My oldest daughter is a reader.  She loves mystery series like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the Mandy series.  For her 10th birthday, we decided to create a real mystery that she and her friends could solve.  This party could be modified for boys and for different ages.   Let the sleuthing begin!

First thing I have to tell you is:   I barely had to buy a thing for this party.   Decoration was easy.  I cut out footprints and question marks out of construction paper and taped them all over.  Most of the props for the party were already in our house (vintage suitcases, mystery books, vintage typewriter, etc.)

I created the invite below using typewriter font.  You can download an editable version here.

And yes, there was a true mystery to be solved.   However, I will share the mystery in detail on another post, along with the other related party games we played.  For this post, I am going to focus on the party decor, food, and party favors.

To set the scene, I taped cut-out footprints on the floor leading from the front door into the dining room.  The colors were mainly blue and green.

So, here’s the Mystery Party tablescape.  I simply stacked lots of mystery books (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes), used a few vintage suitcases, candles, and magnifying glasses from Dollar Tree, and spread out a vintage Clue game board and a few game pieces to set the scene.  The most money I spent was for the helium-filled balloons (about $15).

I had my kids cut out letters from magazines to create labels for the food we served.  The result was a “kidnap letter” effect.   We had “fingerprints” (sausage pinwheels).

We also had “poisoned fruitcups” and “mystery cheese.”

I made my famous shortbread cookies (find the recipe here) and simply piped a question mark of each of them, dubbing them “get-a-clue cookies.”

Happily, this was one easy “super sleuth”  cake.  It was a rainy weekend, and I knew my homemade icing would be a disaster.  I made one small round and one small rectangular cake, using one cake mix.  I used 2 cans of cream cheese frosting – I simply dyed one can to get the blue I wanted.  I took black licorice and cut it lengthwise with kitchen shears to get thin black strips to create the fingerprint in the center of the magnifying glass.  I could of done it with icing, but this was easier!

I took manilla folders and labeled them TOP SECRET! and CONFIDENTIAL!! and stapled the sides closed.  Then I slid in the party favors:  a magnifying glass from Dollar Tree, a word-find book from the Target dollar aisle, fake eyeglasses from a party pack also from Target, and a retro Nancy Drew paper doll page downloaded free from Tangarang.

Here are the girls sporting their new disguises and magnifying glasses!  They were definitely a band of super-sleuths.

Click here for the post detailing the mystery I created and the other party games the children played!

I think children’s birthdays are magical.  A simple theme can be developed into something truly special that you and your child will never forget.  For my daughter’s 4th birthday, we decided to make it all about butterflies.  And what little girl doesn’t love butterflies?

So, let’s start with the decor.  I actually have lots of butterfly ornaments that I use on my Christmas tree, so I pulled those out to start.  The colors were pink, creamy white, light green, and pale blue.  Pink, white, and green balloons and faux flowers made the dining room feminine and airy.  For this party, I shoved my dining room table against the wall to serve as a buffet for the food and to provide more room for guests to mill around.

I used colored chalk on a chalkboard easel that I got for $3 at a yard sale.  Those flower thingees laying on the table are a pair of table runners with applied flowers and fabric petals – they kinda have a lily pad effect, but it works.

I found a picture out of a vintage children’s book and scanned it to create a custom butterfly invitation.   The invite read “Flutter On By to the Barnett Butterfly Garden for Kelta’s Birthday Party” with details and rsvp information.  Feel free to download the one I created which can be customized for your own butterfly birthday party.

We served “Butterfly Nectar” to the guests.  In other words, Juicy-Juice.  It’s all in the presentation – I found these foam craft flowers in bulk at Michaels, punched a hole in the middle of them, and stuck a short straw through.

This cake was soooo easy.  Really!  I made a large round cake, cut it in half, flipped the halves over, and carved out the “wings” on the outsides of the two halves.  A twinkie and colored Twizzlers created the body and antennae.  The details on the wings included some flat candy sprinkles and clear sugar sprinkles.  JoAnn’s has lots of colored candies that you don’t find most places that really simplify my cake decorating.

Other food included these frozen strawberry salad cups (recipe at end of post), sausage pinwheels, and butterfly-shaped cookies.

For my delicious shortbread recipe that I used for the butterfly cookies, look here.

In another room, I set up a table for crafting.  I borrowed and bought enough butterfly wings for all the girls to have their own pair and scattered them around the table.

Now, older girls might be able to do these themselves – but I premade little tissue paper flowers for them to glue to headbands to create their butterfly “hats.”  I simply cut out uniform squares of tissue paper, stacked 5 pieces, and accordion-folded the paper.   I secured the middle of the folder papers with a twist tie, then began separating the tissues to form the petals of the flowers.

I helped the girls twist pipe cleaners around pencils to make antennae while they cut out pre-printed butterflies and glued them to ends of the pipe cleaners.

With butterfly wings and floral crowns, the girls look all aflutter!

Everyone colored beautiful butterflies that I downloaded from here.

