Thursday, November 09, 2017

Vintage Nancy Drew Birthday Party!


We celebrated Emily turning 13 last weekend with a Nancy Drew party! She has enjoyed reading all the original books and we had a few vintage books which sort of started the whole idea!

After sending out the invites, a friend mentioned seeing an article in the October issue of Country Living that included ideas for hosting a Nancy Drew Halloween party. I did use the idea making the footprints on the cake from the article!

Ok, here are all the fun party details!







Let's talk about the cake! I made a basic white cake {can't find the online recipe anymore!} and frosted with white homemade frosting. I used the template from Country Living for the footprints. One footprint just was giving me fits but alas, that is how footprints are right?!

I photocopied the Nancy Drew silhouette from inside one of the vintage books we have and cut it out of black paper. Ok, I cut about fifteen of them out! You'll see them later!

Then I made a little bunting {bunting makes everything happier doesn't it?!} for the top which just really finished it off for me. I used some Nancy Drew stationery I had gotten at a thrift store to make the bunting.





Goodie bags!
Flashlights
Magnifying Glasses
Invisible Ink spy pens {price was lower when I ordered} The pens were a bit of a splurge but since I really didn't need to buy much else, they made a fun addition and the girls really enjoyed them!
Notebooks: I had found a pad of this fold and mail Nancy Drew stationery at a thrift store years ago for maybe $1 and still had most of it. Those were the invites and also made into covers for the notebooks that I folded paper and tied together.

The bags were wax bags that I've had for a while and I used the Nancy Drew silhouettes and some mini clothespins to personalize.


Decor: most of this was things we already had on hand. I pulled out a vintage suitcase, old looking clock, typewriter, cameras and Nancy Drew books! I did make a book page garland out of photocopied book pages and a paper chain from some photocopied text pages. Didn't buy anything for decor!























David suggested making a garland of photos of Emily during her 13 years so he printed out photos and I cut them out and hung them! So cute!




Now, let's talk games!

One of my favorite party games growing up was called Kim's Game. The idea was that there was a tray of items and you could look at it for a couple of minutes. Then it would be covered up and you would write down as many things as you could think of. We played twice and there were obviously 13 items each time and I tried to make them mystery related! {note: the revolver is not real but a training item!}



Next we played a candy guessing game. I had crushed up six varieties of candy and the girls had to guess which was which. They were allowed to taste, touch, smell, look, etc... and I gave them a list of all the candies {like a word bank} but not in the correct order - if you want to guess also, the options were M&M's, Butterfinger, Hershey bar, Kit Kat, Whoppers and Snickers.


We figured out a secret code, I wrote out a message and found a code on page 29 of the Secret of Red Gate Farm so they had to look up the code and figure it out!



We completed a Mad Libs together! Then we had cake and sang to Emily before diving in to a game of Clue!







 

The girls shared gifts with Emily and she gave out their favor bags which led to fun with the invisible ink pens! We had planned to look at fingerprints as well but ran out of time! It was a lot of fun!

Budget:
Flashlights: $6.72/12 {we will use the rest in our shoeboxes}
Magnifying Glasses: $5.61/12 {same about extras}
Invisible Ink Pens: $14/12 {same with extras}
Paper plates/napkins: $7 {kind of pricey but I wanted Emily to pick them out}
Candles, decor, tablecloths, games, etc. were all things we already had on hand
Total spent: $33.33

Thanks for following along with this fun party and for all of the sweet birthday wishes for Emily!

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12 comments:

Tina Leigh said...

What a wonderful birthday celebration! Emily, Happy Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Debbie Fisher (debbiedee) said...

what a fun party idea! I would have loved this when I was 13. I have read every Nancy Drew book. Thank you for sharing your Emily's party with us.

Unknown said...

oh my goodness... I loved Nancy Drew books! I wish I was at this party! It sounds like so much fun!

Suzy

Out My window said...

I loved Nancy Drew as a kid. White gloves and all. What a cute party idea!

*carrie* said...

That turned out so great! Love how all your ideas came together. The Kim's Game items are just perfect for the theme. Good job!

Anonymous said...

Adorable party!! And of course, you are SO creative to make all those things. I'd like to think I had a small part in it, because you used my vintage Nancy Drew book!! Love it all!
Emily, I can't believe you're a teenager, now. I'm SO proud of you!! So glad you had a fun birthday! Can't wait to see you in Dec. Love you ALL,Grandma/Nana

Pam said...

WOW!!!! Everything is beautiful and perfect! And I cannot believe the budget! Very well done, mama.

Shelby said...

You are simply the best. That's all I have to say. Every party you ROCK it. The budget and all. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Birthday Emily!!! LoVe the party!!! So cool!!! ~tammy

Mom said...

Oh.My.Word - this is ADORABLE! Love the decorations, games, everything!! Well done :)

Ginger said...

Oh, memories! I still have some of my Nancy Drew books, and when I was a teenager, on Sunday nights Nancy Drew Mysteries rotated with the Hardy Boys. I have their books, too. I loved!!! these books and shows.

Brenda said...

Such fun details!!!! Love this!!!!