Well, we all survived the Nancy Drew Mystery Birthday Sleepover. No tears and no trips to the Emergency Room.

We decided that the secret to the party would be in having a series of clues that the girls had to decipher in the dark. Each had a flashlight or headlamp and scurried around the house looking for clues. Bill and I discussed the clues in advance and of course we couldn’t just write them up. Bill had to design a logo for the activity and print up little cards for each girl to fill in. “Do we get to keep them?” they asked with great excitement. The little sleuths carried pencils and clipboards filling in each puzzle as they solved it.

The clues involved adding the street numbers together and going out into the driveway to copy down license plate numbers and add them together to come up with the Secret Number that had to be whispered to get the next clue. You get the idea. For the clue shown below, the girls had to stick their hands in a bucket of ice water to fish out individual letters that when unscrambled spelled “pillow.”

Sticking their hands in a bucket of ice water in the dark made quite an impression on them and added to the mysteriousness of it all.

Once they solved all of the mysteries they discovered the embroidered pillowcases in the fort they had built earlier in the evening.

When the girls woke up the next morning we served Amy of Momadvice.com’s Sweet Little Piggy Pancakes with blueberries added. At 47 years old, I still enjoy playing with my food.

The party was such a good reminder of how you don’t need much money to throw a really memorable party. Just maybe a willing spirit and a little planning.