The scene was the mansion of a chocolate tycoon Mrs. Oso Sweet (Matt played this party...that's a daddy who loves his daughter!). She went missing and all of the little girls were invited to the mansion as a part of the investigation. We sent them a newspaper article about the disappearance and an official summons from Oso's lawyer Barnabus Hornblower (my dad) The girls each had a character name (based on dress up they already had). We had Rachel Rockstar the rock star, Rita Readalot the librarian, Starlette Spotlight the singer, Mary Medicine the doctor, Sally Sleuth the investigator, Polly Pirouette the dancer, Harper Hole-in-one the golfer, Teensy Thumbsucker the toddler, Chief Wind-in-her-hair the Indian Chief, Kara Quiche the chef, Kip Flip the gymnast and Farrah Fairytale the fairy.
When they got to the mansion they were greeted at the door by the butler Mark Manners (our friend Stephen) and served h'orderves by Sasha Souffle the chef (my step-mom, Sarah). Tasha Tidy (my sister) walked around cleaning with a feather duster (see the sneakiness in getting my house cleaned for free) while Officer Do-right (my mom) walked around looking suspicious of the girls. The butler escorted them to the study one at a time where the lawyer went over their alibis with them (which were revealed by clues one at a time over the course of the party). He also gave them a clipboard with an alibi sheet so they could keep up with the alibis that were revealed and a map so they could find the rooms the clues led to. We started the clues off by watching a video Oso took of herself saying she suspected someone was out to get her and it showed her putting who she thought it was in an envelope in her safe. Then you see her scream and quickly take a picture of her assailant before the camera went dark. The girls rushed to the library (where the video was taken) and found her phone so they looked for the picture she took. All the picture showed was a raised hand showing a spatula with chocolate on it. That led them to the kitchen to question the Chef Sasha Souffle about her alibi. It would take forever to write down each of the clues/alibis but we had things like a blog post showing that one of the girls was in the recording studio recording an opera/rap with M. C. Hammer (which, hilariously, none of the girls knew). Others were a plane ticket, a voicemail left on Oso's phone, a recipe, one of the gifts was hand made at the indian reservation by one of the girls at the same time as the disappearance. And so on, and so on. The alibis were lots of fun to come up with! During the night the girls also had a break to be served a fancy dinner of hot dogs, fruit and chips and of course time for presents and cake. The party ended with the girls discovering where Oso was being held captive (in the servant's quarters) and she left behind a note saying she went to find the groundskeeper (Max). When the kids went to the garden to look for her the groundskeeper said he hadn't seen her but he found a key that went to her safe in the flower beds. So they rushed to the safe and opened it. The envelope containing the letter said not to open it until her lawyer Barnabus Hornblower was present. He came in, read the letter which said to give each of the girls their inheritance which was in the safe (a bag of chocolate gold bars) and that she suspected the butler Mark Manners was out to take over her chocolate empire (hence the photo of the hand holding the spatula with chocolate on it...he was trying to perfect her recipes). Office do-right arrest Mark Manners and Oso (Matt) gave each of the girls a "diamond necklace" (actually a candy necklace) as a thank you.
I'm soooo grateful for all of the adults who put up with my neurotic party planning and looked over the scripts and dressed the part. They really made her 10th birthday extra special!!! Now, I'm ready to go into hibernation!
And the video of Oso that started the whole thing off...
TAKE 1...
TAKE 2...
Wow! Can I come to one of your kids' birthday parties??? That looked AWESOME! Nothing like a bunch of burgers and some play in the McDonald's play place -- like we had when we were young!!!
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