Hayley's Mystery Dinner Party

When I was a kid, my mom threw us the best parties.  They were always at the house and filled with creativity.  My favorite hands down was a Nitty Gritty dinner she did.  I knew I wanted to do one for my daughter once she was old enough.  11 years old is the perfect age!  Not sure why it was called a Nitty Gritty dinner though . . .  it's really a Mystery Dinner!   So we themed the whole evening around Mystery, starting with the invitations.

I got my inspiration for the invite from Pinterest (of course).  A cute bag -- threw in a magnifying glass ($1 at Walmart) and printed the invite in tiny font.  The sticker on the outside of the bag reads "Help us catch the criminal!  Unless, of course, it's you..."

Not only were we having a dinner, but we were having a Murder Mystery type drama.  I wanted it more age appropriate though, so online I found a cute mystery called "Who Stole the Golden Trophy?"  On the invite, each person was assigned a character, and asked to come dressed up as that person.  

Hayley helped me make clipboards for each girl.  As they arrived, they got to choose one, and they ended up using them throughout the night!

The girls arrived and looked so darling dressed up as their character!  This was Susan Lunchbox -- Soap Opera Star.  We also had a celebrity dog walker, a country singer, a ballerina and a cooking show host to name a few others.

As they arrived, they were escorted outside to the dinner table.  I had high hopes for decorating the dinner table, but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate.  It was so windy, that everything was blowing.  I actually had to tape down the place settings.  I had bought black and pink balloons that I was going to tie around each place setting, but they were all getting tangled up.   I had tissue poms to hang down from the porch, but they kept blowing away.  Sigh.  Didn't turn out like I envisioned.  But I'm sure the girls didn't notice (or care).

 

Since the mystery drama was about a trophy, their place "cards" were a trophy with their character's name on it filled with candy. 

As the girls were seated, they received a dinner menu.  All of the items were codes for an acutal food item.

They had to select 4 menu items for 3 different courses.  Oh yeah - and silverware were part of the selection.  So if they didn't order a fork, they might have to eat it with the toothpick they just ordered instead...

 They had a blast filling out their dinner selections and trying to guess what each menu item was going to be!

 Here's a sampling of what they might have received on their plate for one of the courses:

 Hayley's Knockout:  Punch

Underground Icicle:  Carrot

Tropical Island: Fruit Salad

Jack Frost:  Ice Cream Sandwich Cake (their favorite!) 

The first time I brought out the dessert, everyone asked what it was.  When I said it was the Jack Frost, those that had ordered it all cheered!  And they were asking for more "Jack Frost" all night long.

And after the four courses were over, they then got to order more of whatever they wanted (or never got).  Hayley picked her favorite dinner to be served -- cream cheese chicken rollups and potato casserole.  She knew they'd be on the menu, but didn't know what their mystery names would be. 

 In between courses, they filled out an All About Hayley sheet.  They had to guess the right answers and the winner(s) of course got prizes.

 Here's the cute group of characters.  Hayley really couldn't ask for a better group of girlfriends! 

 Hayley's character for the evening was "Angelina Josephina -- Movie Star."  I had no idea what she should wear.  My mom recommended one of our old prom dresses - the one she ended up wearing was my sister's.  As she was trying them on, she kept saying "I can't believe you all used to fit in these!"  I had to explain that before children, we were actually skinny too :)

 Two of her besties - Katie and Emily.

I mean Carrie Crumpet - Makeup Artist, and Paulina - Super Model.  Here they were practicing being dramatic.  But they're tweens.  I don't think they needed any extra practice!

 So the mystery drama began.  They had different scripts to read and act out.  And this was the PERFECT age for it.  They really got into their roles.

 Paulina Super Model never got out of character.  The whole night. 

 And there were even commercial breaks where the girls had to get into groups and come up with commercials.  They were advertising products such as chocolate shampoo and peanut butter gum.

 They had a great time making their guesses as to "Who Dunnit" and finally solving the mystery.

 We finished up with cupcakes and gifts, and as we waited for the parents, they played charades with movie titles.

 Had to get a pic too of this cute way my mom and dad gave their gift of money to Hayley.  In the past, they've done a money box where the bills are all taped together one by one, and they get to pull and pull the money as it keeps coming out of the box. And this year it was the money jar -- all crumpled up inside.  Thought that was much more clever than just sticking money in a card.

Hayley and I both agreed this was the most fun party we've put on!  Luckily I had my mom and sister to help in the kitchen with serving up the courses.  Couldn't have done it without them.  We were exhausted by the end of the night, but the girls had a blast -- trying to solve the mystery of the dinner as well as the drama. 

I'm sure it will only be a matter of weeks though before Hayley starts solving the mystery of what she'd like to do for next year's party . . .