…even though I only have boys in my life. 

I’m very okay with my lot in life because I think my four little boys (and their daddy) are THE BEST.  I wouldn’t trade in all of my sons’ frog catching, noise making, light saber fighting, tooting loudly at the table and laughing because it must have broken the world’s record for something tooty boyness for all the pink and lace in the world.  

But sometimes…it’s fun to hear about what it’s like to live with all girls.  My friend Tonya has four little girls…all very close in age to my boys.  We find it fun to compare notes on life.  When I heard her talking about the birthday party she was planning for her oldest daughter Bailey, I thought it sounded like SUCH a fun party, and I wanted to hear more.  So she agreed to write a guest post for me so that you could all enjoy hearing about this exciting event that I will never, ever be able to participate in with one of my sons: 

A Shopping Mall Scavenger Hunt Birthday Party

Here’s Tonya describing her fun party for Bailey:

Bailey wanted a birthday party that she could invite a lot of friends to.  I of course, waited till the very last minute to come up with an idea.  I have always wanted to try and do something at the mall and my sister-in-law had done a mall birthday party when her daughter was younger too.  She told me about a scavenger hunt that she did.  I also just googled scavenger hunts online and there happen to be a mall one online as well.  So I took what I learned from both sources and made one that worked for me.

First, we made the guest list.  Bailey had 15 friends that she wanted to invite.  For some people this would not be an issue but since we live an hour away from the mall, that meant that I would need to search for enough car space and I would need to allow for enough drive time both ways.  I really didn’t think I would have too much of a problem with the whole car space thing because I thought that it would be unlikely for all of the girls who were invited to be able to come.  (By the way, they all came.)  

 I made the invitations myself.  I just typed them up on the computer.  I used a cute font and color and printed them off.  I folded them in a trifold and sealed them with a sticker that I just had on hand.  The invitation explained that it would be a scavenger hunt, I would provide dinner and bring money in case we had time to shop.

I prepared a list of things to “hunt”.  I decided to do mostly pictures. Some of the things they had to take pictures of were the entire team wearing hats and posing in their best gangster look, entire team modeling formal attire, one team member kissing a manequin, entire team modeling sunglasses, purses, one team member posing in a window like a mannequin and entire team posing in childrens’ ride, to name a few.  I also gave each team $5 to buy an accessory from a store of their choice and they had to think about what the birthday girl would like (the item ended up being a gift for Bailey).

We left about 3pm on a Saturday.  We decorated three vehicles with paint for the windows.  It said stuff like, “Honk it is my birthday” and  “Honk it is Bailey’s 12th Birthday!”  I had snacks and water bottles in each of the cars since it would be an hour drive and we were going to do the scavenger hunt first.  The girls really talked non stop the whole way.  I had thought about some games we could do on the drive but it was not necessary.  Go figure!

When we got to the mall, I divided the girls up into three teams.   I did give a few rules like, don’t run, listen to a store associate if he asks you not to take pictures, make sure that all team members get turns in the photographs and if the entire team needs to be in the picture, then have someone else take the picture. I handed them their lists and a digital camera along with a $5 bill and off they went.  This is the part that was really fun and surprisingly, relaxing.  My husband Tim and I, along with two of my friends who were helping me with the party and driving, walked and shopped through the mall for the next hour while the girls were scavenging.  It was great.  We would run into them once in awhile and they appeared to be having a great time.

We met back at the food court.  I had them leave their cameras with me.  I gave each girl a five dollar bill to go and get their supper while I downloaded the pictures to my lap top.  As the girls ate, they watched a slide show of the “hunt”.  They went off for a bit to do some shopping and then we met back at the food court to eat big birthday cookies that I had made earlier that day (cookies the size of a pizza pan) and for the opening of the presents.  After a little more shopping (boy those girls could shop!), we left for home.

We were gone for a total of 5 hours (remember that is about 2 hours of driving time).  We had a wonderful time.  The guests went on and on about what a great time they had.  The parents have commented on how much their girls loved it too.  It was a huge success!

To top the party off, I used my Windows Movie Maker to make a video of the pictures I had put on my computer.  I used some of Bailey’s favorite songs in it and at the end I put a “Thank you for coming to my party” page.  I put the movie on DVDs and made envelopes out of cardstock so that Bailey could give those to her friends for thank you notes.
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Thanks Tonya, for letting me live vicariously through you just this once!   Doesn’t that party sound like so much fun? 

The amount of money it took to feed the girls dinner did add up (fifteen girls, Bailey?)  :)  But aside from that, I thought that the scavenger hunt at the mall was a great idea for an inexpensive birthday party that included a lot of kids.  And that’s why I wanted to share it for Frugal Friday. 

Now, if you’d like to read about the kind of birthday parties we get to have with our family you can read about them here and here.  They include absolutely nothing about shopping, or accessories, or cute invitations with sticker seals.  They do however include things about toots and stink.  Read them at your own risk…

Last weekend I asked what your favorite places to shop are…and so many of you talked about how you get great deals and great stuff at Goodwill stores and other second hand stores.  I have SO not had that kind of experience. 

I rarely go to second hand stores because I feel like I have to pick through tons and tons of clothes to even find one piece of clothing that I might consider trying on…and then it rarely fits well. 

And sometimes the prices at second hand stores don’t really impress me very much.  I’d rather go to a store with a great clearance sale and buy a brand new article of clothing if I’m going to pay the same price for something used.

And, well…it seems that these second hand stores, at least the ones I’ve been in…well…they are sporting this unpleasant…kind of a stale…just sort of subtle yet prominent…okay…I’ll just say it.  They stink.  They smell bad.  

So, what am I missing here?  Some of you seem to have the gift of second hand clothing shopping.  I’ve seen you and your cute, trendy outfits…that you got for a great deal at the Goodwill store with the tags still on and all of that. 

Help me out.  (Keep in mind that we receive so many hand-me-downs for the boys that I practically never have to buy them anything.  This is mostly in regard to adult clothes.) Do you like to shop at second hand stores?  What have you found to be successful ways of finding great clothes and great deals there?   
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Read more Frugal Friday tips here.