French Detective Party

I've had a lot of boy's birthday parties. All themed. I sometime wonder if it's possible to run out of birthday themes with 4 boys using them up. Anyway, this last one was a French detective party. The invitation was printed on 8x10 and delivered in a top secret file folder.

 

 

 

When the children arrived they played some games and then I told them it was time to eat cake - but alas it had disappeared and in its place was a shoe print and a pink toothbrush.

 

Everyone was given notebooks and pencils. Since the majority of the kids could not read or write well, this birthday was wordless. We drew pictures of each clue and I didn't leave any written clues - they were all objects.

 

The three questions Detective Quentin asks: Where? Why? What?

 

So pink toothbrush

Where does this go? (It's moms, it goes in her bathroom)

Why is it here? (Maybe whoever stole the cake left it)

What do we do next? (Let's put it back and find out if there are any other clues)

 

And of course in the bathroom there was another clue - a spoon, so off to the kitchen, then a shoe so off to the cubbies, a book so up to the bookshelf, and all over the house. We took a moment to draw out our clues and ask the three questions because engagement and repetition makes things fun by building familiarity with the game and anticipation.

 

The last clue led them to the culprit - Papa.

 

We asked our three questions.

WHERE is the cake? Here with Papa

WHY did he take it? His answer, "I thought no one would share with me"

WHAT should we do about it?

 

We had a little board meeting and decided to forgive him and share.

And that was the end of the activities, off for cake and gifts.

I kept decorations simple - just set up my mantle as if it were the office of Detective Quentin

These are my guiding rules for parties:
- group games where everyone is moving is easier than waiting in line for your turn
- keep decorations simple by going large. a big area - like my chalkboard wall or mantle, makes a quicker statement then a lot of little details everywhere. I usually have one main spot of décor and skip the rest.
- the boys love to help with party prep by doing big posters for the party, and this makes fast easy themes
- morning parties are nice when our day has multiple bookings. sometimes we offer breakfast (cinnamon rolls as a cupcake in the paper wrap with the topper)
- kids wont care that you spent money on the matching napkins and plates. Have your wow factor and skip all the add ons.

Now time to put up autumn mantle again!