Mysterious Success

I'm pretty sure  the big Mystery party was a success when you wear a few 11-12 year old girls out to the point that one dad commented his daughter went straight to bed when we dropped her off at home (around 6PM) and didn't get up again till the next morning!  The girls were patient with my lack of forthcoming on the next location and tended to be pretty satisfied after each adventure.  What follows is a stop-by-stop recap of the day.

The Party Girls

To begin, organizing this mystery party was a bit of a timing challenge for my family.  My husband works all but Wednesday and Sunday and we have church activities and family time on Sunday.  So what day exactly do I take a bunch of girls around town without bringing my younger two children?  Well, the Friday after Halloween of course!  School was out for teacher work day which meant the after school program was in - and that is where you send the younger two!  The girls suspected the party was happening either that day or Saturday, but my daughter was a bit confused on what I was going to do with her siblings.  Surprise!

The Official Packing List

7:30am - Wake up! It's party time.  The guessing was already brewing before we left the house.  I sent my daughter to shower and she assumed I went to get the other girls for the party.  When she got out she couldn't find me and later told me that she thought I was hiding somewhere in the house with the other girls.  I was getting dressed at the time, but of course mom's just magically appear ready to go in the morning!
8:00am - The younger two siblings were dropped off at school for their own day of fun on a field trip to a dinner theater (for lunch).  They didn't even know they were going there until I woke them up that morning and there was no disappointment that they weren't going on the birthday adventure.  They were having an adventure of their own!
8:15am - Two friends have been picked up from their homes with their bags packed.  (Earlier in the week my daughter delivered the lists to the friends with a 'top secret' itinerary for their parents.)  Everyone was handed a pink tiara to wear for the day and the birthday girl had a birthday sash.

8:30am - Breakfast at Toast.  We all learned that Toast serves yummy food in generous portions.  I also was starting to realize that I'm a bit spoiled with my kids who eat anything.  More would unfold about that come lunch time.

The Girls at the Littleton Museum

A few Littleton Museum Residents

9:30am - Photo shoot at the Littleton Museum.  The girls were less then enthused when they got out of the car at a museum.  "Really mom?" I believe I heard.  That attitude didn't last long as we spent over an hour touring the 1860s and 1890s farms.
 The girls didn't realize we were on an outdoor adventure!

Mom in the cellar

(Um, hello.  I was wearing a winter hat for this one since it was in the upper 30s.  Why would I do that for an indoor museum?  And pictures at a museum - who allows that?  Well, not inside the buildings I was told but outside was a-okay.)  When we walked into the museum, the volunteer ladies at the front desk thought the girls were dressed for Halloween a day late.  I informed them it was a birthday party and the girls had been assigned to bring a silly prop to wear when taking photos.  While the girls did take some pictures of each other, the first thing they did when we headed outside was play with a resident cat, Tiger, and take pictures of it.  Apparently tweens are infatuated with cats as I had to beg them to actually consider looking at the

farm...eventually.  We finally got to walking around and the next funny thing happened.  My daughter decided she was going to take pictures of all the animal's butts.  Yep.  We can now pick out a pig, some sheep, and a male peacock from the backside.  The girls were surprised of how much time had passed by when we finally got ready to leave for the next stop.

11:15am - Second photo shoot of the day at the Denver Botanical Garden at Chatfield.  Now, it was free day and I figured why not.  I couldn't quite comprehend what there was to see at a garden in late fall that on an ordinary day people would pay for.  Of course we get there and sure enough, it's basically another farm.  My daughter, again, wasn't pleased.  But we had some time to kill before lunch, so we stuck around.  Turns out they found ways to enjoy themselves from the play area to - you guessed it - butt pictures with the goats. 

They got some head shots in, too.  It was also fun seeing the workers preparing for the Christmas light show while we were there.

At the Botanical Gardens Playground

Riding the saddle 

12 noon - Lunchtime at Texas Roadhouse.  Texas Roadhouse isn't typically open for lunch, but on this particular day they were doing a fundraiser for Colorado Supports Our Troops.  Basically, you get a free pulled-pork sandwich lunch and all donations go to the cause.  My family had been to one of these before and we love that they do these things, not to mention it being my daughter's (and mine) favorite restaurant.  Who can resist those rolls?  Well, speaking of resisting here's where my next food observation kicks in.  It turns out one of the girls was a vegetarian and the other didn't like pork.  Oops.  Didn't see that one coming.  I tried to coax them into eating some of it (I can't help it - my kids eat everything!) and then said if they were still hungry later I would get them something to make up for the lunch.

1pm - Time for a special gift and goodie bags!  I had pre-arranged storing a wrapped present with the manager at Timbuk Toys, so that was our next stop.  I told our guests that they each had $5 to choose whatever they wanted for their goodie bag.  That was so exciting to them!  I also had a $5 gift card, making it even more exciting for me.  When the manager spotted us, she brought out my daughter's gift and wished her a happy birthday.  My daughter was so funny because she was having the darnedest time guessing what was in the box - even though it was the number one thing she had asked for!  Before opening the gift, we had to make another stop.
1:30pm - Birthday ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery.  Each girl was able to choose what they wanted and of course everyone's eyes were bigger than their stomachs!  Normally, I wouldn't allow them to get more than they would probably eat, but I had a coupon (of course!) and, well, it was a birthday party afterall!  Oh, and our vegetarian turned out to also not like ice cream, but she was satisfied with frozen yogurt.

Present time!

2pm - Once they were full we carried the leftovers with us to the nearby park, stopping by the car for the girls' presents first.  There we opened presents and my daughter found out that her mystery present was a Razor scooter that she wanted.  The girls got to play for a little while at the park and ride on the scooter before we made a pit stop at home to put ice cream in the freezer and head to the next stop.


2:45pm - Swimming at Southridge Rec Center.  The girls spotted some boys from school right away when we got there and seemed a bit anxious to go swimming with the boys there.  (sigh...pre-teens)  They ended up hanging out together as a group and had a blast in the pool.  I even got in - guess they're still young enough to want me around for the fun.
4:15pm - Before swimming, the girls were given the option to choose the final destination.  Either bowling or some mall fun.  They choose mall fun.  A third friend was there waiting for us as she had school that day and was just now joining us as a surprise.  We started off at the American Girl Store to look around. No one wanted to do the free craft, but they all enjoyed looking at the dolls and figuring out which ones looked most like my daughter.  Our mall adventure continued onto Lush followed by a tour of the food court (one of the girl's ideas for the free samples - great idea!), some cookies, and finally a look at the puppies at the pet store.  The girls were pretty beat by this time and we were ready to call it a day.

6pm - All girls were dropped off at home and my other two kids picked up from school.  You would think the party ended there, but of course my daughter had another party to attend that night for a sleepover.  I didn't see her again until after noon the next day when we were getting ready for a neighborhood block party.

Overall, the party ran incredibly smooth.  There were mostly smiles throughout the day and one girl fell asleep on the way home.  I might have spent a total of $100 including two meals, snacks, and goodies which I don't think was bad for a day long adventure for 4-5 people.  My daughter seemed very satisfied with her party and didn't end up missing out on the sleepover she wanted after all!  Of course, the rest of the family also slept pretty well that evening, too.