Cadence's birthday party this year was CRAZY fun. And it was just plain CRAZY too. She decided she wanted to do a murder mystery party, something I've ALWAYS wanted to do. I found an amazing company online:
www.mymysteryparty.com
and they had over 100 party themes to choose from. Cadence chose the "Mystery in Time" theme with a little steampunk feel which was awesome. All her guests would get to be famous people from the past with the exception of about 4 who got to be famous people of the future.
This company is great. You buy the party & it includes EVERYTHING you need to throw the party. You just print things out & you're done. It was kind of awesome.
It even had invitations to print out. All you had to do was fill out the party info & voila!
Of course I HAD to add some wax seals & steampunk keys & gears to make them extra exciting.
We passed out all the invitations a month in advance so everyone could save the date & start putting together costumes. Yes, everybody got to dress up in costumes for it. This particular party had 26 characters. Cadence was struggling trying to figure out who to invite. . . she didn't want to leave anyone out. We wound up inviting her church friends from our ward, her entire church freshman seminary class, & a few friends from the base. We ended up having 23 of the 26 characters show up. It was amazing.
A week before the party, we gave everyone a pre-game task. Everyone had to contact 3 of the guests & tell them some funny/odd thing that had to do with their character & the party. Cadence decided to do a video for hers. It was SO funny.
Click HERE to watch the video she sent to all her guests to get them excited about the party.
I think my girls were the most excited about the party. I know Cadence's friends were really excited too. But we made sure we had cool costumes for them including wigs. Here they are getting ready with make-up & wigs.
Because we had SO MANY GUESTS, my dear friend & neighbor was kind enough to let us have the party at her house since it's more than twice the size of ours. What a sweetheart. We set up some yummy snacky food to snack on during the night. Unfortunately, this was the only food picture I took the entire night. I didn't realize how busy I would be trying to round up 23 teenagers every 15 minutes. I didn't get pics of dinner or CAKE!!! SO SAD. But it was fun.
Cadence helped with the set up as well. . . in costume.
We had all our guests start the night out by getting "mug shots" taken. Someone was going to die, so everyone was a suspect!
Lorien played the part of Lucy Bell (aka Lucille Ball). She had on an adorable 50's style polka dot dress & a red wig. She was darling.
Cadence was the host of the party "Genesee Glasco" the evil, tyrant that has taken over the world in 2096. She used a time machine to bring back all the guests from the past so she could show them her power. Cadence . . . . evil. . . . yeah, it was pretty funny. But she loved her blue wig.
Taya was the maid helping me cook, clean, & do things at the party. She was such a good help, but had a blast in the process too.
Each guest had a nametag so they could complete each task in the 3 rounds of gameplay.
Cadence looked SO pretty. I can't believe she's 15!
The evil tyrant ruler of the entire world
Genesee Glasco.
And then the guests started arriving. I was REALLY nervous the teens would think this whole thing was stupid, but OH MY GOODNESS. They ALL got into it BIG TIME. It was SO fun seeing each new character arrive at the party. And once they saw each other, it because a really happening party. Everybody was having a blast.
Round 1 of the game was all talking & getting to know each other. The kids had to stay in character & talk to every character at the party to hear motives, plans, etc. They were having SO MUCH FUN talking to each other.
After round 1, we broke off for a dance off. I randomly drew names out of a bag & put the kids into 6 groups of 4 & gave them a style of dance. They had to come up with a 30 second choreographed dance to the song "This is Me!" from The Greatest Showman. Some of the styles were:
80's
Bollywood
Irish
Ballet
Robot
The Chicken Dance
The kids really got into it & had a blast. I think this was their favorite part of the whole night. Here are some videos of the dances:
After the Dance Off we went back for dinner. For dinner I made Hawaiian Haystacks. Cadence loves them & they are an easy way to feed mass teenagers & get them full. I wish I had taken a picture of the layout of food, but was busy serving it all. ha ha ha. It was beautiful though:
rice, chicken, gravy, coconut, pineapple, cherries, peppers, tomatoes, cheese, onions, chinese noodles, french fried onions, almonds, walnuts, etc. Yummy.
After dinner we began round two where someone found out that they were going to be the victim. Everyone had to reveal new clues to each other & somewhere in the middle of it, someone was going to die.
Yup, it was Cadence. She was the victim. She had to go to the bathroom, put on angel wings & a halo, write a note saying how she died, & the took the murder weapon. Merry Monroe was instructed to "find the body" & drag it into the hallway & scream. I think Cadence & Makenna had WAY TOO MUCH FUN with this. It was hilarious.
Trek lined the body with tape & wrapped the crime scene with caution tape. Poor Cadence had to lay there for quite some time while we took tons & tons & tons of pictures.
After Cadence died, the characters got to proceed with the 2nd half of round 2 where they supplied their motives, alibis, locations during the murder, & blood types to everyone. Cadence was still able to play even though her character was dead.
After round 2 we served cheesecake & ice cream. Cheesecake is Cadence's favorite & we made a cheesecake topping bar so everyone could have exactly what they wanted. There was chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate chips, crushed oreos, strawberries, & cherry pie filling. It was yummy.
After cake & ice cream, everyone made their accusations on who they think killed Genessee. (NOBODY got it right.)
Then we proceeded with round 3 where everyone revealed whether or not they killed her.
Alfred Einstein ended up being the murderer. Nobody expected it & it was quite hilarious.
After that, we let the kids hang out. Cadence opened presents, & they all played mafia until parents arrived to pick them up.
In reality, I probably won't be doing a 23 person birthday party again any time soon. Especially one that lasts 4 hours!!! But even though it was exhausting, it really was a TON OF FUN. The kids had fun, Cadence loved it, & it was really a great party.
Happy Birthday Cadence!
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