For my daughter's 7th birthday party, we decided to have a detective party. Upon arrival each girl received a gift bag which included the following items: notepad, pen, dectective badge with their name on it, a magnifying glass and a disguise of sunglasses and a baseball cap.  After all the girls arrived, we watched a couple of Mary Kate and Ashley detective movies to learn how to be a good detective.  After the movies the girls went through their bags and put on their disguises and official badges. Next the "crime" was explained to them and their objective of finding the clues to lead them to the missing jewels and who stole them.   The clues were placed ahead of time.   Clues leading to the next hiding spot were written on note cards, example look for clue #2 in the place where you wash clothes.  The girls had a great time running from room to room and yes, even outside.  In the corner of the note cards was either a letter or picture/item.  Of course all the clues, pictures and letters were very small and required the use of the magnifying glass. After all the clues were found, the girls had to sit down and use their notebooks to spell out the word from the corner of the note cards.  They also had to piece together the pictures and items in the note card corners to reveal who took the jewels. After spelling out the word, in our case was "shoebox" the girls looked in there and found two smaller boxes. Each box had a picture of the "suspect".  The girls needed to pick the correct box before looking inside. Inside each box was a small felt bag with a necklace and bracelet for each girl.   After cake, the girls made fingerprints, handprints and footprints with washable paint. The girls still talk about how much fun they had and what wonderful gift bags they took home.