The girls also made a lovely stained glass butterfly with wax paper and crushed crayons.  The instructions from Enchanted Learning are here.   Afterwards, the girls went outside to take a swing at the candy-filled butterfly pinata.

Goody baskets were filled with a butterfly puppet, butterfly tic-tac-toe games, a mini windchime, butterfly bookmarks, and a butterfly sucker.  The baskets and contents were mostly from Dollar Tree, except for the tic-tac-toe games from the Target dollar aisle and suckers from Oriental Trader.

Hope you liked this party proposal!  Click on the pics below for more details from the butterfly party.

Recipe for Frozen Strawberry Salad Cups:

diced pint of strawberries

1/2 small can of condensed milk

pineapple tidbits

2 cups cool whip

2 chopped bananas

Mix berries and milk.  Fold in pineapple, bananas, and cool whip.  Freeze in aluminum baking cups on a tray at least overnight.  You can make these weeks in advance if you like.

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Her costume came from a large authentic-looking Native American shirt I bought at an estate sale for $3.  The shirt hung down to the ground on her like a dress, and I simply had to cut the sleeves down.  I bought mocassins on ebay for $8.  The headdress came from a yard sale for $1 that I found 2 weeks before the party.  I love those racoon tails hanging down around her ears!

My husband constructed a teepee from things he had in his workshop:  scrap wood, an old paint dropcloth, and rope.  That’s it.  Simple, but it made for the coolest centerpoint for the party.  My husband has had these fake fireplace logs since he was a bachelor, and they made for a perfect American Indian cookfire.  This other little squaw is my older daughter.

Here’s the retro-cool invitation.  I used a free font that looked like wood logs.  Then I individually burned the edges with a lighter.  Aren’t they darling???

The kids “roasted” marshmellows over the fake fire.  It was so hilarious – they couldn’t understand why their marshmellows weren’t turning brown!  Anyway, they “roasted” while I read them a Native American story about a little brave who ran away from home.

I served up a teepee cake made from a Pampered Chef Batter Bowl.  I used regular homemade buttercream icing, but fondant would work great, too.  This cake was such a hit! 

The tablescape started with a couple of Indian-look blankets draped across the dining room table.  Vintage American Indian books were set upright toward the back of the table, along with a few metal collectable tins with Indian motifs filled with turkey feathers from Michael’s.  I had a small collection of Cherokee Indian artifacts that my father had gathered as a boy, which I scattered about the tabletop.   The Indian dolls came from a yard sale and a gas station in Alabama (I found that on the way back from the beach!)

Besides the cake, I served brown horse cookies, popcorn, jiffy cornbread, chocolate sugarcone teepees, and edible Indian corn.

Click here for Jane’s Shortbread Cookie recipe.

For the Chocolate Teepees, simply ice inverted sugar cones with pre-made chocolate icing.  Insert 3 half-toothpicks in top and add candies for decoration.

Edible Indian Corn Recipe

4 tbsp butter

4 cups mini marshmellows

5 cups puffed corn cereal (corn puffs)

1 1/3 cups diced dried fruit (raisins, papayas, cranberries, apricots)

popsicle sticks

tye-dye fruit roll-ups

Melt butter and marshmellows over low heat in a large pot for about 5 minutes.  Remove mixture from stove and use wooden spoon to stir in puffed corn cereal and diced dried fruit.  Allow mixture to cool for about 15 minutes.  Using buttered hands, shape each treat by pressing 1/3 cup of mixture around a popsicle stick.  Add piece of fruit roll-up to make a husk for the bottom of the ear, slightly moistening them to help them stick if needed.  Makes 15 treats.

We made  Native American vests with left-overs from the paint dropcloth.  We gave the kids ideas for Indian symbols to write on their vests.  I pre-cut headbands and let the kids choose the color feather they wanted from Michaels.  We also made beaded necklaces by threading beads on leather laces, again from Michael’s.

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Everyone got American Indian names from  http://www.apples4theteacher.com/native-american/names/for-girls.html.  All the kids had their own special Indian names like “Princess Ottertail,” “Princess White Feather,” “Princess Sunflower,” “Princess Wind Maiden,” etc.  The moms wrote their Indian names on the backs of their vests.

We also played an Indian Trading Game.  I took scraps of the leftover teepee dropcloth fabric and cut it into  5 inch squares.  I gathered all kinds of “treasures” like pretty rocks, seashells, jewels (pulled out of old costume jewelry), bit-o-honey candy, feathers, etc. and tied them up in the squares with cord.  Each child got a “pouch of treasures” and took turns trading their things with the other squaws (and one brave).

Our trusty tinman got to dress up, too.  Kinda like my version of a cigarette store Indian.  He held the goody bags – small brown bags with an embossed bird I found last year in Target’s dollar aisle.  Goody bags were filled with plastic Indians, a dreamcatcher, and a 6″ horse, all from Dollar Tree.  The vest is vintage boy scout borrowed from my sweet neighbor.

Photo Credits:  The Decorologist.