Parties Of Power!

The Immortal Murders- Unscripted Murder Mystery

2011-11-02T19:35:00.014-06:00

I purchased this party from www.dinnerandamurder.com. I highly recommend this game and we can't wait to try another one! They have a variety of unscripted murder mystery parties. For Halloween this year we threw this one, The Immortal Murders, and it was a blast! It gave us adults a chance to dress up and have fun. Rather than sitting around a table and reading lines from a booklet, each character is given a few pieces of background information, some secrets, and some goals to accomplish, however they devise, during the night. This leaves a lot of room for creativity, improvisation, plotting, and fun! Everyone gets a wad of cash to use how they will- blackmail, bribery, extortion- a spell card or two to cast, and best of all, the opportunity to find weapon cards to commit MORE murders during the evening! This was so much more than the typical murder mystery parties we've hosted in the past. So much more fun! Read more about it on their website, you'll just have to try it out for yourself!

The Were Clan-
Anubis, Bastet, Isis, Seth

The Vampires-
Cynthia, Prince Allendro, Natasha, Gregori

The Mages-
Arthur, Guinevere, Morganna, Merlin

The Fae-
Queen Tatiana, King Oberon, Nineve

The Mortal Watchers-
Jason, Professor Jackson, Keiran, Ellora

Snapshots of a night of mayhem...

Seth was my (Bastet's) slave... Puck, the prankster fairy, bet me 50 bucks that I couldn't get him to crawl up the stairs without arms. My faithful little servant was obedient, of course, so I won 50 bucks!

Then Puck and Jason decided to give Seth a swirly

Prince Allendro put the moves on Guinevere

Gregori and Keiran in their final moments....

King Oberon and Morganna call for a Council meeting

Anubis was my protector and did a great job shewing people away who got too close, and even went so far as to taste test a drink I'd had Seth fetch for me, making sure it wasn't poisoned!

I got some bad news at the Council meeting

Attending to a few escaped imps...

Arthur and Guinevere had a rather troubled marriage Poor Natasha pined for Prince Allendro

The Inquisitor reads the Solution and we find out who is the Killer among us!

We had all of the kids (imps) downstairs (in the dungeon) for their own little party. I'd provided paper bags labeled #1, #2, #3, etc. In bag #1 was a DVD movie, a few bags of microwave popcorn to pop, and small paper bags for each of them to divvy up the popcorn. When that was done, they moved on to bag #2, a game of Halloween Bingo, with another bag of little prizes, and a ziploc baggie of M&Ms for each kid to use as Bingo markers. Bag #3 contained crayons and coloring pages. They turned it into their own little coloring contest. Some did escape and come upstairs, but we tried to keep them out of the way of all the conniving and consorting and murdering going on!

The Amazing Race of Majesty

2010-05-23T21:32:00.001-06:00

**Photos to come... this is the write-up I submitted to BirthdayPartyIdeas.com to try and win their monthly Grand Prize, results pending!**

My husband just threw me an ‘Amazing Race’ party that truly was amazing! He planned it all so that I could participate, and it was so much fun. I’m a big fan of the show, and I really feel like I got a small taste of the adrenaline, the panic, the frustration, the competitiveness, and the joy that I’ve watched real players experience on the show. INVITATIONS: My husband sent out an email to everyone who would be racing, which consisted of just our immediate families since that alone came out to be eight teams of two. The email had the Amazing Race logo at the top (from online) and basically informed the teams that they’d been accepted to participate in the Amazing Race, with info on where to meet, time and date, etc. There was a list at the bottom of teams and their colors which they were to dress up in. DECORATIONS: Since we were on-the-go this whole party, there really weren’t any decorations necessary, but there were several standard Amazing Race props. We made a Check-in Mat out of black rubbery counter lining. It came in a long thin rolled up strip that we cut in half, then stuck the long ends together with packing tape to make one big rectangle. We painted it to look like the mat in the show (easily found online). In the show the teams get their clues inside heavy yellow envelopes that they tear open, but we simplified things. We created look-alike logos for each different clue type (Detour, Road Block, and Route Info) and printed them onto the appropriate color paper (Detour clues are yellow, Road Blocks red, Route Info blue) which we folded into thirds, brochure style. My husband then typed up the actual clue information on a page that was divided into three columns- one clue per column, printed them out on white paper, cut them into thirds and glued it into the middle of the colored paper so that it was covered by the folds. He got creative with the clues, too, writing them the way they’re written in the show plus a little of his own humor and style. At each site we would retrieve a clue from a special Clue Box. He made a Clue Box out of a small cardboard box that fit the size of the clues. He made a stand to mount the box on using cardboard tubes stuck into the holes of stands from a Wii Rock Band drum set. He taped a piece of red paper onto the poles to make it more visible for the teams. THE RACE: We all gathered at one home dressed in our team colors. My husband handed out a sheet of rules and definitions for easy reference for those who weren’t familiar with the show. It included the meanings of the different types of clues and the Check-in process for each Pit Stop. He also reiterated these things verbally, then emphasized that we were to drive safely (he made it clear that any accidents or tickets incurred would be THEIR responsibility), cheating would be penalized, etc. Next to him was the Clue Box, and when instructions were finished he told us to go at it. Our first clue was a Detour, which means that we had to choose between two different challenges to complete. One was called Driving Range, where we took turns hitting a plastic golf ball from one end of the big yard to the other, and had six shots to make it to a goal. If we didn’t get there in six shots we’d have to start again from the beginning. The other option was called Putting Strange. My husband had taken 4 foot long sections of cardboard carpet rolls and cut them in half lengthwise. These were laid on the ground as barriers, forming rectangles that were meant to replicate a billiards/pool table. At each corner and halfway along each long side was a gap in the barriers to replicate the pockets in billiards. At one end was a triangle of 6 plastic golf balls, and one real golf ball at the other end. The teams had to putt the real ball into the plastic balls, trying to hit them into the pockets. If a ball bounced over the barriers or they scratched the real ball, they had to reset everything and start over. My brother and I were on a team together and chose Driving Range. We took turns hitting the ball but had to start from the beginning when I hit our sixth shot right next to the target (a circle of black plastic) but not on it. Finally we made it and got our next clue handed to us. My husband had a couple of his sisters as assistants, helping him keep an eye on everyone during each challenge, handing out clues, or running ahead with the clue box to the next location. The next clue was simply a logo printed on a small square of paper. We had to figure out that it was the logo for a local high school and drive there. There was always a little bit of drama on the road when several of us were traveling at the same time- some fist shaking, taunts out the windows, engines revving at red lights, cutting each other off a bit and such, but all in good fun. There were no accidents or citations all day, thankfully. When we arrived at the high school we had to track down the clue box (found it in the parking lot) and get our next clue. This one was a Road Block called “Signs of a Good Memory.” In a Road Block each team had to choose one player to complete the challenge alone. The clue told us that the school’s mission statement was on a large sign on a wall visible through one of the windows and we had to find it, memorize it, and come back and recite it to an assistant. I did this one for our team. Once I’d recited it to the assistant, we checked in by standing on the mat and the assistant wrote down a time for us. Rather than someone being eliminated each leg of the race, my husband kept track of the time for each team. The way the timing worked was that rather than recording how long it took each team to complete that leg of the race, a stopwatch was started the moment the first team checked in on the mat. Thus, the first team to arrive got a time of 0 minutes, the second team 1 minute (or however many minutes they arrived after the first team), and so on. At the very end, each team’s total minutes were added up to determine the overall winner. There was also a small prize at each check in point for the first place team. As the first place winners of this leg my brother and I won some Sobe drinks. We all had a few minutes to rest after all the teams, then the next clues were handed out and the next challenge began. This one was another Road Block called “Bomemku” which was an insane mixture of several different puzzles. First, my husband had made a giant Boggle game using our kids’ giant foam letter squares. We had to come up with as many 3+ letter words from connecting letters as we could in one minute. Then we were divided into two groups of four and played a game of memory. For each word we got in the Boggle game we got one turn to try finding a matching set of cards. The next puzzle was a Sudoku game. Some of the numbers were already filled in for us, of course, and for every match we got in the memory game we got another number filled in for us in the square of our choice. Once we completed the Sudoku puzzle, there was a word puzzle below it. There were spaces that we had to fill in to form a sentence which would be our next clue. Each space had a tiny letter in the corner. The spaces were set in a grid that matched the Sudoku game grid. To figure out the correct letter, we had to find the number in the correlating Sudoku box and count upwards that many letters from the tiny letter in the corner. For example, if the tiny letter was A and the correlating Sudoku number was 3, you’d count 3 letters up from A- B, C, D. The answer would be D. The clue ended up reading “Find and Follow the map hidden in your glove box.” We ran back to our cars and, sure enough, at some point my husband had hidden a map in our glove boxes that led to the next location. We followed it to my sister-in-law’s house for a Route Info challenge called “Treesed to Meet You.” What we saw when we got there were two trees in the front yard, with numbers drawn on plastic plates labeling them tree 1 and tree 2. Each tree had 3 lines of string hooked to them with small plastic clips, and the strings ran from the tree around the house and all over the yard. Each person was given a small cardboard tube with yarn looped through it and we had to tie the hanging end of the yarn to our wrist. Each teammate started at a different tree (1 or 2) and we had to unclip the end of one of the three strings, string it through our cardboard tube, and then clip it back around the tree so that we were hooked to that line. We could then follow that line, threading it through our cardboard tube as we went, around the yard. The backyard had several more trees, all run with strings. Some of the trees acted as “junctions” where you could unclip yourself from one string and clip onto another one to try a different route. Thus we were connected into a huge string maze. The goal was to meet up with your teammate by ending up on the same line. If you ran into someone else, you just had to work out who would back up to a “junction” tree and get off your line. What we eventually realized was that there were two completely separate string networks going on, involving 5 trees each (the trees being intermixed around the yard) with only one certain string connecting the two networks. So you just had to find the one string that would get you over to your partner’s network. Some teams completed this one within a few minutes. For others, like mine, it took an aggravatingly long time! We finally found it after some frantic clipping, unclipping, running tripping, and scrambling, got our next clue (which was a picture of my sister-in-law sitting in a local park that we were all familiar with), and headed to the next Pit Stop where we checked in and had our embarrassing time recorded. The first place team for that leg was awarded a bag of Starbursts. After another brief rest, the next challenge began. For this one, a Route Info called “Picture Perfect,” we were shown 5 photos of my sis-in-law in various poses at certain spots within the park. We’d each been told to bring a camera or a camera phone, and we had to race around to find those certain spots within the park, and get a photo of one of us in the same spot in the same pose. Once our photos were viewed and checked off, we got our next clue, which was another Road Block called “Engraved”. We had to drive to a nearby cemetery and choose one teammate to run around and find his/her first or last name on a tombstone. We had to take a picture of it with a camera phone and text it to my husband, who would then text back the next clue. There was a rule that no one could do more than two Road Blocks in a row to make sure each teammate had to compete in at least one Road Block, which meant that a few people were required to complete this task who had names that were harder to find. But they didn’t have a choice because their teammate had done the last two Road Blocks. Once again, some teams finished this one quickly, while others, like mine, combed almost the whole cemetery searching for their name before finally finding it. The only glitch with this challenge was that someone eventually figured out that there was a cemetery directory on one side where you could simply browse a list of names and where their tombstone was located. This was the only challenge that wasn’t supervised by someone because the assistants all were either still at the previous location or had gone ahead to the next. So accusations flew about cheating and what not (some in our family are ultra competitive) but in the end it didn’t matter because once we all got to the next location (another local park) we were told that all of us were eliminated except the three with the best cumulative racing time. Those three would then compete in one final leg. That way, all of the teams were able to compete the entire time except for the final challenge, rather than eliminating people after each leg who would then sit around bored the rest of the day. Then all of us who were eliminated were told to go to my house for pizza and drinks and wait for the final three teams to check in there. Those final three teams started off with a Route Info called “Fast Food Frenzy,” where each team was given 5 dollars. They had to buy as many fast food items as possible with that 5 dollars, one item per restaurant. When they had spent all of the money, they brought their items to my house where my husband counted them. Then, for the final challenge, called “A Little Too Special-ty Drink,” they had to spin a wheel to determine a base liquid for a shake made with either water, milk, club soda, or tomato juice. Then all of their fast food items were blended together into a nasty smoothie! If they could get a glassful down, 12 minutes was taken off of their total time for each food item they purchased. The first team arrived with 7 items, but couldn’t finish their shake. They spun tomato juice base which was the most disgusting of all of them. They simply gave up and were eliminated. Soon after, the second team showed up with 8 items and finished their shake. They thought they’d won, until the third team showed up a half hour later with 12 items! They’d bought things like a 10 cent snow cone, 25 cent pickle, 25 cent little tub of salsa, a tiny scoop of M&Ms at a frozen yogurt bar, etc. We were all very impressed! Their shake still ended up nasty, but they did drink it down and won the game. They had taken longer but their 12 items got tons of time removed so they won the grand prize of a steakhouse gift certificate (from citydeals.com). All in all, this party lasted about five or six hours. We all had so much fun we want to do one every year with different couples hosting it! I am so amazed at the challenges my brilliant husband came up with, even though I wish I would’ve done better at them!

