Murder Mystery Party -13yr- Haunted House

So for my daughter's thirteenth birthday I decided to do a murder mystery. I have 3 sons ages 14-17 and a son who is eleven years old and they are what really made this party work. 

INVITATIONS:I went to Michael's with my daughter and told her to pick out pretty red stationery, all in different shades. we were inviting 15 people plus my daughter which made sixteen. Once she had done that I asked her to pick out some dark color paint i.e. blood red and black. she also picked out some things to decorate the cards with like those bendy fuzzy straws googly eyes and sticky goo. she had no clue what her party was going to be like since i just ask my kids if they like the idea for the party. The way my family does it, everyone else gets to plan.

DECORATIONS: The same day at michael's we bought black gold and red streamers so balloons in those colors black and red poster board and these really cool cardboard houses." basically those are sturdy cardboard buildings you can paint to make look like buildings. When we got back to my home I sent my daughter to a friends house and began to piant the mini buildings. I made a jailhouse 2 regular house and a haunted house. Then on the poster board I wrote RIP _____.

I did 16 of these each girls name on one. I stuck those in my backyard which is a little bigger than most. (45 x 50) I took some dye from my kitchen and dyed my pool blood red. I put in some creepy crawlies, which you can make with some homemade goo. My husband hung up the streamers and made balloon people and set them in the corners. We took some bamboo we had bought from a pet store and put them in the doorways of 3 rooms. These would be where some girls slept. I took my some of my son's pillow cases and filled them with small beans and rice which would be fake dead bodies lying around. After 2 hrs of prep it was time to start. 

ACTIVITIES: the party started at 7. Each girl came in one at a time and I told them to go in the back in the regular house painted green. My oldest son was dressed as a creepy butler and led each girl into the house. When they got inside he would give each girl a name for the night. Once all the girls were inside I explaineed that the house was hanuted. Some girls screamed and that was great. Then I had my 14 year old son sneak up behind the door and grab 2 of the girls. All the girls freaked out. Hysterical!

He took them inside the mini haunted house and told them it was okay and to just scream after he shot his nerf gun. They did. He made it seem as though they had been shot and murdered. He told them to go back and not to tell anyone what happened or else it would ruin the party. They came back and looked really scared. No one knew what to do. Let the games begin I told all the girls in an eerie voice. 

GAMES: Every 20 minutes throughout the night the girls would play a game. No sleep parents! The first game was at 9:45. The girls were divided into teams and they had to go in the bloody pool and fish out a creepy crawler. The teams had to get as many as they could out of the pool in 5 minutes. Most of the girls were scared to go in but wanted to win so they did. If your team lost you were sent to the jailhouse where my son was. He would kill one of the three team members and the rest would go back.

We played games until three girls were still alive. They then had to go inside and try and find out with clues who the killer was. The dead girls while the living girls were alive were told to set booby traps inside and make themselves look dead with black makeup and fake blood and ketchup. All the living girls were scared. It was so funny! After 45 minutes trying to uncover clues the three living girls were sent into the rooms that had bamboo in the doorway. There my husband videod them syaing who they thought was the killer. My 14 year old son had sneaked into one of the rooms and had to pretent to killed one of the girls while they were talking! 

The 2 living girls had to keep looking until 1 was alive. Whoever that was won and got to choose where she slept. She of course chose the least creepy room! I forgot to explain that when the losing team goes into the jailhouse, my son will shoot the nerf gun and whoever gets shot while they are trying to escape in 45 seconds is the one who dies. In the morning we opened presents. Everyone had such a good time they never even asked about the cake! Huge success!  "