9-12 Years Old Birthday Party Theme - Solve a Mystery
My nephew, John's tenth birthday was fantastic. He loves those, "Choose your own Destiny" books, so his mom, Rachael, created a mystery party for him.

I gladly agreed when Rachael me to help setting up. The invitations had Sherlock Holmes on the cover. Inside was the important party details: Location, date and time. Rachel also added, "Help John solve the mystery."

The decorations were the usual balloons and streamers, but we had hidden clues for the mystery inside some of the balloons.

When the five guests arrived they were each given a fact about the murder they could either share with the others or keep to themselves. They all decided to work together so the mystery would be easier to solve. The facts led to clues in the balloons throughout the house. It didn't take them long before the mystery was coming together.

The clues were challenging, but clear enough for them to follow. After about an hour or so, they figured out who had killed Adam the butler, where and what the murder weapon was. The prize was a "Choose your own Destiny" for each of them. John received the new Indiana Jones "Choose your own Destiny" series. He's wanted that for a long time.

Lunch was Chinese take out Rachael had picked up. It was really good. Especially the barbecued pork ribs. After lunch Rachel brought out the cake. It was decorated with a Sherlock Holmes's deerstalker and kalabash pipe in frosting. Rachel served it with cookies and cream ice-cream and the boys loved it.

After dessert, Rachel gave each boy a fortune cookie. Earlier Rachel had carefully removed the fortunes from the fortune cookies and replaced them with a riddle that gave clues to a special prize. Three of the boys found their prize right away so Rachael and I gave subtle hints to help the others. I took a lot of photos of the boys having fun.

The boys played Clue after they had found their prizes. John won two of the three games they played. It must be all the practice he gets reading his adventure books.

Rachael brought out a couple of spy cameras she rented from an audio visual shop. The boys create their own adventures with them. Rachael hooked them up to the VCR and boys got to keep their own footage.

It was a great day. John had a lot of fun solving the mystery. Next time we'll make it a little harder to solve. Maybe reading some "Sherlock Holmes" mysteries will give me some ideas.