Survivor Surprise Party

2010-05-22T11:21:00.003-06:00

**Photos to come... this is the write-up I submitted to BirthdayPartyIdeas.com to try to win their monthly Grand Prize, and for the first time we 'only' got Runner-up! The winning Pink Pirate party sounded pretty dang cute, I must say**

We’re all big Survivor fans, especially my mom, so I planned a surprise Survivor party for her recent birthday. The guests consisted of only our immediate family so that we could have an all-day, full-on Survivor competition with pre-assigned tribes without having to work around too many schedules. Originally, the plan was to have a weekend campout in the wilderness with tribes building fires, maintaining a campsite, hunting for (pre-hidden) food and boiling water from a lake! By the final challenge, all would be eliminated except for the final two castaways who would face the jury. A final vote would be held after which I would take off with the un-read votes in some Jeff Probst-style way, then we’d invite all of mom’s other family and friends to my mom’s house for a big Finale Show at the end of the weekend where we’d announce the winner, have cake and ice cream, and watch the footage we’d filmed of the game. Yes, that was the plan, but in the end we had to simplify for time’s sake. So we consider this one a trial run for a future more-realistic wilderness Survivor party! Anyway… INVITATIONS: I sent everyone a letter informing them that they’d been accepted to participate in our upcoming season of Survivor, held in Tule Springs (a large state park near my parents’ home). I told each castaway which tribe they’d be on, the blue Paiutes or the green Tudinis, each named after the Native American tribes who used to frequent Tule Springs as a watering hole. I also included the essential information about where to go, when to arrive, instruction to keep it all a secret from mom, dress comfortably, etc. At the top of the letter was a custom-made Survivor-Tule Springs logo, created by copying an existing logo from the internet and doing a simple edit in Power Point (I don’t have Photoshop, but Power Point can usually handle what I need). DECORATIONS: I live in Utah and my parents live in Vegas, so everything I planned to use had to be portable. Since the party was held at a park, I was able to keep decorations to a minimum. We arrived early and snagged a large picnic area, and all I really did was hang a large yellow banner with the Survivor-Tule Springs logo drawn on it with black marker. Then everyone was able to write a Happy Birthday note to mom on it and it became a giant birthday card. THE GAME: Everyone arrived early, and my dad brought got my mom there by telling her he was taking her golfing for her b-day. She was very surprised to see us all there, of course, and as soon as she’d gotten all the hugs in I pointed to the banner and announced that it was time to get to the game, and it was on! I’d downloaded some Survivor music from the internet that I’d planned to play as she arrived, but the radio we brought didn’t want to work. Would’ve been cool. I had everyone gather into their tribes, there were four people on each, and stand in front of me (Jeff Probst) as I went over rules and instructions, such as not to be too upset about getting voted off, have fun, etc. We thought about using a point system for the challenges as many have done in their parties so that no one has to actually be voted off and sit out the rest of the party… but we decided that voting people off is what makes it Survivor. So we devised a system that wasn’t fully divulged to the castaways until later… After the first two challenges, the losing tribe would indeed vote someone off. But at the third challenge, we announced that those two castaways, and other vote-offs from then on, would become a new tribe, the red Outcasts, and compete against the other two tribes in challenges. If the Green or Blue tribe won, the other would vote someone off as normal. But if the Outcasts won, they would draw stones and whoever drew the right stone would get to re-join an original tribe, whichever was lowest on numbers. Then both of the original tribes would go to tribal council and vote someone off. So two would leave the original tribes and one would go back in, keeping the original tribe numbers decreasing so that we would eventually get down to our final two players. This system kept everyone involved all-day, allowed actual tribal councils to take place, added a new strategic element to the game (the person you vote off had a chance to come back for revenge), and solved the problem of me not having a set-up crew. The Outcasts became my assistants between challenges, delivering tree-mail messages, helping to set up the next challenge, and doing some filming of the tribes in their camps including essential commentary from each castaway. I planned for the Blues and Greens to merge at a point when the numbers would be even again, four on the new yellow merge tribe and four red Outcasts. Then I had to plan each challenge according to how many tribes there would be at that point so it was a little tricky, but it all turned out really well. Anywho, back to the beginning… On one of the picnic tables I’d set out some supplies for each tribe- Tribal buffs (I bought some simple tribe-colored fabric to cut into buffs then iron-transferred our Survivor-Tule Springs logo onto each of them), a tent and blanket, a large basket for tree-mail messages, “torches” to be lit at tribal councils and snuffed when they got voted off (small jar candles from Walmart in their tribe color, with a Survivor logo label stuck onto them), some muffins and juice and bottled waters for breakfast (which was going to be hidden around their campsite for them to hunt down but time was short), a poster board with paint markers to create a tribe flag, and their first message rolled up into a scroll and tied with twine. I told them to gather their supplies and open that first message to read as a tribe. It read “Complete your tasks, don’t be late, Meet back at base at half past 8, To keep your tribe you must pass the test Of which tribe delegates the best.” Also rolled inside was a list of tasks- Set up camp, create a tribe flag, and hunt down breakfast. Then they each left to choose a campsite on opposite ends of a wide grassy area and decide who would fulfill which tasks before meeting back for the first immunity challenge. Between each challenge I allowed a good half hour or so of break time, not only for me to set up the next challenge, but to allow for camp time and filming. One tribe got into it and gathered sticks for firewood and made a little fire ring in front of their tent even though the park didn’t allow us to have real fires. Then they’d bring up fake arguments at tribal councils about who wasn’t pulling their weight at camp and such, just like the show, so it was hilarious. CHALLENGES: 1-ROPE MAZE Each tribe had to designate one member to string a ring of keys along a rope maze, which wound around posts in the ground and had small pieces of rope tied in knots at intervals that they had to untie to get the key ring past. The end of the rope was tied to a backpack. The player had to untie the rope from the back pack to free the key ring then hand the set of keys and the backpack to a waiting second tribe member. The second player had to run back to a picnic table and figure out which key would unlock a padlock on the backpack zipper. Once opened, they would pull out a puzzle and hand it to the remaining two tribe members to piece together. I’d planned to make my own puzzle from wood and paint but the woodshop at our local college ended up being too busy to make the cuts for me and I don’t own the right saw. So I took the easy way and bought a couple of sweet Winnie the Pooh puzzles from the dollar store. Worked just fine. The first tribe to complete their puzzle won immunity. 2- WATER BALLOON LAUNCH Tribes received a tree-mail message that read “At 9:30 sharp your next battle begins, Immunity and reward for the tribe that wins, Teamwork and aim are the skills you’ll need, If you want to be the tribe to succeed.” I created a huge 3x3 square grid in the grass by sticking wooden skewers in the ground and stringing bright yarn along them then placed a plastic plate in each square with a certain point value, 1-5, written on it in black marker. Tribes had to form pairs to launch water balloons from towels into the grid and score points. Since one tribe was now down to three players they just took turns launching. Each tribe got ten turns and the one with the most points at the end won immunity and reward-a basket of snacks, crackers and chocolate milk bottles. 3- HISTORIC MAP “With a couple of challenges out of the way, You may be feeling confident that you’re here to stay, Meet at base at 10:30 and race for the lead, You’ll do well if your tribe has the gift of speed.” This was the first challenge with three tribes competing. The Outcasts had two people, the Blue tribe was down to two (as a side note, that was my mom’s tribe and the cutthroats voted her off at the very first tribal council, at her own party! So messed up, but so funny), and the Greens still had four so I had them sit two people out, one of which was my dad who was glad for the break since this was a pretty intense foot race. Tule Springs has a little historic area of old buildings with plaques describing what their function once was. Tribe pairs had to race from our site across the park to the historic area and fill in the names of the buildings on a blank map I’d given them. I copied this map from the park brochure online and used Paint to erase the building names before I printed them out on cardstock for easier on-the-go writing. The first tribe back with the correct names filled in (I had an answer key to check them) won immunity. 4- REWARD TRIVIA “11:30 is lunch time but it must be earned, You must study some history and recall what you’ve learned, Read about Tule Springs and if you want to eat well, You’d be wise to pay attention to every detail.” With this message came a study sheet for each tribe member (Outcasts each got one as well). The sheets were pages I’d printed from the park’s online brochure that told the history of the park and various facts and info. Everyone got twenty minutes or so to read and memorize as much as they could, then assembled at the picnic tables. I handed out notepads and markers that they could write their answers on as I asked them a series of ten questions. For every question they got right they won a small ticket (I’d made them with the logo and “1 food item” printed on cardstock and cut out). As this was going on I was grilling up some burgers, and when it was over each ticket they earned was good toward one item, such as a burger patty, a bun, condiments, a drink, a bag of chips, a piece of fruit, a stick of gum, etc. There was a menu listing each item. I was worried (though secretly kind of hoping) someone would get just one question right and end up with nothing but a bare burger patty, but everyone actually did really well and had a good lunch. 5- TIC TAC TOE “You’ve had a small break and a chance to eat, Now back to base camp at 1:00 for a treat, If your lunch wasn’t filling don’t despair, There will be plenty of delicacies for your tribe to share.” I drew a 4 x 4 square grid on a plastic tablecloth with black marker and draped it over one of the picnic tables. In each square was a covered plastic plate with something unpleasant to eat. A chunk of tofu, stinky cheese, sardines, bitter baking chocolate, spam slices in tobasco sauce, and thanks to a local Dinosaur museum’s gift shop I also had flavored crickets, chocolate covered bugs, and crispy bbq flavored grubs. Lots of good stuff! The grid had to be bigger than the typical 3 x 3 to accommodate the three tribes. Each tribe took a turn choosing a square trying to get three in a row, and had to eat whatever treat they uncovered to win that square. If they got it down they got to place a new plate in their tribe color on that square. Once again, everyone was braver than I expected and ate all that they were supposed to (I felt bad making the portions too big, though) so it ended up a cat’s game. But I had a tie-breaker planned. One person from each tribe had to down a bottle of turkey-sweet potatoes baby food and the first one to finish won immunity. 6- REWARD AUCTION “Be at base camp at 2:00 for a more relaxed game, Most of you will probably be glad that you came, For some classic Survivor fun you won’t have to fight, To beat out the others just lay your bets right.” I made some Survivor bucks on Power Point with the logo on them, printed them on green parchment paper and cut them out. Each player got a certain amount to bid with. I provided several snack items, some good some not so great (i.e. rice cakes), and we had ourselves a classic Survivor auction. 7- BLOCK PUZZLE “Join forces against the Outcasts if you wish to survive, You must trust each other for your tribe to thrive, Come meet at 3:00 with your new buffs in hand, Your fate will depend on your leader’s command.” For this one I’d gone to Home Depot and bought a wooden post and had it cut to make 30 wooden blocks, about 4 x 4 x 4. After sanding them all down, I separated them into two groups of 15, laid them in two pyramid formations and painted one set red for the Outcast tribe and one yellow for the merge tribe. Then I painted identical images on one side of each pyramid to make puzzles. I spread the blocks all over the lawn at the park. Each tribe had to choose one person to be the ‘Commander’ and the other three were blindfolded. The Commander had to guide his tribemates, all three at the same time, to their tribe colored blocks which they had to pick up and carry to a pile near the Commander. Once all of the blocks were collected they could all remove their blindfolds and carry the blocks to a picnic table. There they had to work as a tribe to assemble the puzzle pyramid. The first tribe done won immunity. 8- BOCCE BALL “You fate will be decided at 4 o’clock at base, You’ve outwitted, outlasted, and run a good race, This final challenge will widdle down what’s left of your tribe, Leaving two to face the jury and their bitter diatribe.” By this point we were down to the final four (which was supposed to be final three except the merge tribe won the block challenge rather than the Outcasts, meaning that no one got voted off… slight oversight on my part but it was easily remedied during this final challenge). This was a simple, easy final immunity challenge. I used a croquet set, planting one pole into the ground on the lawn and one near the players as a throwing point. Each player got a ball to toss at the opposite pole, trying to get their ball the closest. Since there were four players left, I had them throw in rounds. Round one eliminated the player whose ball landed furthest from the pole. The three remaining players threw again for a second round and the closest person won immunity and basically chose who to take with them to the final two in the last tribal council. JURY INTERVIEWS- Now that we were down to two final players, all of the other players became the jury and took turns asking them questions and such like in the show. And just like in the show, we had some who went easy on them and some who carried a chip on their shoulder and used this as an opportunity to chide the finalists (all in good fun, of course). It ended in a final vote, and I whisked the votes away to be read later in the comfort of our living room. The two finalists, my husband and my brother, used this break time to shave and clean up, just like the real players do for the Survivor Finale show each season. Then we all gathered again and I read the final votes. My brother won unanimously, and I presented him with a spectacular trophy (found at Deseret Industries and altered a bit- I added a stick on Survivor Tule Springs logo and stuck a label reading “Sole Survivor” over the original engraving of 1st prize for such and such), and a grand prize Movie Night package-a DVD, lots of movie treats, and a gift certificate for a local restaurant that I’d bought for half price on http://lasvegashalfoff.mediawebconnect.com/. It seems that most cities have deals like that, either through citydeals.com or local radio station websites. Everyone had a great time at this party, despite being out in the sun all day. Everyone really got into it and made it a very memorable day. I wish I could tell all of the hilarious moments we had, but hopefully this will help someone else make some of their own! Happy Partying!

