call two names. This sounds confusing but it was a blast. At this point it was about 10 pm.

My daughter didn't want a cake so we had a dessert buffet instead. We had chocolate mousse brownies apple pie and cupcakes. Delicious! While they were putting we put on the movie Sleepover which is about a scavenger hunt some girls do ! So appropriate! Then we sent them upstairs, we set up a bunch of air mattresses plus one regular one we dragged up from my daughter's room. So there were three air matresses and one regular so 2-3 girls slept on each one. We made them into a circle so the girls could talk quietly and all see each other. In the morning we made pancakes and had a buffet of chocolate chips strawberries whipped cream blueberries etc that they could put on their pancakes. I used a suggestion on this site of using cupcake trays to serve the toppings in. We had a big birthday book for the guests to sign and they got up around 1030 so there wasn’t much "time to kill" in the morning.

FAVORS: A simple cellophane bag with little magnifying glass a group picture of the girls and chocolates.  SUCH AN AWESOME PARTY. "

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