Spy Clue Inspired Birthday Party!

This week,  I’m participating in a blog hop series of 5 Days of Mothering and Homemaking

Welcome to the first of 5 Days of Children’s Birthday Party Ideas!

For my Mary’s 9th birthday, she requested a Spy/Clue inspired party. I love to plan parties. And I completely LOVE a theme!

Spy / Clue Inspired Party:

We asked the children to arrive in party clothes.

If we had more planning time, we would have assigned Clue movie characters for the guests to dress as: 

1. Col. Mustard (Yellow) – an old friend of Mr. Boddy’s uncle and a frequent guest at the Tudor Mansion.

2. Prof. Plum (Purple)- a Professor in Middle Eastern history, Mr. Boddy’s uncle funded many of his archaeological digs.

3. Mr. Green (Green)-  a conman who became acquainted with Mr. Boddy through his uncle, Sir Hugh Black.

4. Miss. Scarlett (Red)- an aspiring but not very talented actress. She is now setting her sights on rich old widowers.

5. Mrs. Peacock (Blue)- Miss. Scarlett’s mother, a socialite and three time widow, she still dreams of a career on the stage.

6. Mrs. White (White)-  Mr. Boddy’s long-term housekeeper and cook.

If you are not familiar with the Clue board game and movie, here is the basic premise: All of the above were invited guests to Mr. Boddy’s Tudor Mansion for a dinner party. Mr. Boddy is not present for the party until he is found dead at the foot of the cellar stairs by Miss Scarlett. The rest of the movie follows the “clues” to figure out “whodunit”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(While our party was inspired by the Clue board game, Mary was turning 9 and I didn’t feel a murder mystery was appropriate for her and her younger guests. We based our party very loosely on the game.)

We began with “Who Am I?”. Ahead of time, I wrote animal names on pieces of paper. As the girls arrived, they received a paper taped to their back (without them seeing it). They then had to ask only yes or no questions of others to try to figure out what animal they were assigned. Some of the guesses were quite humorous!

Then, it was onto the scavenger hunt type game where the children had find clues that led them all over the house. You could do this outside as well, but this party was held in January. In Tennessee. Too cold outside for much more than a photo. 🙂
The  scavenger hunt was simply a set of clues placed in various places throughout the house leading the children from room to room until they reached the end.

Here is a list of the clues I used:
(The first clue was handed to the children to get them started)

1. “You sit at me to eat,
Won’t you please take a seat?”

2. “People sit on me in twos,
I hope that you will find me soon.”

3. “I keep your food just right,
Don’t forget to shut me tight.”

4. “In this room, try not to rush,
And don’t forget to flush.”

5. “We come in beige or white, while sitting side by side.
We take of a big job and sure do love that Tide.”

6. “I am in most every house,
I even come with my own mouse.”

7. “Too much time in front of me
Is really not too good for thee.”

The final clue read:
“Put all the letters together to find the surprise”

On the back of all of the clue cards were these clues for the final clue:
1. “What is the 5th letter of the alphabet?” (E)
2. “What is the 1st letter of the name of the birthday girl’s oldest sister?” (in our case, this was R)
3. “What is the 1st letter of an animal with big ears and a long trunk?” (E)
4. “What is the 1st letter of a place that has lots of animals, like cows, chickens, and horses?” (F)
5. “What is the 6th letter of this month?” (in our case, this was January) (R)
6. “What was the 1st letter you found?” (E)
7. “What is the 1st letter of an animal with four legs, a tail, and stripes?” (Z)

When they unscrambled the letters, it spelled FREEZER, which is where the ice cream cake was waiting for them!

(Note, keep a list of the clues and the order they belong. I had to re-do the laying out of the clues twice as I was one off of where they belonged!)

Once we finished this game, they sat down to eat a meal of surprise foods. We used the same surprise foods that I served at Rebecca’s surprise party a few years ago.

The next game we played was two versions of the Memory Game. First, I placed various items on a tray. The girls were able to view the tray for 1 minute, the tray was then removed and they each had 3 minutes to write down as many of the items that they could recall.

 

The second version involved putting various items into a paper bag. The girls worked in teams. Each of them were allowed to put one hand each into the bag (at the same time) and try to identify the objects. They then wrote down what they felt in their 3 minute time limit. (In retrospect, we should have had an adult writing the items down as they identified them, for older girls, it would be fine to have them write….we had younger girls who had a bit of trouble with this, given the time limit).

The girls then played Clue 

and then watched the movie.

They ended the party with the ice cream cake from their scavenger hunt.
Another choice for a movie to watch is Nancy Drew. Another cake idea is a cake in the shape of a question.  More game ideas are to fill a jar with M&M’s (or another candy) and have the children guess the number, or these scratch art papers, or play Clue the online version.

 

Share some of your favorite theme parties  with me! And come back tomorrow for another children’s birthday party idea!

Thanks for visiting during this 5 days of Mothering and Homemaking! Click on over to check out the other 20 participants’ posts today!