Totally Gross Igor/Mad Scientist Party

2010-02-09T20:26:00.003-07:00

I planned this party for my sister’s 31^st birthday, but there was a wide range of ages among the guests and it worked for everyone. My sister loves Halloween and weird stuff, so she wanted a Totally Gross theme. I spun it into a Mad Scientist theme, which allowed for more of a storyline and plenty of grossness. INVITATIONS: I kept these simple since they had to be mailed (the party was held at my family’s house out of state). They were basically a full-page want ad reading “WANTED: Mad Scientist Extraordinaire seeking new Igor- Will be accepting applications ONE NIGHT ONLY- Date, Time, Address- Prize awarded for the GROSSEST looking Igor- Serious applicants should be prepared for a rigorous qualification process involving hands on experimentation, gore, slime, and mayhem.” I printed them out in Lucinda Blackletter font on green tinted parchment paper and sort of rolled them and mashed them down rather than folding them neatly into the envelope. DECORATIONS: Guests walked through the front door into a sitting area that we’d moved all of our sofas and chairs into. We’d bought Monster Lab stick ups from Oriental Trading’s after Halloween sale, so there were things like skull candles and shelves of oddities on the walls. There was also a life-sized mad scientist stick up on the front door outside and a hunchback Igor on one wall for a photo op. The piano was draped with a gray cloth and had a sign reading “Top Secret” on it. A DJ friend we’d invited brought some gear to have some music playing and green and blue lights glowing for a cool effect. We hung sheets to separate this front room from the living room/kitchen where the actual laboratory was. In the lab we had plenty more awesome stick ups on the walls. In one corner was my scientist desk where we’d placed a lantern and a candelabra, and strewn it with drawings my brother and I had made of ‘invention plans’ (i.e. a rocket ship), animal dissection diagrams and other random scientific diagrams. We lined some shelves with jars of floating nasties, like pork stomach, pig’s feet, squid tentacles, some kind of sticky fruit balls, anchovies, and a dragon fruit. Our local Asian Market was a gold mine for gross stuff! We hung a sheet over the entertainment center with a “Danger: Do Not Touch” sign on it. We laid a huge black tarp over the carpet and set up three tables for the Igors to work on. In the kitchen we spread a buffet on the center island. Each of the surrounding cupboards and drawers had a label, like Transducers, Vacuum Tubes, Flex Capacitors, Bio Generators, Fish Heads, Cogs and Gears, etc. Then the back yard was my swamp garden where the Igors had to gather some ingredients for me. We set up a small graveyard with fake tombstones, bones and bugs in one corner. In the middle we made a bog by laying a black tarp over a frame of wood poles. Then we filled it with water and threw in some flour for goopiness, shredded newspaper, sticks and leaves. In another corner was a large swamp monster that was supposed to be a giant toad but… by the time we were done with it there was only a vague resemblance to a toad so we dubbed it swamp monster. We built it out of chicken wire and paper mache and covered it with black garbage bags for a rubbery skin. Then we made warts/pustules to stick on it by melting shortening, pouring it into an empty water bottle and adding some vegetable oil, then squirting it into green ‘grenade’ water balloons. The shortening eventually re-congealed and to become ‘puss’. We stuck a black screw through the top lip part of the balloon and stuck the screw into the monster to attach the pustules all over its back. They held really well in the paper mache shell. During the party it was dark outside and we had a fog machine running so it looked really creepy. ACTIVITIES/GAMES: When the guests/Igors arrived they had to wait in the sitting area and fill out an Application for Employment using a syringe pen from OT. They had to write things like a made up Igor name and place of origin, the name of their previous Master and their reason for leaving, what top secret invention their previous Master was working on, whether they were here as a spy for their previous Master, and what their most recent acts of evil were. At the end of the party I read them aloud and they were hilarious! We’d also made a necklace for each Igor out of small bags of blood from OT. Throughout the party, if anyone spoke to me, the scientist, without addressing me as Master, someone else could call them out on it and claim their blood bag. The person with the most blood bags at the end got a prize. Once everyone arrived, I came out an announced that we would begin the application process. I got a lot of inspiration for this party from the Igor movie, where the Igors were treated like vermin by the evil scientists, so that’s what I did. I spoke in a bored, annoyed German-ish(??) accent and carried a clipboard to make notes of how well or poorly the Igors were doing as applicants. I also kept my party plan outline on the clipboard, hidden under the top sheet, so that I could refer to it to keep things in order. I announced to the Igors that the first task would test their Usefulness. I handed them each a list of three ingredients that I needed them to gather from the swamp garden, pointing out three empty containers on my shelf of jars. They had to pull 1 Muckpug egg (golf ball) from the gooey bog, pop one of the pustules on the swamp monster into a small cup, and find a piece of dead skin from the graveyard. We made dead skin by spreading cream colored Elmer’s glue on our skin, letting it dry then peeling it off. Who knew a grade-school hobby would become useful? The second task was to prove their Presentability. I told them I needed to know that they wouldn’t make me look like an idiot in front of my scientist colleagues who came to visit the lab. They got into small groups and each group was given seven small plastic cups, each filled with a different flavor of Shasta soda and labeled as something like Wasp Venom, Elixir of Life, Putrescence, or Guar Gum. Each team had to use those ingredients to mix up a drink for me to sample which they had to present to me with a flourish as though I was a visiting scientist. I chose a couple of teams as winners and they got to each pick a prize from the prize box. The prize box was a large cooler filled with oily spaghetti noodles for them to dig through and find small prizes in ziplock bags. There were packs of Halloween candies like chocolate ‘bat droppings’ and test tubes of sour candy with floating things in them from OT. The third task was to prove their Obedience. I’d found a recipe online for homemade slime, the one with glue and Borax, and written it up as a list of instructions. I named the glue ‘Flitiplasma’ and labeled the glue bottles as such, the water was Juliwog Juice, and the Borax was given out in jars labeled “Dunfundus Powder.” Mixed in with the normal mixing instructions were things they had to do like “Step 2- Touch right thumb to left ear and spin around three times to increase air flow over mixing area.” I wandered around observing and making notes on my clipboard, and then awarded prizes to whoever finished sufficiently within a certain amount of time. The final task was to prove their Resourcefulness. Each small group had to create a creature out of a can of Spam, a can of Vienna Sausages, large marshmallows and toothpicks. It was great the things people came up with! Pretty much everyone got a prize for this one. At this point I announced the Igor I would hire. I told them EVERYONE won, let that sink in for a second, then sternly snapped “Except!... You, you, and you, and you…” and pointed out everyone except for the birthday girl and a couple of others. At that point I announced that we should celebrate and brought out the birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday and had a piñata, which was a giant Nose with green pull-strings hanging from the nostrils (from CelebrateExpress.com’s Totally Gross themed supplies). We filled it with gummy eyeballs and Dr. Scab’s Monster Lab Body Part Chocolates from Candy Warehouse. We also had candy warts that didn’t fit inside so we handed those out afterwards. Everyone was given a ‘barf bag’ to hold their loot in (Celebrate Express). Then we cranked up the music and let everyone hang out for a while. COSTUMES: As the scientist, I dressed all in black with a white lab coat on top, put on some bold make-up and put my short hair in tight curlers for a frizzy Gene Wilder-Young Frankenstein look. The guests dressed up as Igors- my sister, for example, let patches of glue dry on her face to look like peeling skin, used eye liner to make a uni-brow and some warts, and bunched some cloth underneath the back of her shirt for hunches. Everyone looked great! FOOD: There were too many great Halloween type recipes to choose from… I went with a meatloaf zombie (meatloaf molded into a human shape on a cookie sheet and baked), miniature pigs-in-a-blanket (Costco) labeled as Monster Toes (there’s a Monster Toes recipe on Family Fun but it was much easier to buy them pre-made), a spinach-artichoke dip with tortilla chips labeled Quagmire Dip, red and grape jello ground together and labeled Brain, finger flesh fries from OT, a chocolate fountain with green colored white chocolate labeled Snot Fountain with pretzel sticks, bananas and apples, moldy popcorn made by adding green food coloring to a bottle of spray butter and spraying it on the popcorn, and cups of dirt (chocolate pudding covered with crumbled oreos and gummy worms) for the younger Igors. We used the Totally Gross open mouth dessert plates from Celebrate Express. The punch was fabulous- I found a recipe on Family Fun for Swamp Juice that looked really fun. We bought Eyeball Beaker cups from OT for everyone and pre-made individual drinks in them as well as filling a punch bowl with extra. I just made it with one can of frozen limeade per two 2-liter bottles of Ginger Ale. At the bottom you have tapioca pearls to look like fish eggs or rocks, which I found at the Asian Market because normal grocery stores only carry instant tapioca mixes these days rather than the pearls. In the punch bowl, as an added touch, we bought plastic aquarium sea weed, washed it and had it floating on top. The Eyeball Beaker cups were perfect for this because the tapioca pearls hid the eyeballs until you’re actually taking a drink then it pops out at you. CAKE: We decided on a Kitty Litter Cake (recipe is several places online, just google it) because my mom has a cat and all of us are always grossed out by its litter box. Some people couldn’t even eat it, but it was actually very tasty! FAVORS: Everyone took home a barf bag of gross-looking candies, their Eyeball Beaker cup, a syringe pen, whatever prizes they won, and their blood bag necklace. It was great fun! Hopefully I’ll soon have photos up on my blog, partiesofpower.blogspot.com. Happy Partying!

Candyland Party

2009-12-28T11:19:00.019-07:00

For Bryn's 3rd birthday I decided to create a life-size Candyland game since she LOVES candy! This actually ended up being the most difficult party yet to put together simply because we had to create not just one mythical land but nine different mythical lands. Much harder than a simple jungle! I used invitations and tableware from Oriental Trading's Candytown theme, which is more for Christmas but it worked great. With each invitation I included a gingerbread man lollipop as well.

Candy Castle on the right is made of cardboard boxes and paint, complete with working drawbridge. Originally I'd hoped to make a cool free-standing castle, but couldn't gather enough refrigerator boxes. In the foreground is the Goodie Tree where we hung their loot bags containing a snowflake notepad, peppermint stick pencil, candy sliding puzzle, gingerbread boy-girl bubbles, flavored chapstick, and snowflake stickers. All were from Oriental Trading, but I can't find any of them on there now to provide links (maybe closer to Christmas). On the lawn were giant candies make from wrapped tennis balls or mini inflatable beach balls.

Guests were met with several activities to keep them busy until everyone arrived...

Each child got to decorate a bucket with markers and stickers to carry all their treats in. I'd saved up lots of baby formula cans, painted them, sprayed them with glitter and made a ribbon handle by stringing it through slits on the sides and glueing the ends. The only problem with these is that there is a sharp edge along the inside where you open the can so I had to line that with hot glue.

King Kandy, Princess Frostine, the birthday girl and a few other characters were there to greet everyone.

They could lounge in the sitting area beneath the Gingerbread Tree (...the tree looked much better in my brain, but it was one of several things too hastily thrown together the morning of the party...) It's made by bundling together several carpet rolls and surrounding them with butcher paper, which we ended up not having enough of to bunch it up and look better. The leaves are green poster board which was supposed to just stand up on top to look more like the gameboard tree, but it wasn't working out so we opted for branches.

Each gingerbread kid is sight-drawn from the gameboard, cut from cardboard, and given puffy paint trimmings.

I always like to create a fun photo background.

Guests could try their luck at winning candy from the Claw Machine.

Always important... a well labeled lavatory! I downloaded this Candyland font from the internet and drew in the gingerbread people.

When everyone had arrived, King Kandy gathered everyone in front of the Castle for a welcoming speech. He taught them an appropriate chant, "We love candy! Candy is our friend!", to repeat while marching in a circle.

Suddenly, the evil Lord Licorice shows up and snatches King Kandy's gumball sceptre!

