CLUE MYSTERY DINNER AND SLEEPOVER For my daughter's ninth birthday we wanted a mysterious theme. This years theme is based on the board game CLUE.
I only had a few days to plan this party from an idea to reality so I did not send out invitations. Had I more time I intended to send a invitation in the look of an old paper set on the day of my daughters birthday in 1949, the year Mr Pratt and his wife first manufactured the game. I would put an article briefly describing the history of the making of the boardgame. Perhaps a small article of etiquette of the time. (For instance ladies would never be seen wearing pants, chewing gum and so on) The purpose of this article is to set the theme for dressing up. I would also have an article that headlined there were some police activity around Boddy Mansion and that the witnesses are being called to come to the Mansion to spend the evening in hopes that some questions may be answered. The rumor being that poor Mr. Boddy has met his demise in an untimely manner. I would also send a letter written in a mysterious manner asking the invited guest to come and address it to them as if they were a character for the board game. Sealing it in red wax to make it more intriguing. Even though I did make it clear the girls were to come dressed up, some girls did not come too dressed. When they saw my daughter's bright red dress I picked up at a used clothing outlet for $4 and her feather boa, they wanted to dress up more. I had our dress up clothes on hand for such reasons and all the girls got into character once they were properly attired. I also came dressed up in a full length black gown and my own tasteful boa, also black. I was the hostess for the evening and my name was Mrs. Foreboding Black. Because all of our guests were girls my daughters age, I did not want to make three of them be men (referring to Professor Plum, Col. Mustard, and Mr. Green) Instead I recreated all characters making them relatives of the infamous six. My daughter was Ruby Scarlette. and there was Mrs. Olivia Collard Green, Honey Mustard the niece of Col. Mustard, Violetta Plum the displaced heiress to Professor Plum, and so on... I kept the names fun by having a relation to the color they stood for. I like to have a photo shoot at some time in my parties so I have some parts of the party to remember it by. I did group photos first off outside of our home with all the caution tape I put up blowing in the wind behind them. I had the girls poise looking mysterious, guilty, or as I put it, with the "you can't make me do my homework" look. In one group photo I asked the girls to point to someone who they think "did it". What was funny is they all pointed to Miss Violetta Plum and she just smiled and lifted her shoulders as if to say I don't know. It was a great photo. Then I did individual pictures of the girls. They looked great too hamming it up. DECORATIONS: I purchased Caution Tape from the local hardware store and had it all over the place, mimicking a police scene. I had it outside, across all windows, running down the hall and taping off access points to my kitchen. I lit incense to give the room a heavy (dusty) mysterious mood. (One incense wand was enough, any more and it would of been too much) I had the weapons scattered all over the house in the corresponding rooms they are supposed to be found in the game rules of CLUE. Beside each weapon was a stiff index card folded in half to look like a crime scene marker, numbered one through six. As the game only has six weapons. In the game the weapons are things I would not like to have the children handling, being kids as they are they would most certainly end up with someone getting hurt by the end of the evening if you let them manhandle a wrench or an actual dagger. So, I came up with some replacements. Lead pipe -> sawed off pool noodle (much better) Candle Stick -> flashlight (the kids had fun turning on the flashlight into the face of the one they suggested was the killer) Revolver -> Squirt Gun (no water in it!) Rope -> Skipping Rope Wrench -> Feather Duster (that was a fun one!) Dagger -> Toilet Paper roll holder (it has a spring in it that makes it plunge in a harmless manner) Since it was a Mystery Dinner as well I set the table with my darkest throw blanket I had with a rich lacy piece over top. I wanted things to look dark, old and full of rich textures as much as possible. In the center of the table I made it look like it was possible the table was used as a reading area and a place to collect unusual items. I piled the oldest books I had (without the glossy book cover almost any book immediately has an older feel to it) and on top of one stack I put an old silver coffee urn and below a tea caddy also in silver. The reason they were "old" is I left them tarnished. I put unusual things around this collection of books and silver. Necklaces, buttons, locks and keys (older style I had around the home) I put game pieces and old cards around too like they were scattered here and there. I had a couple of stones, a cork, two magnified glasses, and so on. I even hid among this display the pieces from the clue game itself. I put on old parchment paper a few notes in handwriting to not touch the display. I wanted them to look at it but not disturb it in any way. I used masking tape on the floor to divide up areas that did not have a distinct boundary to them so the kids knew the extent of a room for when they played the game. I also used masking tape to put a large X in the center of my Hallway to show where Mr. Boddy's body was found. The only other thing I did for decorations, As I did not have a Ballroom in my humble home, I put a lot of balls in the bathroom. The kids got the joke. OTHER PREPARATIONS: I purchased clipboards from the dollar store. I figured that they would need a way of keeping there stuff together and discreet. I printed off the brief history of Clue for everyone. The rules of the game for everyone. I made a special note pad for checking off clues to match my rooms, weapons and unusual guests. I also made a stiff top cover with the CLUE logo on it and saying "private PROPERTY OF and the name of one of our guests was below that. That way someone would not pick up the wrong clipboard. If at all possible it would help to buy clipboards that match the colors of the players. I stapled all the notes together keeping the cardstock cover on top and clipped it on each board. The reason I stapled each sheet is to prevent accidental