At about six or seven, your child will start to want slumber parties for just about every event. Any excuse to have a bunch of their friends over to watch movies and eat popcorn will suffice. A lot of us have done the typical slumber party, but what happens when you want to add a twist to the old ritual?
Last week, we had a going away party for my two older children, and invited fifteen of their friends to come and spend the night. I thought about just having everybody over and doing the same old thing, but here’s what we did instead.
We had a kidnapping party. I received permission from all the moms and told them it was a surprise. Not even my children knew about it. We would come to their homes, “kidnap” their kids, and take them out.
I had each parent be in charge of a clue, a piece of paper with one word written on it, that I had given them. The first clue read, “You”. The second clue read, “Are” The third clue read, “Off to”. The fourth clue read, “Have some”. The fifth clue read, “Fun”. It went on from there, and when it was all finished, and they could put the clues together, it read, “You are off to have some fun, it’s a TP party.” (I’ll get to the TP part in a minute).
The parents were instructed to have their child in their PJ’s, and have hidden a sleeping bag and an overnight bag with a roll of toilet paper in it. I made “ransom notes” and on it I put cut outs from a magazine that spelled out, “Your child is being kidnapped. To insure the safe return of your child, deposit a clue in the hand of the kidnappers and allow your child a fun night out!”.
Because I have older kids, they are bugging me all the time about tp’ing. I received permission from our school secretary (thanks Linda!) to come and TP her house and “get caught”.
I told my children just before I was getting ready to leave the house that we were off for a night of adventure and mystery and that we would need help to get us along on our mission. I read them a riddle about the fact that we would be doing the kidnapping and they would have to receive a clue at each stop. We went out (I had to force my daughter out the door, she thought we were doing something illegal!) and picked up all their friends, got the clues and went off to TP.
They did get caught after about 10 minutes of decorating, and after a few laughs and some pictures, we returned back to my house for root beer floats, popcorn and a movie. It was a great twist on the old slumber party idea, and the kids loved it. They will surely talk about it for years to come!