He holes up inside the Candy Castle demanding all the candy in Candyland in exchange for the sceptre.

King Kandy, Princess Frostine and the King's Jester (Mike needed a simple character) ask the kids to help gather all the candy in Candyland and to enlist the help of other characters. The journey begins at the Gingerbread Tree. From there we had to divide the large group into two groups, one followed King Kandy and the Jester along the path backwards, the other followed me, Princess Frostine, the right way. The colored path is felt squares. The pink ones have pictures on them for each site, as on the game board, made by downloading images online, printing them on transfer paper and ironing them onto the felt.

Everyone is given a bean bag gingerbread man since Lord Licorice, turns out, is allergic to gingerbread. They'll be useful at the end to vanquish him! My mom and I spent hours sewing these together, filling them with popcorn kernels, and trimming them with puffy paint.

From there, the path leads to Peppermint Forest, home of Mr. Mint. The banner is hand drawn on butcher paper and our porch columns wrapped with plastic table clothes from Dollar Tree.

Each sign is cut from cardboard, painted, and mounted on paint stirring sticks.

We draped the furniture in white sheets and table clothes and covered the floor with cotton batting (Christmas tree skirts found at Deseret Industries for cheap). The giant peppermint sticks are carpet rolls. I painted them white then used painter's tape to create the red swirl. Smaller candy canes were bought from Oriental Trading and mounted on cardboard, cut and painted like snow drift mounds. Giant peppermints are paper lanterns, also from Oriental Trading.

Kids get to help Mr. Mint 'weed' his garden to gather candy sticks for their buckets. These candy sticks were purchased at the Peppermint Place, in Alpine, Utah.

On to the Gumdrop Mountains. Gumdrops along the walls are cut from poster board and sprinkled with crystal glitter to look like sugar. Gumdrops on the ground are made with three layers of paper mache on half of a balloon. The bottom edge had to be reinforced with even more paper strips to keep the gumdrop from curling in on itself once the balloon was popped. When fully dry, they were painted and sprinkled with 'sugar' glitter.

Along the way kids pick up a box of DOTS gumdrops that are strewn around the path.

Then down into the creepy Licorice Woods, where the kids must jump over tangled licorice roots and dodge licorice branches that are trying to thwart their path.

Back in the sunshine at last, kids are greeted by Gramma Nut in Peanut Acres.

We explained the situation with Lord Licorice to Gramma Nut. She agreed to help by making her special peanut butter cookies that Lord Licorice loves. The kids helped her to pick a bunch of real peanuts, then she put them on a pan and stuck them in an oven where they magically changed to Nutter Butter cookies.

Next, they headed to Lollipop Woods to visit Lolly. Most of the lollipops were made by glueing two plastic plates together then wrapping them with colored cellophane (bought on sale after Christmas and Easter) and mounted on the end of the empty cellophane rolls.

But some of the lollipops were pinatas. The kids took turn to break open pinatas until they found one with mini swirl pops in it for their buckets.

For Snowflake Lake I cut and painted cardboard to look like the ice cream swirl mountains in the background on the gameboard, then draped a blue cloth over a kiddie pool. My original plan was to have an ice cream sundae bar at this site, but it was way too hot so it was going to be moved into the Candy Castle garage. But then I decided to bag it since we already had TONS of sweets!

For the Chocolate Swamp, I laid out brown plastic table clothes for chocolate ponds and some brown painted boxes to look like chocolate chunks. I made giant kissies by taping a small paper cone to the top of a balloon and covering it with a few layers of paper mache and painting it brown. Then we spread real Hershey's kisses on top of the table clothes.

The path squares for this area were replaced with brown felt squares cut to look like small chocolate puddles. The kids had to jump over them to avoid getting 'stuck', then they could grab some kisses for their bucket (which got pretty melted, but they kids still liked them, including the million neighborhood kids who showed up uninvited to make sure we weren't left with too many extras! My waistline is grateful to them.)

Finally, we came full circle back to the Candy Castle. We told the kids to set their buckets on the ground to lure Lord Licorice out of the Castle. As soon as he lowered the drawbridge and came out, the kids (as per our instruction) pelted him with their bean bag gingerbread men! While he was writhing on the ground, one of the kids grabbed the sceptre and returned it to King Kandy. King Kandy made Lord Licorice apologize to everyone for being naughty, then, when he was sufficiently humbled, he was allowed to join the party.

To celebrate victory, everyone was invited into the Castle for a grand candy feast. I got this idea from Hostess with the Mostess and others who have done candy buffets at weddings and such. I bought jars and vases at Deseret Industries, tied them with colorful ribbons, and filled them with candy. We also had cookies, mini cupcakes with tiny gingerbread men cake decorations, punch, and various other sweets. The kids got to fill up the remaining space in their buckets and we provided cellophane bags and small colorful paper sacks for the adults to fill. Plates and cups were from Oriental Trading's Candytown theme supplies.

Everyone had a fabulous time and left with a hoard of goodies!

**Professional photographs by Wendhy Jeffers**

LESSONS LEARNED:

* For this party there was just so much to set up and too much of it got put off until the day of, creating rush and chaos. Several things were thrown together in a panic and didn't turn out as well as they could have. Set up as much as possible BEFORE party day!! It's difficult to do when there are a lot of outdoor decorations, but things could have been prepared and set in the garage beforehand to be simply placed outside on party day.

Chunky Monkey Party

2009-06-04T22:51:00.022-06:00

Little Londyn turned 1 in May, and to celebrate themed her party after her self-explanatory nick-name, "Chunky Monkey." Our house became a jungle outpost named after the birthday girl.

Sitting Area

In the front yard we set up a canopy to allow for more sitting room since I have yet to add on a huge party room to our house. Under the canopy we set out chairs and laid a blanket with toys for the little kids to play with. It was a one-year-old party, after all, so some of the guests were wee ones. The above welcome sign sat on the porch, and behind it hid our sound system playing a fun jungle-themed music like some Harry Belefonte, Tarzan, Jungle Book, some Reggae, and Londyn's theme song "Big and Chunky" from Madagascar 2. I’d planned to hang some raffia trimmings and vines from our porch overhang and windows, but ran out of time.

Opening Activities: Handprint Craft

While waiting for everyone to get there, we had a few things going on inside the Outpost. First was this little handprint craft where the parents could help their kids make a handprint then glue on cute leaves and flowers provided by my sister-in-law and her Cricut. The poem that went with it is adapted from one that a few people used on http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/ for jungle parties. The original, for more general jungle parties, reads "Can you remember my jungle call from when I was so small? Or when I left my monkey prints clinging to the wall? Like a giraffe I'm growing and soon will be so tall. My lion roar and sticky fingers will be hard to recall. Here is a handprint so you can say: This is how my handprint looked on so-n-so's birthday." But I took out the other animals to keep the focus on monkeys. Mine read "Can you remember my jungle call from when I was so small? Or when I left my monkey prints clinging to the wall? Before your eyes I'm growing and soon will be so tall. Here's a handprint you can keep to look back and recall. This is how my handprint looked in May 2009."

Londyn's First Year

For the adults, we'd hung twelve photos of Londyn, one for each month of her life. The photos were out of order and guests had to try to figure out the right order. We set out a small table with instructions, slips of paper, pencils, and a jar to place guesses in. Only one person was able to guess right, and she got a watermelon for a prize (we go for randomness). We added some homemade paper lanterns for festivity and color.

Outpost Bulletin Board

This bulletin board was hanging on the wall with pictures from http://www.grimmemennesker.dk/. For snacks we had a chocolate fountain with bananas, strawberries and pretzels to dip, potato chips and dip labeled "beetle wings," grapes labeled "snake eyes," apple slices labeled "crocodile teeth," and craisins labeled "dried ants" (http://www.familyfun.go.com/ under Jungle Expedition Party). We served banana slush punch in a punch bowl, and milk to go with the chocolate, labeled "Monkey Milk." We used tableware and supplies from Oriental Trading's Neon Monkey theme because it was fun and colorful. I actually found a lot of the stuff for cheaper at http://www.lorisparties.com/.

Jungle Explorers Guidebooks

Once everyone had arrived, I announced that they would now be going to explore the jungle. To help them out I provided Jungle Explorer Guidebooks containing all of the different sites to see. On each page was a box to place a sticker they'd get after visiting each site. To make these booklets I simply copied and pasted free clipart from online that related to the jungle creatures living in each site. As I was explaining all of this to the guests, suddenly I made a ringing sound... and pulled a banana out of my pocket that served as my phone. I asked everyone to excuse me while I took this call, and basically had a loud conversation with various jungle creatures who were complaining to me that the monkeys had been causing mischief again! After I hung up, I told the kids that they would now need to help out the jungle creatures while they were exploring.

Photo Op

At the entrance to the jungle on the side of our house, we set up this photo op I'd painted following the Neon Monkey theme. Everyone lined up to get their photo taken, which helped spread them all out as they entered the jungle.

Jungle Volcano

We had transformed our backyard into a big jungle maze! We measured out the yard and used graph paper to design a maze. Then for several weeks leading up to the party I started mowing the lawn according to our design… I’d mow the pathways and let the “walls” grow until it got super long and jungly. It ended up looking great, with cattails and all kinds of crazy plants popping up where we let them! Then we lined the walls with palm trees- I called around to some carpet stores and managed to gather about 20 carpet rolls, 12 foot long each, which we sawed into sections of two or three to end up with 50 “trunks”. My mom and I spent hours making palm leaves out of green butcher paper with florist wire weaved down the center to make them hang outward more, then we taped four to each trunk and wrapped a couple of strips of brown butcher paper around the top of the trunk which were slit a few times to hang down like palm tree bark. We placed the trees around the maze on tent poles and long wood stakes stuck into the ground, then wound green streamers between the trees as vines which also served to mark the walls even more. We made more vines out of red, orange, and yellow butcher paper to wrap around some of the trees to make the jungle more colorful, plus added fake tropical flowers here and there from Dollar Tree. I’d bought 21 stuffed monkeys from Dollar Tree with long arms and Velcro on their hands which we hung in some of the trees.

Jungle Maze

The big black thing was our volcano, constructed out of boxes and covered with garden ground cover. On top was a bucket that we put water and dry ice into to make the volcano fume!

Bat Tunnel

Underneath the whole thing was one long box that we made into a tunnel, lined with bats and bugs, that the kids could crawl through.

Monkeys!

This was one of the monkeys in the trees, the one who stole my watch! The kid who found it got a prize. Each of the six main sites had a certain jungle creature asking for help. We wrote instructional poems on poster board and cut them out into speech-bubbles to place next to the creatures. Site Instructions

I also made these little trays by folding up the bottom half of a sheet of cardstock, cutting little tabs and gluing the tabs. The trays would hold the stickers for the Guidebooks, and the top portion had detailed instructions for the parents so that they would know exactly what to help their child do at each site.

Tiger Den

"All I want is peace and quiet, but monkeys love to cause a riot. Please choose a song to sing to me, and maybe I can get some sleep!” Each kid had to pick their favorite song and sing to the tiger to calm him down, then get a tiger sticker for their Guidebook.

Butterfly Meadow

"Monkeys do such silly things, they stole the color from our wings. Please paint our colors bright and new, and later we’ll fly home with you!” This table sat in a clearing decorated with flowers and butterflies. It had a bunch of butterfly suncatchers, paints and brushes that the kids had to use to give a butterfly its color back. Then they got to keep their butterfly.

Fish Pond

“Those monkeys in their wicked pleasure left behind this stolen treasure. Please fish a coin out of our pond and take it back where it belongs!” The pond was a kid sandbox we filled with water and rocks, then bought some cheap little feeder fish to swim around in it! There were plastic gold coins floating in it also, and each kid had to use a provided fish net to remove one gold coin from the pond and later drop it off in the Treasure Trove.

Treasure Trove

The kids simply had to toss their gold coin into the treasure pile to receive their sticker. We had treasure chests full of colorful glass "gems", gold coins, and vases spray painted gold. In the middle of it all was a big blue Tiki head with a battery operated flame in its mouth.

Campsite

“The monkeys dropped us lizards here and made the campers disappear. Use your eyes to find us all. Look carefully, we’re pretty small!” Here they had to play I Spy to spot all the plastic lizards we'd strewn about. The parental instructions included the correct number, and once they found them all they received their sticker. Dragonfly Hollow

“My dragonfly friends flew away when all the monkeys came to play. Borrow a net to bring one home, out of the jungle where they roam!” The kids then had to go find one of the dragonflies we’d spread around the jungle, “catch” it in a net, and set it in the grass back in Dragonfly Hollow.

Stepping over the Bug Pit

There were also a few obstacles along the way. This was a Bug Pit, where the kids had to use the flower shaped stepping stones (Dollar Tree) to walk through a bunch of plastic bugs.

