I have survived. The parties are over. K-Girl's actual birthday isn't until Tuesday, but yesterday we celebrated with friends and a Scooby Doo Mystery Party and today with family. I'm wiped. So very glad that birthdays come but once a year.
This year I learned something, as kids get older they know what they want and they have ideas about how these things should go. It gets harder. I generally love birthday parties. I love the decorating, making the cakes, coming up with the games, and all of that jazz. This year I have felt particularly lazy about it. I'm not sure why that is, but I just lost my mojo a bit. But all things considered, I think I did a pretty darn good job with it. Sure I didn't go all out with the cake like I did for last year's Hello Kitty & Chococat party or E-Man's monster party, but cake is cake no matter how fancy or not fancy it is.
So like I said, this year K-Girl decided that she wanted to have a Scooby Doo party complete with a mystery to solve. She had a whole bunch of ideas and I did not want to let her down so a mystery we did have. :) It went a little like this...
The dining room was the most decorated area, but there were balloons outside including a big Scooby balloon tied to the play set out back.
The cupcakes were purchased at Sam's Club (they have DELICIOUS cupcakes 30 for $12 something). So I stopped at Michael's and got some Wilton edible Scoobys for on the top of the kids' cupcakes. K-Girl was pleased.
For the favors, I purchased Scooby stickers and punch bags from the party store. In addition to that they had all the loot from the pinata.
So once everyone got here and had a little bit of play time we started the fun. The Husband went out to the back yard to get the kids and I grabbed the cupcakes and hid them upstairs. In their place was set Clue #1. I went to hide out front in place for the kids to find me. The Husband brought the kids inside and told them it was time to have cupcakes. When they came in he made a big fuss that the cupcakes were missing and he read them the clue. The first clue read...
"I've taken your treats, you won't get them back
Without some work and a plan of attack!
Find K-Girl's Mummy who's waiting for you.
She's got the rolls and knows what to do"
The kids took off looking and finally found me hiding behind a tree in the front yard. When they came up I told them that I had a clue for them, but first they had to split into 2 teams and wrap me and another "mummy". After someone won they got to hear the second clue. It was a lot of fun. We had a team of 5 and one of 6 and each team had 2 rolls of crepe paper.
and these were the finished "Mummies"...
The second clue read...
"Scooby's getting hungry! Let's find him a treat!
Using ONLY your mouth grab one to eat."
While we were out doing the mummy races, another friend set up the next activity. The kids went running. They made it to the kitchen to find a big bin of water with rice krispy treat bones floating. I did this by making rice krispy treats, cutting them into bone shapes with a cookie cutter, running a swizzle stick through them, and then running that down through a piece of foam. They looked like this...
It was a lot of fun. The kids were only allowed to use their mouths to pick out the treats.
The next clue was taped in a baggie to the bottom of one of the pieces of foam. One little girl got the clue so when everyone had taken a turn and all the treats were finished I read the third clue...
"Scooby's hanging around waiting for you
He's got loads of candy and I bet a clue too"
Immediately, the kids figured out that this meant the pinata and raced to the back yard where the pinata always goes at our parties. However, this time he was tucked close to the house and we didn't see him right away. Soon enough we were set up and swinging. After many years of failed attempts and resorting to Daddy having to break the pinata open, I decided to forego the blindfolds and sure enough we didn't make an entire pass through all the children before it broke.
The fourth clue was inside the pinata and one of the kids found it during the candy frenzy. After all the candy had been gathered, I wrote their names on the bags and we set them aside. Then I read the clue...
"A blanket of blue and some painting to do
Hidden in white it's quite out of sight"
This one stumped the kids for a bit, but after some running around they found a big blue tarp out front that had been set up as they were doing the pinata. On the tarp was set very kid-friendly washable paint along with foam brushes, cups, and white sheets of cardstock. Before hand I wrote on the papers in white crayon. Some of the papers had balloons or Scooby tags on them. On some I wrote "Happy Birthday", or Scooby Doo, Where are you?" on them. On one of the papers I wrote the fifth and final clue. The kids each got a paper cup and a foam brush. They picked a color of paint and got a small amount in their cup. Then they painted their sheet of paper with the paint to reveal the hidden "message".
When everyone was done I asked them if anyone had anything that looked like a clue. I got the page and read it to the kids...
"You are on your own from here on out keep your head down and you'll figure it out.
Run and search for your last clue once you see it you'll know what to do"
So the kids took off and K-Girl opened the front door and saw foot prints. The kids started following them the "wrong" way but once they got to the end of them they turned around and follow them back and up the steps...
...to where they found the "creeper" waiting with the cupcakes.
He scared one of the friends a little bit much, but the others tackled him. (It was Daddy of course!)
And since the mystery had been solved it was really time for cupcakes now!
And EVERYONE enjoyed those...
We finished up with presents and a little more play time. It was a lot of fun, but I really am glad that birthdays only come once a year. This momma is pooped.
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