Mall Scavenger Hunt Party for Tweens

Well, the little girl cousins are now turning into tweens. It's a new thing and I'm getting used to their new ways and personalities; sometimes remarkably mature and delightful, sometimes worthy of a slap on the face, sometimes mutually embarrassing. It is what it is, and I'm ready to muddle through. Of course, there is really not much of a choice is there?

My sister, in her ultimate planning and party giving creativity, brought me in on the latest birthday party for her daughter (10 days older than mine, hence the cousin reference) Maddy. Having parties outside the house is ideal because there is no clean-up, and since the girls are all about Their Style, the mall is a perfect place to stage something fun with friends. Right? Well, yes and no. I'll be as brief as I can, but let me tell you that this party had it's share of drama and it was not the tween kind--it was the mama kind. Oh yes, read on...

Here are the invitations, which I thought turned out pretty nicely. I used one of my favorite hand-drawn fonts called Strangelove and created a tag that was tied around a t-shirt. The shirt was customized by printing the design (free printable at the bottom of this post) onto iron-on transfer material, which was then, you guessed it, ironed on to the shirts. The special invitation packages were dropped off to the guests via van taxi (ie. my sister's family child transport service). The shirts were to be worn to the party so we could keep track of the girls and so that they would feel like they were part of a gang...you know how girls love a posse.

The idea is that once gathered at the mall, the girls would be split into chaperoned teams and the first group back would win. Each chaperone had a card of tasks and items to find (sample below). The items were given points so that if there was a tie, then the points could break the tie. I have to say that I had some personal concerns about being a chaperone of a group of tweens. My recollection of girls at this age is not pretty. I thought I'd be breaking up fights, trying to council them off their emotional ledge or be thought of as (in the 80's language of my youth) "totally lame". I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed all the girls on my team. They were funny and spirited and eager to play the game together. They were so cute, I ended up writing down things they said like "Oh My God! I. Love. Lotion." and "Do you think this eye makeup makes me look like I was punched in the face?" While our team did not end up winning, I think everyone had a great time, including Auntie Margot.

Here's a pic of the back of the party shirt.

So, The Mama Drama story.
Apparently, we're not the first ones to think of this idea (shocking, I know) and so when we were gathering at the appointed mall location, we were also visited by the mall authorities. A mall cop and the unfriendly customer service woman told us in no uncertain terms, that scavenger hunts were not permitted at this mall. No. Hunts. Allowed. I'm pretty sure my sister (who worries herself about every possible detail of everything) about fainted. Before she lunged at the eyes of the poor 21 year old mall cop, I told him that it would be no problem and that we would just take the girls shopping instead. So we took our little group of girls shopping and if we happened to see things on our list, well, we just "made some notes" on our little card and carried onward. We did not do the fun singing stuff as to not attract attention. I'm sure the girls would have thought it fun, but getting kicked out of the mall is something that we thought should be saved for the later years at least. 11 is just too early for a public record. So, please, before you descend upon your local mall, call them first to make sure they allow this kind of thing.

If you would like to have a similar party, I now carry the printable files on my etsy store here.