Bridge over Snake Den

They had to use this bridge to cross over a den of snakes. I was planning to string fake spider webs and spiders across the trees leading to the treasure trove for the kids to crawl beneath, but ran out of time. I also wanted to cover a couple of old trunks with brown or black paper and set them across a pathway as boulders for the kids to climb over, but ran out of time on that one, too. Several ideas had to be sacrificed due to time limitations, but no one knew that. :)

Supply Drop

After a while I leaned out of our kitchen window overlooking the jungle and announced that we were expecting a supply drop really soon, and that I could hear the airplane. I asked everyone to watch the sky for the supplies and gather them up to share. Then I had my brothers chuck a few packages on parachutes out of a top window. They sailed gracefully to the ground, and it was a riot watching the kids run around the maze to catch them! Inside the packages were some cute Neon Monkey lollipops for everyone.

Limbo Contest!

Monkey Stompede

Everyone had a yellow balloon (banana) tied to their ankle and had to protect it from being stomped on while trying to stomp on everyone else's.

Monkey Jungle Cake

This was Londyn's personal monkey cake, made by my sister-in-law. Very cute!

Neon Monkey Cupcakes

These use Nilla Wafers for the muzzles and Nilla Minis for the ears. The faces are painted on with icing tubes.

Goodie Bags

All of the kids went home with a goodie bag. Londyn and her friends got some banana baby food, Gerber banana-yogurt juice, Gerber banana shaped toddler cookies in a monkey face snack container (Dollar Tree), fruit snacks, and their monkey lollipop. The older kids got yellow salt dough in monkey face snack containers labeled "Mashed Banana Playdough- Not for eating!", some Laffy Taffys and tropical Starbursts, fruit snacks, and Neon Monkey tattoos along with their monkey lollipops. Each kid also got to take home one of the stuffed monkeys from the jungle so they'd stop bothering all the other creatures! :)

Banana Boat Kits

For the adults we'd prepared Banana Boat kits- packets of chocolate chips and marshmallows tied to a banana with a colorful recipe card attached reading "Slice the banana peel lengthwise, making sure not to cut all the way through to the other side. Stuff marshmallows and chocolate chips inside the banana. Use a spoon to dig out some of the banana if you want to make more room! Wrap the banana in aluminum foil and bake for 5 minutes in a 300 degree oven (or in a campfire or grill) until chocolate is melted. Eat with a spoon!"

LESSONS LEARNED:

*Recruit a Crew! -I could NOT have pulled off this party without an entire crew of helpers, so THANKS CREW!! Ma, Pa, Caj, Carg, Trog, Wendhy (my awesome photographer, too, check out her website http://www.wendhyjeffers.com/), Bryan, Nikkie, Liz, Mike, and everyone who attended and made it fun! Many family members or friends may love to help you with the preparations, setup, and management of your party. Even those who may not have the same "party passion" as you do will probably be willing to help out, so ASK! It's in everyone's benefit to pitch in and make it great!

*Inform your Crew!- By letting more people know the game plan, you increase the chance of everything happening smoothly. Crew members can also remind you of things that you may forget when you as the host get wrapped up in keeping all of your guests entertained. For example, each child was supposed to leave with a stuffed monkey from the jungle and luckily my mom reminded me about that as they started leaving.

*Stay in the Mix- As soon as we sent the kiddies off into the jungle, I thought I'd use that time to check on behind the scenes stuff, like restocking the food trays. Later, my husband asked me where I'd disappeared to during that time, and I realized that I'd missed out on seeing my guests actually enjoying what we'd worked so hard to prepare! Especially my own daughters. The birthday girl and my toddler were taken around by family members, which was fun for the family members since they didn't have their own little ones to participate with, but I regret that I didn't tag along! I'd even asked crew members to keep an eye on the food for me, so I just should've relaxed and enjoyed the activities a little more.

Construction Party

2009-03-08T15:42:00.005-06:00

This was a party thrown for my nephew's first birthday, with a construction theme. We all received these cute homemade invitations that read this inside:
ATTENTION BUILDERS
Mandatory Builders Meeting
In Honor of Foreman Jet
Turning one
This means there’s lots of work to be done
Please report to the Tafoya Construction site
Located at
(Home address)
Your shift starts at 6 P.M.
On March 3rd
Please call the shift supervisor.
(My sister-in-law and her phone number)
To report the number of workers in your crew

For the decorations they used garden plastic to make a road through the party area with strips of yellow tape for the traffic lines. They placed adorable inflatable road signs along the road (ordered from Oriental Trading) and decorated the room with plastic tools, caution tape, and yellow, orange and black balloons. You can't see it, but at this end of the road was a homemade "Car Wash" sign which led the kids through a curtain of caution tape, under a pool table, and to an inflatable Stop sign.Each kid had a sack lunch waiting with a sandwich, juice box, fruit bag and chips.When the kids arrived, they each had a Time Card with their name at the top, and this list:
Truck Detailing
Road Construction
Build a House
Stop and Go traffic
Lunch Break
Paper Demolition
Utensil Training
As they completed each activity, they had to have the Foreman (my sister-in-law) check it off. For the first activity, "Truck Detailing" each child colored a picture of a car. Once they got that checked off, they headed over to the start of the roadway for "Road Construction". They had to follow the road to several stations where they completed a small task (like building a small house from Lincoln Logs) or picked up a piece of equipment. Each kid ended up with a hard hat (from Oriental Trading) and a fabulous little tool belt. The tool belts were made out of pencil holder kits used in binders. They found them at Big Lots and sewed ribbon on the backs to tie around the kids' waists, then bought mini tape measures and paint brushes at Home Depot to put in the pockets. The kids LOVED them! My daughter had to wear her gear for the rest of the day, even into the grocery store!

Now that everybody looked official, they had to "Build a House." We all gathered around the table and were given graham crackers, frosting, licorice and candies to build a creative little building. We did this in family groups so that the adults could help their kids. The family with the most creative finished product got a prize.Next was a game of "Stop and Go Traffic." The kids lined up at one end of the room while my sister-in-law stood at the other end with a Stop/Go sign. When it was flipped to Go the kids made a mad dash toward her. When she flipped it to Stop, they had to screech to a halt. Anyone who didn't stop fast enough was sent back to the beginning. We played this several times, and let the kids take turns holding the sign.

After the kids had put in some hard work, it was time for a "Lunch Break." They were handed their sack lunches and got to sprawl out around the construction site to eat. As the finished up, the birthday boy got to open up his presents which were wrapped appropriately in brown paper. This was "Paper Demolition".The he got to dig into his own special Edible Excavator Cake found at FamilyFun.com!For everyone else, rather than a traditional cake we got to dig into this pile of crumbled brownies made to look like a pile of dirt and gravel for our "Utensil Training"!This was an incredible party, everyone had a great time! It's often difficult to plan a party for a one-year-old because it tends to be a family party involving a wide range of age groups rather than just one similiarly aged group. But this party kept everyone entertained, even the birthday boy!

Double Dare Gameshow

2008-12-20T12:10:00.004-07:00

This party was based on Nickelodeon's Double Dare, which we loved to watch growing up, and we'd often make our own version to play with homemade challenges and obstacles. A couple of years ago, I decided to put together a homemade version again as a family Easter party, which we played with Mike's family then with mine in Vegas. There are board game versions that have come out, but there's only so much you can fit into a box, so we'd sometimes use the trivia questions from the box then still use our own homemade physical challenges.

For those of you who aren't as familiar with Double Dare, basic game play is this: Players are divided into two teams, the Red team and the Blue team. The game starts off with a toss-up challenge to win control of the round. The winning team is awarded 20 points (dollars), and is asked the first trivia question. They can answer the question for 10 points, or Dare the other team to answer for 20 points. If the other team doesn't know the answer they can Double Dare back to the first team for 40 points. The first team either has to answer or accept a Physical Challenge. The host would usually give the teams these instructions at the beginning of the show: "I'm going to ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, or think the other team 'hasn't got a clue', you can dare them to answer it for double the dollars. But be careful, because they can always double dare you back for four times the amount, and then you'll either have to answer the question or take the physical challenge." Then in round 2 all points were doubled.
The Physical Challenges were often messy. They could be anything from trying to hit tossed meatballs into a bowl using a baguette as a bat, or trying to squirt something off your teammate's head using a bottle of seltzer. If the team completed the task within the allotted amount of time, 15-30 seconds or so, they'd win points and get the next question.
After two rounds of this, the team with the most points gets to try the Obstacle Course. This consists of eight different stations, the goal being to find or grab an orange flag from each one. The teammates would take turns completing a station, winning a certain prize for each one. If they made it through all eight stations, they won a grand prize. The stations were things like searching for the flag in a stack of giant foam waffles complete with gooey syrup, reaching up into a giant nose to dig around for the flag, swimming (or rowing a small inflatable boat) across a large tub of swampy water to get to the flag on the other side, etc. There are a few websites out there that have complete lists of the different challenges and obstacles used in the show. Ours were usually made up of whatever we found around the house!
For our purposes, rather than having the physical challenges be a race against a clock, I made them all competitive so that the teams would be racing against each other to complete a task. I did some research online to come up with a list of Easter-based trivia questions with multiple-choice answers. I prepared ten physical challenges with an Easter theme, and ended the game when we had used up all of them. We played the game indoors, then came outside for the messy challenges!
OUR PHYSICAL CHALLENGES:
*Egg Toss- Each team chose two members to participate. Each pair were given an egg and placed a short distance apart. The player with the egg had to toss it carefully to their teammate. Then the pairs were told to step further away from each other and toss the egg again. The pairs got further and further apart until one team dropped their egg and the other team was declared the winner.

*Sponge Relay- Teammates form a line one behind the other and must pass sponges from a bucket of water over their heads until it reaches the last person who squeezes what they can from it into a cup. The cups are marked with a line and the first team to get water up to that line wins. (Notice in this photo that my brother on the right is NOT passing the sponge over his head, cheater McGee!)

*Cream Pie Hunt- One player from each team tries to find a piece of candy in a pie tin full of whipped cream.

*Eggs in a Basket- One teammate stands with an Easter basket held on their head while another teammate tosses water balloons into the basket. (I had to break the bottom of the baskets inward so that there would be jagged basket pieces poking up to pop the balloons, because otherwise they would sometimes just bounce out and there would be a dispute about whether that balloon counted...especially among Mike's family who are cut-throat vultures when it comes to competition!) First team to get three balloons in wins.

*Word Search- Teams race to find Easter-themed words in a word search.

*Puzzle- Teams race to put together an Easter-themed puzzle

*Easter Greetings- Teams were given stacks of paper in their team color. They all try to make paper airplanes and throw them into a large basket. First team to get three airplanes in the basket wins. (Initially we tried to have team member assignments, some folding the airplanes, some throwing, but the folding took too long and the throwers became impatient and started making their own so we just did away with the assignments the second time we threw this party).
*Hatch the Eggs- We blew up several yellow balloons and several pink balloons. Each team was assigned one color or the other and had to sit on the balloons to pop them. First team to pop all of their balloons wins. (I originally wanted to fill the balloons with pudding or whipped cream, but didn't since no one wanted to get THAT messy).
*Jelly Beans in a Jar- I had a baby food jar full of jelly beans and each team got one guess at how many were in it. The team with the closest guess wins. (Smaller jar meant less counting for me!)
*Alternate un-used idea: Save the Peeps- Spread a package of marshmallow peeps at one end of the yard or room, and teams must line up and take turns running to pick up a peep and bring it back to a basket. Winner would've been based on either who got a certain amount first, who got more within a certain time limit, or who had the most when all were gathered (as long as it was very clear when all of them had been gathered).
OBSTACLE COURSE:

*Granny's Attic (from the show)- Hunt for the flag in a trunk full of old clothes and trinkets.

*Easter Basket- The flag is hidden in one of several baskets of Easter grass and eggs

*Stairway to Heaven- Player climbs the staircase to get to the flag at the top while members of the losing team shower down pillows and blankets at them. (That's my dad in the photo... he tripped on a blanket and hurt his ankle during this one... he finished it out like a trooper nonetheless, as my sister in the red shirt continued to pelt him mercilessly with pillows).

*Tub o' Suds- Once at the top of the stairs, the next player had to search through a bathtub full of sudsy water for the real flag among a lot of wrong-colored flags

*Stack of Stuff- Flag is hidden in one of two or three garbage bags filled with junk

*Deep Sea of Blankets- Several blankets are layed out on top of each other with a flag hidden between one of the layers
*Gooooal!- We had a set of Easter eggs that looked like soccer balls strewn on the floor, one of which had a flag inside

*Camp Out- Flag was hidden somewhere in a cute little campsite scene complete with a tent, sleeping bags, and gear.