spills of information and discourage peeking and cheating on others sheets. I made my own cards for our game because we just had different rooms and it would take too much time and effort to explain where the lounge was and what the conservatory was. I also made menus for the Mystery Dinner. The menus were made on old parchment type paper glued on a card stock to make it look more rich. They had items on them that were confusing to imagine what they were. Snakes tongue was a fork. Slippery Ropes was spaghetti, red wigglers was red Jell-O. I had a total of 9 items and that was including the dugout and mouthwash (spoon and napkin) on it. I also made order forms for a three course meal. three items to be chosen per course. They had to order everything on the menu, but they got to choose what order it came in. In doing this, I can tell you that it was helpful to put some masking tape up sticky side out in the kitchen to hang the orders on, somewhere at eye level where you can read, and to have some help in the kitchen. I hired a young male friend of my daughter to help out as a "cook and waiter" to the ladies. It so happens his name was James, and the girls paid more attention to calling him out to serve on them then anything else. The waiter for the evening wore a clean white T-shirt and kept a white folded napkin over his crooked arm with a white chef's apron tied around his waist. Without James' help, it could of been horrendous. Ideally it would of been great to have a couple of people for this then I could of been out video taping the girls harassing the waiter. As some did not order the fork or spoon until the third course it was also fodder for filmmaking to see them try and eat. I found the girls I had were very chatty and took their time eating. I would plan an hour to an hour and a half for this. Perhaps it would be different with boys. It would of been funnier to have taken away there plates with each course, but I was concerned about some of them actually eating, and just how many plates did I want to wash anyway? I used my best China and finest linen for napkins as paper plates and napkins would not do for Boddy Mansion. During dinner, I gave all the girls one card to pick from my hand. On the card they each choose was a "CLUE Quirk" What that was, was a character quirk they were to have,. Like one girl was to like the word like, like a lot! another had an imaginary friend she liked to talk to. and so on. This made for some hilarity and left poor James shaking his head. They traded off Quirks with each other and had much fun amusing each other!! Of course after the last course I got the table cleared from the meal and we brought out the cake. THE CAKE: I had the baker make a 1/2 slab of cake with a dark green top. On that I made a chalk (icing) outline of a body and put three wooden balls I painted to look like an 8 ball and two other billiard balls. (All the numbers symbolized something about her birthday). I also made a quick pool cue by sanding a piece of balsa wood. (took one minute to make - really!) and by the chalk outline I put the clue piece of the candlestick! The billiard room was just the easiest CLUE GAME room to make. (Total cost to making cake decorations was under $3.00 and took only minutes with most supplies already on hand) THE GAME: After the cake we got to the business of understanding the rules of CLUE. As some people have never even played the game. We drew straws, like in the movie CLUE, to see who goes first and then we were to simply follow the note taking sheet to find out who follows next. Other than a few adaptations to the game being played by real players with props and in an actual home, we played the game just like the board game. To make the game go faster, it is best, I found, to pair up the players, so they can share information and make decisions together. Also to let them move to any room they want to go to next. To move to another room they had to either roll a ball into a hole, answer a question based on the display on the table, or answer a question on the history of the game. If they did not get the answer right they could not move out of the room. As fate would have it, our villianesse of the evening DID turn out to be the dubious Miss Violetta Plum, with the feather duster in the living room. THE SLEEP OVER: The girls loved the game! But were ready for more when it was done. The girls who were staying got into comfy pj's and watched a short video (CLUE the movie would be a good movie in keeping with the theme). I hired a babysitter to stay with the girls as they were going into a vacant apartment above mine. I got permission to use for only the purpose of sleeping in. With there sleeping bags settled in they played planned games, such as Murder (or Mafia), and charades, and gave them all flashlights that matched there character color. I did not want them to get into scary stories, truth or dare, and the like. So I kept the program busy. This easily took them to midnight when the lights went out and the girls one by one fell asleep. In the morning I could not concentrate long enough to stop burning the pancakes in intended to make, so I piled the girls (still in our PJ's)into my wagon to McDonalds for breakfast. After, we watched the video taping I had done of the party. I was especially pleased with the way the video started. Our camera has a still shot feature and I made it look like the video could be part of forensic evidence, taking still shots of the weapons as my camera located them through the walk about in the home and outside. Then when the guests came there were the individual still shots of the 6 suspects as well. My daughter was very pleased with her party and the kids walked away with the flashlight we gave them at night, the clipboards they used and various props from the game. (Miss Plum got to keep the feather duster) They all especially wanted some of the caution tape to take home with them to put across there rooms when it becomes a personal disaster zone. Even the babysitter wanted in on that! One of the CLUE Quirks really took off. One girl was supposed to yell out Ole! whenever she heard the word CLUE. Well all the girls pitched in to help her and sang out OL- ay O-lay Olay olay ole in loud voice. They did this all evening. I wish I thought of that. But sometimes you just get to bump into fun ideas along the way. This is a mystery dinner theme that is fairly easy to put together and quite age appropriate for children ages 8 - 12.
