We had no invitations for Heidi’s party, because that would take planning sooner than a week in advance.  I’m just flying by the seat of my pants right now.  So we called, facebooked, and texted the guests. The mother’s were very sweet about it.

Heidi’s friend from home school that she rarely sees now that she goes to school came over and spent the night.  The day before they baked lemon cupcakes from a box, then frosted them with homemade butter cream tinted pale turquoise.  They weren’t prefect, but they looked nearly so after using Tip Junkie’s free printables.

My glass cake plate was too small to hold all the cupcakes, so I topped it with a silver charger (From Dollar tree at Christmas time.) Just right :).

Then in the morning, she and Heidi cleaned the whole house and decorated for the party. I helped, but those girls were amazing.

The food table had chocolate covered pretzels (from Aldi); Walnuts in the shell (with clues inside); fortune cookies (homemade by my mama with clues inside); sweet potato chips (Heidi’s favorite); party nuts; chocolate filled wafer straws; and Krispy Creme Classic Doughnuts (Not pictured.  But I put them in my trifle bowl to serve.)

The punch was Strawberry Limeaid with frozen strawberries and fresh lime slices floating in it.

I made it by mixing the 3 bottles below (from Aldi.)  It was surprisingly delicious! 

And the girls loved drinking it out of my best stemware.  (I totally forgot to buy cups for the party.  Big win–saved money and made the girls happy.)

For party gifts, I bought canvas bags at Hobby Lobby.  They were $8 for 4 and then were 30% off.  Heidi and her friend picked out ribbons from  my stash and I sewed them on to spiff them up a little.

Inside the bags were tools the girls would need to solve the clues in the mystery.  They included:  detective kits (some had red decoders in them and some had invisible ink pens.); slide whistles for security, compact mirrors for reverse image code or sneaking around corners; steno pads; gel pens; and mini magnifying glasses.   Everything was from Dollar Tree.  I didn’t snap a picture of the stuff, but I’ll see if Heidi still has hers semi together and can snap a picture later.

The girls didn’t all know each other even though they all knew Heidi.  So we started with introductions.  And then played a warm up game to get their detective brains warmed up.  They had 1 minute to look at the tray and then write down everything they could remember.  One girl got them all! If I had been super clever,  I would have had a prize for her….poor girl.

Then the treaure hunt began with this old letter I “found in my attic” while cleaning around New Year’s time.  My mother made it look old with Roasted Barley Drink.  I’ll tell more about the clues and the treasure tomorrow.

After the treasure hunt we opened Gifts.  Heidi got some cute shirts from her cousin; several gift cards to Barnes and Noble; and Hobby Lobby.  A set of adventure books from her church friend; and an art pastel set from the friend who remembered all the items on the tray. And a journal and sharpe set too.

Her friend that spent the night knitted her a ruffle scarf and one for her doll.  Super stylish!

Her Dad and I got her 1 gift. (I meant to sew her a bathrobe…but found the fabric this morning still in the shipping box–MAMA FAIL!)  So the 1 gift from us was a CELL PHONE!  She is super excited and she has already started texting, lol.  I’m glad I’ll be able to contact her now at her dance lessons and after school.