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:
1. What is the origin of the word "Easter"?
A. Recognition that the sun rises in the East for a new beginning
B. AEsturium, a wildflower widely found in Holland, Belgium, and France
C.* AEostre, the ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn
2. Easter is a combination of religious and pagan rituals. Religiously it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. What is its pagan significance?
A. Celebration of the vernal equinox
B. *Celebration of Spring
C. Celebrate the season's first harvest
3. At Easter, rabbits are used to symbolize what?
A. Spring
B. *Fertility
C. Jesus Christ (an innocent slaughtered)
4. The visit of the Easter Bunny is based on what?
A.* A German fable about coloring eggs so they could be identified in case of famine
B. To remind all of the Spring harvest
C. To renew and expand life by bringing to all the symbol of life, or the egg
5. Why are white flowers predominant at Easter?
A. White hyacinths and tulips symbolize sorrow
B. *White symbolizes Christ's purity and majesty
C. White azalea symbolize rebirth and renewal
6. In some religions, Easter begins with Lent, a period of penitence, which lasts for how many days?
A. 12
B. 26
C. *46
7. What is the connection between Easter and the Jewish Passover?
A. *Passover in Hebrew is Pesach; in Europe Easter is also called Pesach.
B. Passover and Easter are celebrated for the same number of days
C. Both celebrate the freeing of the soul from oppression
8. In what country would you find an ancient Easter tradition called Smingus-Dyngus, a custom of splashing water on each other?
A. *Poland
B. Ireland
C. Wales
9. Why was Easter Island called Easter Island?
A. The first European to discover it was Capt. Jacob Easter
B. *Europeans first discovered it on Easter Suday, 1772
C. Napoleon named it because he just liked the name
10. Which country had an armed uprising called the Easter Rebellion which started on Easter in 1916?
A. Russia
B. Hungary
C. *Ireland
11. The custom of Easter baskets originates from what?
A. The baskets farmers would use to collect their crops
B. The ancient Greek myth of the Cornucopia, the horn of plenty
C. *The Catholic custom of bringing Easter dinner food to mass to be blessed
12. Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, celebrates what?
A. *The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
B. The commemoration of the Last Supper
C. The edict in 325 AD by the council of Nice that Easter must fall on a Sunday
13. In the song Here Comes Peter Cottontail, he's got colored eggs for who?
A.*Sue
B. Mother
C. Tommy
14. If you do what with an egg, it is said to protect you from lightening, hailstorms, and beehives?
A. Break it open at precisely midnight on mid-summer's eve
B.*Bury in garden or yard
C. Throw it at your neighbor's dog
15. How long will a boiled egg keep in a refrigerator?
A. 3 Days
B. *A week
C. It doesn't require refrigeration once it's boiled
16. A female rabbit is called what?
A.*Doe
B. Femmie
C. Just a girl rabbit
17. What is the name of the dance commonly done at Easter time?
A. Egg Drop
B. Mashed Potato
C. *Bunny Hop
18. To light a candle on Easter is to symbolize what?
A. After darkness comes light
B. *Easter Sunrise
C. Easter Sunset
19. Highly intricate eggs decorated with wax and dye are known as what?
A. Golden Eggs
B. Juevos Rancheros
C. *Ukranian Easter eggs
20. Purple is a common Easter color. In the ancient world, where did purple dye come from?
A. Grapes
B. *Shellfish
C. Crushed amethyst rocks
21. Pretzels were made by Monks at the Vatican to give out to the poor during Lent because:
A. *They looked like Christ praying with arms folded
B. They didn't use yeast and thus were unleavened bread
C. They were just easy to make
22. The word Lent means what?
A. Live without
B. *Lengthening of days
C. Live again
Oster Haas is German name for what?
A. Easter House
B. Easter basket
C. *Easter bunny (or Hare)
23. Easter Lily symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus because;
A. Blooms in the spring
B. *It comes from a shell that is buried in the earth then emerges
C. It is white and pure
24. In some European cities, it is customary to squirt this on people and exchange good wishes:
A. *Perfume
B. Spices
C. Water
25. New born rabbits are called what?
A. Bunnies
B. *Kits
C. Kids
26. In the song Easter Parade, what street do they walk down?

A. Main Street
B. Santa Monica Blvd
C. *Fifth Avenue
27. A sweater made of spun rabbit fur is called what?
A. Cashmere
B. *Angora
C. Silk Wool
28. How many jelly beans will be made this holiday season?
A. 18 Million
B. *15 Billion
C. 120 Billion
29. How many Easter eggs are hunted in the United States each year?
A. Over 1 million
B. *Over 1 billion
C. Over 1 trillion
30. How many pounds of Easter candy do Americans eat each year?
A. *7.1 Billion
B. 10 Billion
C. 13.4 Billion
31. Which part of chocolate bunnies do most children eat first?
A. Tails
B. Feet
C. *Ears
32. How many chocolate bunnies are sold each year?
A. 10 million
B. *60 million
C. 1 billion
33. What is the most popular Easter candy?
A. *Chocolate eggs
B. Marshmallow Peeps
C. Jelly Beans
34. Which is the most favorite jellybean flavor?
A. *Cherry
B. Strawberry
C. Grape
35. Which is the most popular symbol on Hallmark Easter cards?
A. Easter Bunny
B. *Easter eggs
C. A cross

LESSON LEARNED:

In any sort of competition, such as these physical challenges, have very clear rules and procedures outlined beforehand and be prepared to make an authoritative call if things get dicey, including disqualification if necessary. It's supposed to be all fun and games and no host wants to hurt the feelings of their guests, but some people take competition more seriously than others, so know your guests and plan accordingly!

Staying Alive- Murder Mystery Dinner

2008-12-19T20:48:00.009-07:00

This was the first murder mystery dinner we hosted, having given it to Mike's mom as a Christmas present since she's quite the thesbian! We also figured the 70's would be a fun theme to work with. These scripted murder mystery dinners usually do need to be snazzed up a bit!

"Story line: This mystery occurs in 1979 at the trendy Studio Manhattan, a chic and glamorous New York discotheque frequented by the rich and famous. Tonight's exclusive crowd of celebrities is feverishly dancing the Hustle to the throbbing rhythmic beat of disco. The music stops abruptly when the club's owner, Jackie Fever, is found murdered in her backstage office. The flamboyant Ms. Fever was fatally stabbed- obviously by someone she knew. You may be a suspect!

Suspects: John Revolting: New York City's reigning Disco Dance Champion, John is at the club to demonstrate his crowd-dazzling new version of the Bump. Athletic and handsome, Revolting seems to be making all the right moves in his quest for dance perfection.

Diana Rush: Chart-topping songstress Diana Rush is at Studio Manhattan to celebrate her new hit single "Won't Be Missing You". At the peak of her musical career, Diana has record company executives lining up at her door and fans screaming out her name.

Andy Warthog: A hip new artist creating quite a stir in the art world, Andy has streaked his way to celebrity status by painting portraits of trendy objects such as pet rocks and soda bottles. He believes everything and everyone deserves at least 15 minutes of fame.

Gloria Stunnem: An outspoken leader in the feminist movement, Gloria moved to New York to publish an exciting new women's magazine called "Sisterhood". Her burning passion is to teach women how to take control of their lives.

Bruce Leap: An international movie star and martial arts expert, Bruce is in New York to film his latest movie, Feet of Fury. Bruce, skilled in the use of every martial arts weapon known to man, insists he is a master of self-discipline and never loses his temper. Aieee!

Lyza M.: Professional dancer, singer and Broadway producer, this lady has it all. Lyza is high energy and loves to be center stage in every crowd. When not working, Lyza is the ultimate party girl who can be found in one of New York's hot spots almost every night of the week.

Sunny & Share: Popular singing duo and TV celebrities. Rumor has it they are splitting up and going their separate ways. Share wants to be a solo singer and movie star, while Sunny has political ambitions. I don't got you babe! "

We served the dinner at the dining table, but had the basement decorated like a 70's Disco. We hung a disco ball from the ceiling and had a projector displaying lots of pretty colors on the wall. At Deseret Industries we found plenty of 70's era records which we hung from the ceiling also, and hung their groovy covers on the walls. We tried to make everything colorful!

Everyone came in great costumes and really got into their characters! We even had Andy Warthog pull a surprise signature streak by running shirtless through the Disco (thank goodness my brother-in-law who played him is a modest guy and that's as far as it went)!

For the dinner we wanted to do fondue. However, we've eaten at the Melting Pot before and as yummy as the meat was it took a while to cook in our little fondue pot and we were pretty hungry while waiting for it. That was with just four people, and this was a party of eight. Plus we didn't have a burner in the middle of our table like those restaurants do. To simplify things, we cooked up some bite-size chicken pieces and just had several different dipping sauces available, BBQ, sweet and sour, marinara, ranch, and teriyaki. For dessert we had our chocolate fountain with a variety of stuff to dip.

In order to add some pizzazz to this theme, we had a disco dance-off between each round, first for the guys, then for the girls. I'd made a CD of sweet 70's music and had my little brother-in-law be the announcer and judge... just like that scene from Starsky and Hutch where Ben Stiller battles another guy on the dance floor. I think our moves were just as amazing!

Death by Chocolate- Murder Mystery Dinner

2008-12-14T00:05:00.006-07:00

My dad is a choco-holic to the nth degree! For his birthday this past October, I wanted to throw him a chocolate themed party. After some thought, I decided to simplify plans due to time restraints and opted for a murder mystery dinner party. I'd seen this one, called "Death by Chocolate" and decided to give it a try.

This was the premise: "It's 15 April 1900, Easter Sunday, and Paris is the centre of world attention as millions of visitors arrive for the opening this weekend of the International Exposition.

Amongst them is an elite but diverse group of individuals staying at the Hotel Paradiso. As the gather for dinner, however, the peace of the hotel is rocked by an explosion. Billy Bonka, the foremost chocolate manufacturer in America, is found dead in his room, having apparently been killed by an exploding Easter egg. Suspicion falls on the people around this table.

One-or more- of you is a murderer! Your task is to discover who that killer is. Fortunately the famous amateur detective Hercule McClue is on hand to assist your investigations.

The suspects are:

‘CHOCOLATE’ BERTRAND- You are the greatest legend of the Belgian chocolate industry. Debonair but tough. (MY DAD)
Costume suggestion: Evening suit, elegant and understated.

MARCHIONESS DUCHAMP- You are an internationally notorious artist, whose work has scandalized two continents, and whose private life has done much the same. (MY MOM)
Costume suggestions: Dress in free-flowing clothes in rich colors (purples, deep reds) with silver jewelry and a silk scarf.

MARIA VON SCHNAPPS- You are a young business woman who has just taken over as head of a long-established Swiss chocolate firm. (MY BROTHER'S DATE)
Costume suggestion: A Formal evening dress, suggesting quiet sophistication.

MIKE BISON- You are the rising star of American boxing, and you’ve come to Paris for the Olympic Games. (MY HUSBAND)
Costume suggestions: Jeans and a white vest, worn open over a plaid shirt. A temporary tattoo or two and a black eye would be useful.

DAME BARBARA CARTHORSE- You are the most celebrated beauty in England , as well as being a hugely popular romantic novelist. (MY SISTER-IN-LAW)
Costume suggestion: A very grand evening dress, complete with spectacular jewelry and a tiara. Nothing should be understated.

DR DORIS JOHNSON- You are an amateur archaeologist specializing in Aztec culture, and something of an eccentric. (ME)
Costume suggestion: A long velvet cloak and floppy hat with feathers in it. Reading glasses on a chain around your neck would be good, a pince-nez or monocle even better.

DR SIGMUND FRAUD- You are a controversial psychologist from Vienna , much distrusted by conventional society. (MY BROTHER)
Costume suggestion: Brown, three-piece suit with a bowtie. A beard would add considerably to the image, as would a prop cigar.

LITTLE FITZ- You are a star of the Music Halls of Europe, where your ventriloquist act (with your dummy, Ziggy) has proved very popular. (MY YOUNGEST BROTHER)
Costume suggestion: A very loud check suit, preferably in brown with a novelty bowtie. It is vital that you have a dummy with you. This can be anything from a genuine dummy to a glove puppet. Even a sock with suitable adornments (eyes and a mouth drawn on) would do. But you will definitely need to bring this prop with you!"

My sister couldn't be here, so we slotted her in as the murder victim, Billy Bonka. We printed out a photo of her to display, then during the party she send random ghostly messages and threats to our phones!

We set up 'Cafe Chocolat' in our living room, with two tables end to end to form one long dining table covered with an elegant gold cloth. We decorated it with chocolate scented candles surrounded by chocolate truffles. To one side we had a chocolate fountain running with fruits and pretzels to dip, and we sipped glasses of sparkling cider during the appetizer and entree. With the desert I brought out a decanter of milk since it was extra rich and chocolatey!

