well, that only took me 6 months

it's the day after Christmas and i'm now sitting down to finish this birthday post.
SO, here's how the day went.  If i can remember.  ha.

 
We sent out these fun and mysterious invitations in a brown manila envelope marked with the words "TOP SECRET" and addressed to Agent (enter name here).  They looked really fun, and then inside, i typed up an official looking letter from a detective agency personalized to each child.  There was also a smaller card inside each envelope, with a secret password that each party guest had to decode.
It was the word "ETALOCOHC"  Can you decode it? 

We had "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS" tape up all over the outside of the house, and inside I made a bunch of black question marks that we stunk to the windows.    When each guest arrived and told me the decoded password, they gained entry.   We gave them an ID badge with their character name on it (each person was a character from one of the Nancy Drew books, and Aloka was of course Nancy Drew).  Then, on their badge, they went to a station to draw a picture of themselves on the badge.  They also got fingerprinted (on a separate fingerprint card), and we put the badge in a plastic sleeve which could hang around the party guests neck.  It was really fun, and the kids just loved it.


After everyone had arrived, I took everyone in groups to Aloka's room, which was set up with laser beams all over in a web (string!) and the kids had to get from one end of the room to the other to get their "spy kits".   Anyone seen the movie Entrapment"?   This was not easy, i have to say!  There were little bells tied to the string every couple feet, and they had to try not to jingle them.  I couldn't even do it, and it was fun seeing all the different techniques the kids tried out!  I was at the other end handing them their spy kits, which consisted of:

• A real magnifying glass
• A small notepad and pencil
• A fake nose/mustache disguise
• A whoopie cushion (because every spy needs one)
• Some gold foiled chocolate coins (spy payment)
• Some very realistic pebbles that were actually chocolate (to trick unsuspecting people!)
• A secret code key
• and of course.... the case file, with the list of suspects and their motives.  (It looks bigger in the picture.  It was small, about 4" x 3") 

The mystery was called "The Curious Case of the Kidnapped Cake"
The suspects listed with their respective motives, were (as seen in the case file):

 

We sat all the kids around in a circle once everyone had their spy kits and I explained that something horrible had happened.  Aloka's birthday cake had gone missing!
I showed them right where it was in the kitchen before it suddenly disappeared.  Then we noticed that on the counter where the cake had been sitting, there was a pile of puzzle pieces!  Next to the pieces was a clear plastic film with some lines and footprints in black drawn on it.  The children assembled the puzzle, and saw this:

Then they placed the clear plastic sheet on top of it to reveal this:

(this was all the artistic genius of Josh!)

Once the kids figured out that it spelled JOSH, they questioned him; the FIRST suspect!

He explained that he was just trying to clean up the area and he put the cake in a large cooler, and put it over by the door and now it's gone!  But he also said he noticed some weird red goo on the bottom of the cooler.
The kids went to the door, and lo and behold, there was a trail of red goo (it was jello!) all the way out the door, down the steps and out to the back pumphouse.  We all went for a little walk, hot on the trail of red goo.  It was tricky because there were only little blobs of it here and there.  But it finally led us to the next stop (pump house).  Aloka opened the door to the dark pumphouse, and inside were glow in the dark letters on the wall that spelled

RICHARD

The kids had an 'aha' moment and went to question Richard.  He explained that he was just tidying up and didn't realize the cooler had the cake in it.  Then I noticed something on the ground next to the pump house door; a CLUE!  The kids had their magnifying glasses out, and examined what appeared to be a small button.
I suggested they see if the button matched any of the suspects clothing, and sure enough, Kara was missing a button on her shirt!  The plot thickens!

Kara explained that she saw the cooler, and needed something to sit on, so she dragged it over to the yard, next to a large larch tree.

The kids ran off to find the tree, but instead of finding the cooler and after much searching, they found a crumpled up note with a strange code on it, under a rock.  They unfolded it, to find this note:

Time to whip out their decoder keys from their spy kits!

After a few minutes of parents helping some and other clever kids doing it themselves, it was determined that the note said:

WHO LOVES CAKE?  JEN

They all found Jen, who told them she needed something to sit on by the fire pit, and had dragged it over there.  But now it's gone!  We went and looked around the fire pit, and still no cooler. 
But what the kids did find, sitting on a little platter were brownies cut into 1 inch squares.  Each brownie square had a letter on it but it didn't spell anything, that is, until someone realized the letters were jumbled!  They rearranged the letters which spelled:

MELISSA

They questioned Melissa, who said she had put her little brownies out to cool off, but she hadn't noticed a cooler at all!  The children started looking around, confused, and with a little help from the adults, they noticed some drag marks in the dirt, and some big bear prints!  They followed the trail into the woods,   and that's where they found the missing cooler!!!  And a funny little unplanned event that happened, was when they saw the cooler, there was a neighbors dog standing right next to it looking guilty.  Aloka was nervous that a bear actually took her cake, and felt a lot better that it could have been a dog!  ha ha!

The cake was nestled safely inside, and we all brought it into the house, and enjoyed a lovely platter of sub sandwiches, snacks, and cake and ice cream!  Then we opened presents, and Aloka got some fabulous gifts; craft kits, jewelry, a wonderful organic baking kit to make cupcakes, and all kinds of great and thoughtful gifts.  Honestly, it was probably the best party I've ever been too!

Present opening!