Detective Training for Lydia and friends

This may be one of the longest posts I've ever made.  I apologize in advance. 

We had a hard time coming up for a theme for Lydia's 10th birthday. So, I got on the internet and started searching for ideas and I saw an idea for a detective birthday. I thought it was perfect for her because she likes that type of stuff. I told her about it and she was definitely excited. Because of other things going on, I only had two weeks to get this party planned.  For those two weeks, I pretty much neglected my house and my kids watched A LOT of TV.  :)

These were the invitations that I came up with. 

 I cut these mini manilla folders out of regular ones.  They were pretty small.  Maybe like 4 x 6".

I put the girls to work cutting out question marks to put all over the walls for decorations.

More decorations--just used some Nancy Drew Books and detective things I found at the Dollar Store

I made her banner using different styles of letters so it kind of has a 'ransom note' style to it. 

She was begging me to have a sleep over, but I don't really like sleep overs and I knew that some of her friends parent's didn't like them either.  Plus, she invited 2 boys to her parties and that doesn't work.  So, I convinced her that it would be cool to have a night time party and to have it be a longer party (longer than the normal 2 hour parties that we usually have.)  So, we had it from 5-9pm.  She thought that was pretty cool.

When her friends first arrived, we gave them each a manilla envelope that had everything they would need for their detective training.  They had a notepad, pen, a detective badge and their ID Badges.  They would get the rest of their equipment along the way. 

I made each of the kids one of these detective badges.  It had their name and then I assigned them "code names" that they loved using.  I thought they turned out cute. 

We were still waiting on one more friend to show up, so we started the first game of "Who am I?" so that the kids could use their questioning skills and get their minds thinking.  I put a sticker with a character's name on each of their backs.  Characters that they would recognize like Darth Vader, Mary Poppins, Taylor Swift, Rapunzel, The Hulk, etc.  They went around the circle asking yes or no questions to try to figure out who the character on their back was.  It took a little while because they had a hard time thinking of questions, but they all eventually got it. 

After this, we ate pizza for dinner. 

Then we had another game.  I put Maggie in charge of this one.  It was Detective Memory where we had a tray of 29 random items.  They were able to look at the tray for 2 minutes and try to memorize the things they saw.  Then we took it away and they had to write down as many things as they could remember in their notepads. 

I gave leftover halloween candy to the top two winners.  By the way, Tonya if you read this, does Blake have a photographic memory?  He told me he remembered every single item and I checked and he had written down all 29 items.  I thought maybe he was writing them down as we went over them, because wow--how can anyone remember 29 things?  :)  I was pretty impressed and yes, I gave him the candybar prize! 

Our next activity they had to rotate through 3 different stations.  Station #1 was the "Disquise Yourself" Station.  Sometimes detectives have to look inconspicuous while investigating. The boys weren't too thrilled with this one.  But, they played along. 

Blake

Peng

Paige

Elise

Lydia

and Kali

Station #2 was Target practice with nerf guns.

Station #3 was the Fingerprinting station

This was the card I made for their fingerprints.

When everyone had completed each of the stations, it was time to put our trainees to the test.  In order for them to become official detectives, they had to go through some training exercises.  They had to follow clues, decipher messages, find fingerprints, etc.  They all had to do/find all of the same clues, just in different order and they were all working on their own.  It was pretty much a clue hunt using various skills.  At the end of it, they would find a reward and become Official Detectives.  I had my assistant Maggie with me to help if any of them needed more help. 

This was the letter I read to them before they began. 

I am just going to go through Lydia's clues in the order that she went through them, but they all were in a different order. 

Her first clue was to find a red folder in the "piano room" (they each had an assigned color for their clues so that they wouldn't look at the wrong clue and get out of order.)  In each of the folders were picture puzzles.  One puzzle for each word.  Most of them had a clue that was 6 or 7 words long, so they had to figure out 6 or 7 picture puzzles.  This led them to the next room and clue. 

I know these things have a certain name for them, so if anyone knows what they are, PLEASE tell me because it has been bugging me. 

 Lydia working on hers.

 Kali

 Peng and Blake getting a little help from Maggie

 Another clue they found was written backwards, so they had to take it to a bathroom to read in a mirror.  That clue told them to find Garrett and they were supposed to give him a certain secret word. When they did, he would give them the next clue.  This one happened to be a close-up picture of something in the house.  They had to figure out what it was and find that item. 

Hers was a clock. 

Finding her next clue which led her to the "library" in Lydia's room.

 Here, they were told to find a certain book and turn to a certain page. 

 On this page, they found a sticky note with more instructions.  They had to count down so many lines and then count in so many words to find the correct word.  They were supposed to write this on their notepad.  Then it would tell them to find the next book and turn to a certain page, each time writing down a new word in their clue.  This one took the longest time by far. 

 We had a traffic jam up there at one point.  When they finished figuring out their clue, they were sent down to the kitchen table to try to read a clue on a blank piece of paper.  My original idea was to use lemon/grape juice to decipher the message, but we couldn't get it to work.  Luckily, I found little kits at the Dollar store that had a pen that would write the message in invisible ink and then the other side of the pen you would scribble over the message and it would reappear.  I was so glad I found those at the store. 

 This told them to find a treasure chest with an X marking the spot. 

 Inside were clues written in really tiny font.  So they had to use the magnifying glass (which they got to keep) to read their clue. 

They were then told to go to the garage and find a "bomb" (balloon in their color).  They had to pop the balloon to deactivate the explosion.  Inside the balloon was the next clue.  I guess I didn't get pictures of them popping the balloons. 

This clue told them to find an envelope on a wall downstairs with their ID # on it.  Inside, they found a message--just jumbled letters and numbers.  In order to read it, they had to use the red decoder that was in their envelope (another great find at the Dollar Store!)

 This gave them a phone number to call and told them that they could find the phone in the office desk top drawer. 

 When they called, an agent (Garrett) asked them for their code name and then gave them instructions.  They had to search the house for fingerprints.  They each had to find 16 fingerprints (in their color).  Before the party, I had my kids help me hide the fingerprints (80 in total).  While the kids were searching for the fingerprints, there was one that we couldn't find. 

 After we found them all (minus the one), they were then told that for their last task, they had to work as a group.  On the back of the fingerprints was a code consisting of one letter and one number.  That's all I told them.  They had to figure out where to go from there. 

 After a few minutes, they figured out that if they put the numbers in order, that the letters were making words. 

 It was so cute to see them all working together to figure this out. 

 This was the message.  It said, "Congratulations on a job well done.  To claim your reward find the silver briefcase.  Use code 007."

 They all knew right where the silver briefcase was and they were over there before they were done reading the whole message. 

 They each got to take home one detective chapter book, one flashlight and one giant smartie candy. 

 Next was present opening. 

 She got a new "briefcase" full of art supplies, which she loves.  She is a fabulous artist. 

 a new nerf gun

 a Nancy Drew book.  She loves reading these!

 a little baby pig toy, lip gloss and some other things that I can't remember right now. 

  a group shot

 This was her cake.  Wasn't the best...it looks more like a tennis racket than a magnifying glass.  I don't think the kids cared too much about what it looked like though.  :)

 After the cake, they got to watch a movie.  I was hoping for Nancy Drew.  But, Lydia really likes G-force.  So we went with that one.  It's about a bunch of guinea pigs that are spies.  Pretty cheesy, but a big hit with this age group.  They had popcorn and M&M's while they watched.  We didn't get to finish the movie before parents started showing up, but most of them were starting to get tired, so I think they were okay with it. 

Even though this party was a ton of work, I think it might just be my favorite so far.