I wanted a menu with chocolate in EVERYTHING, so I scoured the internet for recipes. The most difficult, of course, was the entree, but I finally found something on Hershey's website that didn't sound too bad. I found the salad recipe on someone's blog who'd used it for their own chocolate themed dinner.

Fruit and Greens w/White Chocolate-Orange Vinaigrette

Salad:
1 15-ounce can mandarin oranges
5 ounces pre-washed spring greens
2 cups fresh strawberries, quartered
1/2 pint blueberries

Dressing:
1/4 cup champagne wine vinegar
1/3 cup reserved mandarin orange juice
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
3 tbsp. olive oil

Make Salad:Drain Mandarin oranges and reserve juice. In a large bowl, combine salad greens and fruit. Set aside.

Make Dressing And Assembly: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine vinegar, mandarin juice, salt, and sugar. Gently heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in white chocolate until melted. Set aside to cool. Do not refrigerate, as white chocolate will set.
Before serving, slowly whisk in olive oil. Spoon desired amount over salad and toss. Serve remaining dressing on side.

Chicken Satay Skewers

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic, chopped
4 teaspoons dried coriander
4 teaspoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
4 teaspoons fresh, chopped ginger
2-1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast
PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE(recipe follows)
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

Directions:
1. Combine garlic, coriander, brown sugar, salt, cocoa and pepper in large bowl. Stir in soy sauce, oil, lime juice and ginger.
2. Cut chicken into 1-1/2 to 2-inch cubes. Add to soy sauce mixture, stirring to coat chicken pieces. Cover; marinate in refrigerator for at least two hours.
3. Meanwhile, prepare PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE. Thread chicken pieces onto satay sticks. Grill or broil, basting with marinade. Discard leftover marinade. Garnish with chopped coriander, if desired. Serve with prepared peanut sauce. Refrigerate leftovers. 15 to 20 appetizers or 4 to 6 entree servings.

PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE:1 cup REESE'S Crunchy Peanut Butter1/2 cup peanut oil1/4 cup lime juice1/4 cup soy sauce3 tablespoons honey2 garlic cloves, minced1 teaspoon cayenne pepper1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauceGradually whisk peanut oil into peanut butter in medium bowl. Blend in lime juice, soy sauce, honey, garlic, cayenne pepper and hot pepper sauce. Adjust flavors to taste. (You should have a sweet/hot flavor.) About 2-1/4 cups dipping sauce.

Chocolate Pudding Cake (dubbed by me Chocolate Lava Eruption Cake of Glory!)
1 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. milk
2 T shortening, melted

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, bk powder and salt in a bowl. Blend in milk and shortening. Pour into ungreased 9 x 9 pan.
Stir together 1 c brown sugar (packed), and 1/4 c cocoa. Sprinkle over cake batter. Pour 1 3/4 c. hot water over batter (best to pour on the water after you set the pan onto the oven rack to avoid spilling... learned that the hard way). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. While warm, scoop into dessert dishes, spoon pudding sauce over each serving, and top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

This game came with a DVD of Inspector McClue guiding us through the investigation. Behind him is the photo of the ghostly Billy Bonka.

Our fantastic characters!

LESSONS LEARNED:

In the instructions for these parties it tells you to serve the appetizer during round 1, then serve the entree during round 2, and the dessert during round 3. That's all well and good, except that every time I got up to serve the next course (I even tried to have everything ready to just dish up, which meant the entree got cold), I was missing interactions with the other characters. I found myself playing hostess and not really knowing what was going on with the game. There were a few times when everyone was waiting on me to come back from the kitchen and say my line. So I think that next time I throw a murder mystery dinner, all of the food will come out in one shot and I'll actually get to participate. However, I also think that the next murder mystery party I throw will be an unscripted one! I've been reading about those, and they sound way more fun!

Indiana Jones Adventure

2008-12-12T19:30:00.008-07:00

A few months before my husband's last birthday, I asked him what kind of party he wanted. He said an Indiana Jones party since he'd always liked Indiana Jones growing up, and the fourth movie was coming out the week after his birthday. Perfect! (What's funny is that I decided on using a Mayan theme for the activities before I found out that the movie was about the Mayans, so that was fabulous too!) I thought it all sounded like an awesome idea and started brainstorming and looking up ideas online. When he found out I was actually going through with it, he laughed and said "I was just joking! I'm not nine years old!" But, alas, it was too late, I was too excited about it. It was so much fun that my mom requested that we do it all over again at their house in Las Vegas as a homecoming party for my brother Bryan who got home from a mission in August. That one went much smoother since we'd already had a trial run... There are pictures here from both parties, but the description is mainly focused on the Vegas one since that one rocked harder. My main online resource for this was questexperiences.com, a great site by a professional party planner, which was really the only site I could find with ideas for this theme at the time. Oh, also, I later submitted this party idea on birthdaypartyideas.com which does a monthly ideas contest, and won the grand prize of 50 bucks! :) That's me, Rachel of Lehi, UT, the August 2008 winner. I highly recommend that website for party ideas, there are some amazingly creative people out there!

To start with, everyone received an invitation that included this letter...

"April 30, 1941

Dear Doctors So-and-So,

As you may be aware, my team and I have been laboring in the jungle of Guatemala for several months in search of the tomb of the legendary Mayan Prince Yaxkin Zotz (Yash-keen Zohts). I am very pleased to report that our search has met with success! We uncovered the tomb entrance last week, proving that the Prince was indeed more than just legend. It is a marvelous discovery, surpassing our fondest hopes! According to local legend, the Prince was buried with a ceremonial jade mask over his face. This is a much sought after priceless artifact, and it is finally within our grasp. The Smithsonian foundation funded our efforts in this area in exchange for our promise to donate the mask into their keeping upon finding it, so that it may be proudly displayed in their museum. We suffered great anxiety at the beginning of our excavations over the possibility of not finding the mask to repay our debt, but now our fears may be put to rest!

Given the history of your own research, I am certain you will be as interested in this discovery as we are. Therefore, we would like to cordially invite you to see the tomb for yourself and celebrate with us as we open the sarcophagus of Prince Yaxkin Zotz and extract the jade mask. We will be holding the celebration at 6:30 pm on Saturday, August 2, and will provide a sampling of local cuisine. We have invited the notorious Dr. Indiana Jones to the site to be the forerunning explorer. You can guess by his reputation that he has been instrumental in paving our way through various ancient booby traps set by the Mayans to protect the burial place of their Prince. We can now assure your safety while you attend, with 78% certainty! However, we ask that you do not bring any small children with you, as the indigenous tribes of this area will attempt to snatch any children for use in their sacrificial rituals!

I have enclosed an airline ticket for you. If you are unable to attend, please send word. Otherwise, we look forward to sharing our excitement with you!

Sincerely,

Dr. Rachel M. Tafoya

Head of Field Research

Princeton University- Department of Archaeology

Ps> Dressing in period costume or character is strictly optional, but if you do feel like adding to the atmosphere, here are a few examples to spark your creative juices:

*The Adventurer – the classic Indiana Jones type, or one of his competitors
*The Researcher – such as Evie from The Mummy, well kempt and knowledgeable

*Foreign Agents – emissaries from other countries, i.e. government liaison to a sultan, or a foreign Prime Minister. Perhaps a vigilante soldier or member of a secret society responsible for guarding hidden treasure from grave robbers."

The invitation also included a map of Guatemala with our streets superimposed over it to give directions to our house, a newspaper article I'd made about the opening of the tomb, and a plane ticket to the dig site. Since I'd had a couple of months to plan, a TON of detail went into this party. For example, I'd researched other events happening during this time period and created a page of other newspaper articles to print onto the back of the tomb article to make it look like an actual newspaper clipping. The airline tickets had the name of an actual 1940's airline (or close to it) and a picture of an antique plane. Everything was printed on appropriate paper, either parchment for the letter or newsprint for the article, and it was all sent out in a manila envelope.

Most of our guests did indeed show up in costume, and played along with the theme beautifully! I was Dr. Carmelita Josefina Esperanza, Curator of the Peten Mayan Museum (an actual Guatemalan museum I'd found online) and Mike was Jefe (based on The Three Amigos) for the Vegas party. Obviously, he was Indiana Jones for his birthday party in Utah, wearing a hat we'd bought at Disneyland's Indiana Jones shop for my dad years ago.

My sister's costume was the most hilarious... she came dressed as the Boulder that chases Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark! I put her in charge of the Priest Races.

Aaaand... the boulder finally did get Indy! My brother got to be Indy this time since it was his homecoming party.

The Vegas party was held after the fourth movie had come out, so my adorable sister-in-law came dressed as a mysterious alien mind-reader..?? Everyone was very creative! Some showed up as reporters or photographers, some were dressed as explorers, some dressed in more Guatemalan garb, some were foreign nobility, and some were characters from the movies. We had a young Indy in boy scout uniform, and a lovely Elsa von Schneider.

The living room was decked out like an archaeologist base camp. We'd moved out all the furniture and set up a canopy with 40's style camping gear decorating each corner- crates and trunks, bedrolls, lanterns and candles, mess kits, a washbasin and pitcher, and some glass jars with labels I'd made of 1940s products, like GoldBond powder and tooth powder (flour or powdered sugar), etc. There was a research desk set up with books and maps where everyone picked up a name tag to write the name of their character onto and hang from their neck with twine. Plus there was a sheet of Indiana Jones trivia for everyone to try their hand at while waiting for others to arrive. There were also fake trees and vines blocking off other rooms, to give the illusion of the camp being surrounded by jungle, and a blue fringe curtain representing a waterfall covering the entrance to a stairway leading up. Where the waterfall fell we laid blue cloth bordered by river rocks and fake frogs. Everywhere else was also strewn with plastic bugs and spiders.

My mom had most of the decor set up for the Vegas version since we were traveling there the day before the party and wouldn't have much time to do it ourselves. She made a huge volcano hanging from their banister next to the waterfall. It was Guatemala, after all, so this really set the atmosphere as you walked in.

At the bottom left of the volcano was the entrance to the tomb of Prince Yaxkin Zotz. I was stationed here giving periodic tours of the tomb to groups of guests in my best Nacho Libre style spanish accent, allowing everyone to check everything out before we actually did the "opening of the sarcophagus" presentation. This also allowed me to address everyone to ask if they'd seen a certain artifact I'd been looking for to place in my museum. In Utah this role was played by my mother-in-law who made inquiries as she mingled with other guests during the party. I'd pull out a photo-sketch of it (a garden stepping stone I'd found at the dollar store with a moon on it) and tell them that if they ever found it I'd be willing to make a trade with them for it. This would play a role in the treasure hunt later. Making this entryway was one of Mike's projects, and I think he did awesome! Nearby we had some dirty, well-used digging tools (shovels, pick-axe, and a worn little box of fake dynamite made wrapping wooden dowel pieces with red tissue paper and glueing on a wick).

Along this hallway, we hung rafia "vines" from the ceiling and had three staffs leaning against the wall with skull heads on top (from Halloween) and poisoned darts (tips of wooden skewers) stuck into the opposite wall to look like they'd shot out of the skulls mouths. Just one of the booby traps Indiana Jones narrowly escaped as he prepared the way for us to excavate! As I led people through, I gave an improv'd schpiel about the excavation efforts and some historical background about the Mayans and their prince. Then I took everyone through the laundry room, which was made to look like a narrow cavern with a wooden bridge over a pit of snakes. (The cool thing about the Utah one at our house was that the entrance tunnel led down a narrow stairway into our basement, so it was more like you were really climbing down into a burial pit). From there we ended up in the garage where my parents had set up an awesome little maze of tunnels by hanging butcher paper from rope strung overhead. There were bones littering the floor, large bugs stuck to the walls, and vines and moss hanging down. After turning a few corners and some more touristy schpiel, we ended up in the sarcophagus room. This was a large section of the garage lined with butcher paper with a big gold-lined box in the middle as the sarcophagus. My mom had printed out a picture of the carvings on an actual mayan sarcophagus lid from the internet and stuck it on our lid. There were vertical strips of glyphs painted on the wall as well as a print out of a mayan mural. I'd also found a big golden table cloth at Deseret Industries and had Mike draw the mayan calendar on it to hang on the wall. On the floor were several vases I'd found at DI and spray painted gold as artifacts. I let everyone look around, then told them we'd be opening the sarcophagus and extracting the jade mask later.

Another activity to keep people busy before the sarcophagus presentation was a Priest Race game. We have a piano that we didn't want to move out of the living room, so I draped it with a gray-dyed table cloth and made it look like a mayan temple. Then I painted six goofy looking Mayan shamans on wood squares, glued a support on the back so they'd stand up, and named and numbered them. We had "Sham Solo", "Shaman Noodle", "Jaguar Bait", "Chaac-o-lot", "Shamamasofat", and "Kevin". Everyone would choose one to 'bet' on, and we gave them a chip with their priest's number on it. Then we'd roll two giant dice and whichever numbers popped up, those two priests would each move up one step. We kept going until one reached the top, and whoever bet on that one got some chocolate gold coins.

