The Cluedo Party - Part 1

To be honest, I was a bit worried about how this party was going to work. Especially when we were looking down the barrel of cold, wet weather.

My eldest had his mind set on some sort of Murder Mystery Party, and we borrowed a board game for one from a friend... but it seemed like too much for 12 year olds.

So we settled on Cluedo.

We designed the invitations based on actual Cluedo cards. These are the actuals -

 

And this is the front and back of the invitation - 

Then did up our game cards. J got photos of all 16 of his guests to make cards for them, and decided on 16 motives and 16 weapons (including a pineapple and an octopus).

When they arrived, the 'Butler' told them all how it was going to work and gave them all one card and their Clue sheets.

Then they all played four games, with the winners getting more cards. They were encouraged to form alliances (although one boy came and asked me what an 'alliance' actually was - obviously not a Biggest Loser or Survivor watcher), but not to show their cards to just anyone.

They started with a general trivia game -

And then there was a game involving throwing tennis balls at a hanging piece of dampened pita bread (which I thought was going to be stupid, but it was possibly the standout game),

And the classic donut game -

And they finished with a "Guess this tune" music trivia game (and a spontaneous rendition of "Hey There Delilah" which was terrific).

After that, they all had to write their guesses for Murderer, Weapon and Motive on a piece of paper, and amazingly there was only one winner, who got to take home the cardboard trophy.

And then the three hours were up, and parents started arriving! And it had been a fantastic party.

The kids themselves were terrific though, and they all took the game very seriously (but oh, the NOISE! Their fun was deafening). We certainly couldn't have done it if the 'Butler' hadn't actually been a real-life teacher, used to dealing with huge bunches of kids. So, amazingly, it ended up going very well.

I'll do another post to talk about the food and how it ended up being a total NO BAKE party.

Hope these ideas help someone else at party time!