Clued In

We made it through the party in one piece and my sons have both declared that the movie "Clue" from 1985 is their new favorite.  It was especially cute driving the guests home, their sleepy little heads topped with fedoras.

Each detective guest received a new hat, a crime solving pouch, a magnifying glass, a wax mustache, a little black notebook for clues, and a pocket decoder to put together.

You can find the pattern for your own decoding wheel right here.

P.W. Strikes Again

The Detective Party is tonight and the first thing the boys did was solving the terrible, horrible, brutal murder of George the Creepy Puppet (alias Dave the Serial Killing Puppet, and also Alfie the Cat Eating Puppet).  Luckily, the killer had left a clue.

The boys used decoding wheels they assembled at the start of the party.  Each clue had a code cracking clue ("I'm a puppet you can't murder me, But cracking the code will be 'E-Z'.") to help the boys solve the crime.

Turns out it was Pee-Wee Herman in the living room with with his bare hands!  The criminal was apprehended in the bathtub.  The reward of the activity was their P.I. badges.

Caution: Party Scene

Uggh, that title is dangerously cheesy.  Here is a picture of the table for the boys' Detective Party.  Cicely volunteered to be the crime scene outline model which is wrong in ways too numerous to count.  You can see a bit more of the red yarn laser maze behind the table. 

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Any private eye worth his salt can follow your garden variety thief through a laser maze undetected.  To get up to the party room the young detectives will have to maneuver their way through the red yarn lasers.   

I still am trying to create a mystery for them to solve but remain woefully uninspired.  Anyone have any good ideas?

Just the Facts

The boys' "friends" birthday party will be a Detective Party.  Their motivation may have been to score a new chapeau, but I still like it better than doing a flavor-of-the-month cartoon character themed birthday.  The boys said the fedora was non-negotiable and they even narrowed their guest list so I could accomodate this request.  I ended up finding the hats at Target for $3.74 a piece on clearance.  I found the magnifying glasses at Dollar Tree. 

He's the Jolly Good Fellow

A double header weekend.  For Phil's graduation party we started with his alma mater's color:  blue.  I found an almond can that had the perfect blue lid and after using them for last nights pesto these cans were upcycled into puppy chow holders for the party. 

We got the idea for the donut hole tree from Katie Brown.  Every time I see her I think, "Local girl makes good!"  While I am skilled at feigned enthusiasm, this woman wrote all of the textbooks and pamphlets on the subject.  She is like an over-caffeinated super fluffy kitten with a glue gun.  Katie instructed us to cover a styrofoam cone with parchment paper held in place by toothpicks.  Then use more toothpicks to spear what ever goodies you want on your tower of food.  The donut holes and strawberries stayed on very well.  Work from the bottom up.  She cut her strawberries in half with the cut side out.  I am a fan of using smaller whole strawberries. If I had been thinking I would have put a picture of the guest on honor on top like a star on a Christmas tree. 

 

The celebratory breakfast ready to go.

The guest of honor.