We also had Jaguar Hunting, where we stuck downloaded pictures of jaguar faces onto a cork board with targets drawn on them. Then guests could throw darts at the targets and get gold coins for "slaying" a jaguar. The darts represented the atl atl spear throwers Mayans used to hunt.

Another very important activity was eating! We set out a buffet of typical Guatemalan foods, like empanadas, roast quetzal bird (fried chicken bites), tropical fruit sorbets inside real fruit shells (found at Costco, to my delight), banana slush punch, and horchata. Along with all of that, there were some Temple of Doom style dishes, such as candied beetles and marshmallow brains (Oriental Trading Company), gummy worms as "Snake Surprise", and chewy edible rats from a party store (I hear they tasted horrible, but they set the mood well). Oh, and the punch had floating eyeballs in it!

The tables were decorated Guatemala-style, colorful blankets and such.

Once everyone had eaten and played some games, it was time to open the sarcophagus.

I led everyone into the tomb and made a little presentation, thanking my dig-site colleagues and such, and reminding everyone how important this jade mask is. Then I had a couple of big guys "heft" the heavy stone lid off, and we all peered inside to see that the mask was missing (in the Utah version) or that there were two false masks along with a real one (in Vegas)! I expressed my dismay loudly!

Then my colleague, Professor of Ancient Languages at Cambridge University (played by my dad), draws everyone's attention to three strips of mayan glyphs hanging on the wall. He "translated" them, saying that they were three clues. For the Utah version, he informed everyone that what probably happened was that Yaxkin Zotz followers may have feared that the mask would be stolen by their enemies overtaking their city, so they took it out of the tomb and hid it, leaving clues to its whereabouts. In Vegas, the clues were to help us figure out which of the three masks was the real one, because if we tried to take either of the false ones we would be zapped to death! (I thought about having someone do just that and fall to the floor dead in order to make that point, but I didn't want someone to have to play dead on the hot garage floor for the rest of the party).

At this point, I enlist the help of all of our guests. The name badges they grabbed at the beginning of the party each had one of three symbols on them, a sun, a moon, or water (wavy lines). They were to divide into teams according to their symbol. Then I handed out a booklet to each team full of our "research notes" to aid them on their quest. I also handed each team a gold medallion (made from salt dough and gold spray paint) which we told them was a replica of a medallion typically worn by the prince. They were also given a few sheets of tissue paper and a crayon to make rubbings of any clues they found.

On the first page of each booklet was a 'translation' of one of the three clues. From there, the three teams cycled through six different sites. At each site, they had to solve some sort of puzzle to find out where to go next, and each site had one of six pieces of a tablet with the mayan calendar carved into it which they had to get a rubbing of to eventually assemble (I made the tablet with drywall plaster and carved the mayan calendar into it before it dried). Within their research journals were instructions and hints about each site to help them. At the Utah party, I made the booklets look like a random collection of research notes and the teams had to really search the pages for which information applied to the site they were at. This made things alot more difficult and time-consuming. Plus for that party the sites were spread all over our neighborhood and required a lot of trekking to get to while battling mosquitos (hey, Indy had snakes and rats, these guys had mosquitos... it added to the realism!). Only one of the three teams were able to find and complete all of the sites in the correct order, and that was with help from me via cell phone. So, with the Vegas party, I arranged the info in the booklets to match the order of the sites for each team, and since it was broiling hot outside even after sundown, we kept most of the sites indoors just around the house. This also allowed us, the dig team, to be on hand to help if needed, and it was needed several times even with more clear instructions. One thing that was fun is that explorers could die along the way! I enlisted a younger guest at each party to stand at a certain spot along the route and hand a scroll to one member of each team as they came by. The scrolls each had a death sentence on them. One guest read that a local shaman had cursed her/him for trying to steal artifacts that he himself wanted to profit from, another was told they'd stepped into a den of snakes and fell dead after 8.2 seconds of writhing agony, and another was hit by the poisoned dart of a local tribesman who wanted to prove his machismo to his buddies by killing one of the strange white outsiders. If something happened to someone, they had to surrender their name badge to the bearer of the travesty scroll and they were considered dead, although I still allowed them to continue the quest with their team rather than have them sit around doing nothing. Initially, the idea was that the winner would be based on a point system, and the team would lose a lot of points if their teammates died, but in the end we just awarded the first team to finish and let the death thing be just for fun.

SITE 1: Waterfall Cavern

For this site the clue was to find a secret cavern behind a "cascade of tears", which led them to the stairway behind the waterfall. At the top of the stairs were five doors, each with a painting of a different mayan deity on it. On the wall was a large (paper) "carving" with a clue on it reading

"Consider now your life at stake

Of these stones an offering make

At the foot of each god place

The proper gem or else death face

All five gods you must placate

But pass through only one god's gate"

Below that sign was a stool with a bowl holding five rocks I'd painted five different colors, Jade (green), Obsidian (black), Gold, Sapphire (blue), and Amythest (purple). There were clues hung on the walls to help them deduce which stone must be placed at which god's door, then in the journal they were told which stone would end up at the right door. If they opened a wrong door, they'd find a sign saying "You have chosen poorly! You have opened a chamber filled with toxic fumes and you are now dead!"

Behind the correct door, they found a volcanic chamber complete with boiling lava. In this chamber they found an artifact... the very artifact I had asked them about during the tomb tour. This led them to me.

SITE 2: Crooked Curator

My site was back at the base camp in the living room. The team would come and find Jefe and I there and show us the artifact, offering to trade it for information about the jade mask. I politely agreed to help them, and told Jefe to pour drinks for our famished explorers. He passed around small cups of sparkling cider, and as soon as everyone took a sip (which they all did), I laughed deviously and told them they'd just drunk poison! I offered them an antidote in exchange for the artifact, or else they would all be dead within ten seconds. They handed it over and I passed out antidote pills (m&ms). Turned out I was secretly a crooked treasure hunter and Jefe was my body guard (he brandished his pistol if anyone got rough). With their bargaining chip gone, their only choice was to agree to help us solve a riddle to figure out what happened to one of our colleagues. If they solve this riddle (adapted from a riddle on questexperiences.com), I would give them their next clue. I told them that one of our colleagues went missing last week while searching nearby villages for artifacts. Each day, Monday through Thursday, he was led by a different guide to a different village. The only guides available that week were Mario, Selvin, Cesar, and Hector. The villages he went to search were El Zotz, Xutilha, San Marcos, and Zacapa. I told them that if they could figure out which village he visited on Thursday, we could ask someone in that village where he might've gone next. We had questioned locals in our area and been told a few pieces of information: Two days after returning from San Marcos he set out with Mario. Cesar talked all day about his trip to El Zotz. Hector went with him on Wednesday. On Thursday a river flooding would not have allowed a trip to Zacapa. Using these four clues, the team had to deduce which village our colleague had gone to on Thursday, and then we handed them a small rolled scroll with their next clue.

SITE 3: The Map Room

The next site was a large floor map (this one being a map of our neighborhood streets for the Utah version). Along each side were holes labeled by mayan bar-and-dot numerals, and nearby was a pile of bamboo staffs of different lengths which were also labeled with mayan numerals. In the journals, the team found another riddle they had to solve in order to figure out which staff to place in which hole on the map. Then they were instructed to stick the peg of the golden medallion into the top of the bamboo staff (similiar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy is in the Map Room at the Nazi dig site). The medallion had red string tied around the inner post which they could unwind and stretch tight toward the map. Wherever the end of the string hit the ground was their next destination. This was the riddle, but in place of the # sign were mayan numeral glyphs that didn't copy over. Then the journal had pages which told the team which numerals meant which numbers:

"Inscription translated from cavern in central Guatemala-

# brave warriors with faces painted red went to hunt the mighty jaguar. Each wore # feathers of the sacred Quetzal bird to signify their prowess in the hunt. Along the way they were joined by # warriors from a friendly neighboring village, faces painted green, and each wearing # sacred Quetzal feathers. Suddenly stealthy jaguars attacked the party from the trees. # was slain, but the other jaguars each disappeared into the thick underbrush with a warrior, # red faced and green faced. The red faced warriors claimed the slain jaguar and assigned # of their own the honor of carrying the carcass back to their village priest. The sound of the fray drew a band of hunters from another friendly village who joined the clan. Their faces were painted blue, but they were all young and as yet bore # Quetzal feathers. With spears ready, the group stalked through the jungle, watching for signs of their elusive prey. Suddenly they were ambushed by a group of yellow painted warriors who were guarding their village territory. Before the hunters could retreat, # blue faced warriors and # green faced were pierced with warning spears. All # rushed back to their villages to be treated by the priest. The remaining warriors trudged on until at last they came upon the tracks of a jaguar. They followed the trail cautiously through the trees until eventually the beast was spotted and slain.

How many warriors participated in this final kill?
(This number indicates the correct staff to use.)
How many Quetzal feathers did they bear among them?
(This number indicates which hole to place the staff into.)"

SITE 4: Sign Post

The next site was a tall sign post with several signs pointing in all directions each labeled with the name of an actual mayan city. In the journal the team was given clues to eliminate cities until only one was left, and that one was the prince's favorite city to do commerce with back during his reign and thus was a possible hiding place for the jade mask. Once they figured out the city name, they followed a key in the journal that told them where to go next based on their answer.

SITE 5: Countdown Puzzle

Next, they came upon what looked like a long string of random letters posted on wooden skewers and stuck into the ground. They were instructed to count the letters by a certain multiple which they had to figure out, skipping letters that had been used, until each letter had been used, and the letters would be rearranged into a phrase. So, the letters they saw (Vegas version) were WRLEYSOAUOANNIUEIKORCARTCNO. They had to count them by fives, crossing off each fifth letter and copying that letter into the journal, to form the phrase "Your clue awaits in a corner nook." This led them to my parents' breakfast nook.

SITE 6: Mayan Math Grid

On the table in the nook was this large grid of boxes, each with a symbol and a mayan numeral in it. The walls were strewn with dozens of math problems written in mayan numerals, each with a symbol next to it. Their instructions were "The Mayans had a skill for math, use this skill to find a path, Help this poor lost Mayan home, each symbol's match will lead you on." On the star space at the bottom of the grid was an obsidian figurine I'd gotten in Cozumel, Mexico years ago. Using the figurine as a marker, they had to find the math problem with the symbol that matched the space they were on, the big star to start, and solve the problem. One of the adjacent spaces would have the answer in it, so they'd move the figurine there and find the next corresponding math problem. They kept doing this until the Mayan reached his village at the other end of the grid. They would then find the final symbol they landed on in a key in the journal, and be told where to go next.

Once each team had solved all six sites and taken a rubbing of all six pieces of the mayan calendar tablet, they were instructed to take the rubbings back to the Professor for translation. When the rubbings were assembled, they would see the mayan calendar plus some glyphs surrounding it which were a message either leading to the jade mask or explaining which of the three masks was the correct one. The team could then retrieve the mask and bring it back to win a prize (big bag of "Treasures" chocolates).

All in all, this party lasted around 3-4 hours, but could've been shortened by beginning the quest part sooner. We just let everyone mingle before and after. This took months of preparation, but required a lot more creativity than money. The biggest expense was the food, and the craft supplies to make all of the puzzles and decor. But everyone had a fabulous time, including me planning it, so it was all worth it!

LESSONS LEARNED:

*When a lot of decorating is involved, set up as much as possible BEFORE the day of the party! Allow PLENTY of time the day of the party for finalizing set up and preparing food. Ideally, have a written plan of exactly what needs to happen so that nothing is forgotten.

*Set up for ACTIVITES is far more important than decoration. Decor can be basic and still provide atmosphere, if a few streamers are forgotten no one will be the wiser. But if the activities are unorganized or not thought out well enough, it reeeally detracts from the party. Pay attention to details!

*DELEGATE!! Assign close friends or family members to help prepare food and drink and keep it all stocked during the party. Assign someone to run each activity if there are several happening at once, and make sure those in charge know exactly what they are supposed to do. Keep yourself, the host, as free as possible to oversee everything, mingle with guests, and handle any crisis that may occur.

*Have a basic time schedule beforehand and pay attention to your guests to avoid dragging things out. As the host it's easy to feel frantic and constantly occupied while guests might start to feel ready for another activity.

*Being in a character makes for more fun! But being unprepared and frantic does not allow for good character development... Again, emphasis on allowing plenty of time for party preparations! Be set-up with time to spare so that your guests will arrive to find you in a relaxed party-ready mood!