Mystery Party -13 yr- Stuffed Animal Murder

Every year I have a sleepover-birthday party, but I wanted to make it extra-special for my thirteenth birthday. I was really into mystery so I decided that would be my theme. 

PARTY SNACKS: When the guests first arrived, I wanted to create a fancy atmosphere" like in the board game "Clue." So I had fancy bowls filled with snacks like pretzels and chips as our "appetizer." I also had lots of pizza rolls on a fancy plate but to make it even fancier I put toothpicks on the pizza rolls. And for the drinks our guests were served "cocktails." The drinks were actually cranberry juice mixed in with seltzer poured in a fancy wine-glass. (The glasses were actually plastic.) 

MURDER MYSTERY GAME: in the corner of my living room I put a stuffed animal lying on its back with "blood" (strawberry syrup) on its belly. The stuffed animal was surrounded with caution tape. All the suspects were stuffed animals too. I placed these suspects on a table and they were holding information cards. The information cards had info about the suspect. (Name birthdate hobbies alibi etc.) Once our guests all arrived we picked out silly names out of a hat as our "secret identities." Some of the names included Maui Zowee Island Princess Klumsy Kahuna Shell Collector Lau Lau Lasagna Pastry Chef Kalua Pig Model/Farmer Ophelia Oprah Singer Melissa Forethought-Royal Princess etc.

Next we picked teams. Since my party had six people we split into two teams of three. Then we headed upstairs into the costume room to dress up. The costume room was filled with buckets of costumes and make-up. Some costumes included scarves hats furry coats a chef hat jewelry etc. We had lots of fun dressing up in silly outfits and my friend took a couple pictures of everyone. Have fun during this part; be silly crazy wacky and imaginative. Let your guests take as long as they want to try on as many costumes as they want! When everyone is happy with their outfits let the games begin! The goal of this game was to try and find out which stuffed animal was the murderer. 

CLUES: My mom hid all the clues.

Our first clue was: YOUR FIRST CLUE SHOULD BE UNDER THE DOOR. BUT WHICH DOOR? TRY THE FIRST FLOOR. Everyone ran around the first floor of the house trying to find the next clue! It ended up being under a cabinet door in the living room.

The next clue: NICE JOB. BUT I'M NOT IMPRESSED. YOUR NEXT CLUE IS MUCH TRICKIER THOUGH. YOU WILL NEED SOMEBODY WHO IS A GOOD READER TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THE NEXT CLUE IS YOUR NXET CULE IS IN THE SEWHOR. If you un-scramble the letters the clue says: your next clue in the shower. So our team raced to the shower and found our next clue.

It said: YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR HOW LONG WILL YOU LAST? YOUR NEXT CLUE IS UNDER THE GARBAGE. WHICH ONE? IT COULD BE ANY ONE BUT BEFORE YOU FIND YOUR NEXT CLUE YOU MUST COMPLETE THIS WORD PUZZLE. KEEP IT WITH YOU WHEN YOU FINISH IT.GOOD LUCK YOU'LL NEED IT. The clue was attached to a word-search. When we completed our word search we ran around the house and found the next clue under a garbage can.

The next clue said: READ THIS DIARY ENTRY. IT IS A BIG PART OF THE MYSTERY. YOUR NEXT CLUE IS IN A PINK PURSE. IT COULD BE ANYWHERE the diary entry talked about how they were jealous of Doggy (the stuffed animal who was murdered.) The diary entry also gave a few hints about who they were. At the end of the diary entry it said "love always but the named was cut off.

When we found our next clue in a pink purse with a $5 monopoly bill, the clue said: I NEED THIS MONEY MORE THEN YOU DO. THERE IS ONLY $5 IN THIS PURSE I NEED $10. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS. YOU CAN FIND THIS MONEY UNDER A PILLOW IN A BED!

When we found the money, there was another clue attached to it and it said: KEEP THIS $5 BILL. WOW, YOU ARE GETTING CLOSE. READ THIS LETTER, IT'S A BIG HINT. YOUR NEXT CLUE IS IN SOTTC'S CSOELT! (the un-scrabbled words were Scott's closet" and Scott is the name of my brother.) The letter was from Doggy (the murderer) to Dorney (a stuffed-animal suspect.) It said how Doggy was sorry about how Dorney didn't get that much attention.

The next clue in my brother's closet said: BY NOW YOU SHOULD KNOW WHO THE MURDERER IS. IF NOT RE-TRACE YOUR STEPS. THEN LOOK FOR A PACKET. HURRY UP BECAUSE IN THIS PACKET IS THE ANSWER TO THE MYSTERY AND A PRIZE!!! YOU CAN FIND THIS ENVOLOPE IN ON OR AT THE MURDERER'S FAVORITE PLACE so we all ran downstairs to look at Dorney's information card and it said his favorite place was on my bed! So we ran upstairs and looked under my mattress and found a large envelope. Inside the envelope was the prize. (nail polish and lip-gloss.)

My team won because we found all the clues and got to the prize first!!! 

DINNER & PRESENTS: My dad got Mario's pizza for dinner. For drinks we had another "cocktail." (cranberry juice mixed with seltzer) And for desert we had cheese-cake. Then when we finished desert we went into my living room and opened presents. 

THE REST OF THE NIGHT: After presents we ran upstairs into the Party Room. It was FILLED with balloons!!! We had fun playing with the balloons. Then we played CLUE the board game. After that we set up our sleeping bags and watched mystery-themed movies like "Nancy Drew." 

GOODIE BAGS: I made all the goodie-bags mystery boxes. To do this I picked out small card-board boxes and drew a big question mark on it. Each box was filled with lots of different things such as bath beads slinkys bubbles and more. No two boxes were alike! I hope you enjoyed my birthday party ideas because I had such a fun time! "