Officially a Teenager

Kari turned 13, and we had such a good time celebrating her birthday. Our friends, the Pates, shared their "escape room" birthday party idea with us, and we (mostly Greg) created our own scavenger hunt, clue-solving, puzzle working party. It was VERY involved and took hours of planning and preparation, but it was worth it!

Kari and seven of her friends had a baked potato bar lunch together at our house after church, and when they were finishing up, Greg sent a video message to Kari's phone (yes, we gave our 13-year-old an iphone for her birthday), which started the game. Here's his first "Spoonman" video: https://vimeo.com/195628779 and the second: https://vimeo.com/195629098
The video featured a green spoon with a face drawn on it and Greg talking in a funny voice. Spoonman and his spoon friends are excited to celebrate with Kari, but they get kidnapped by Lac- tose-intolerant (also voiced by Greg). Spoonman leaves clues for the girls to find him in order to enjoy their ice cream sundaes. The videos were hilarious and silly, and the girls loved them.

The last image of the first video was the girls' first clue. It was a self portrait of Kari, and on the back of it was a clue that led them to more of Kari's little kid artwork, hanging in the playroom. On the back of each one were the letter LEGOS, which was to lead them to look in the lego bins.

It took them a while to figure out what the letters spelled. One of the rules Greg instated was that only Kari was allowed to ask for a hint. She did finally ask for a hint. Inside the lego bins were tiny black lights. It took a little while for them to find the invisible ink message on the wall of the playroom, but they found it. That message helped them figure out why there were three different colors of solo cups all around the room (the number of cups of each color were the numbers needed for the combo lock on the suitcase).

Inside the suitcase were cipher wheels with another message to solve.

That message took them to Kari's room to look up a Bible verse.

In the Bible, Greg had placed another message that led them (eventually, with a hint) downstairs to the dining table where we had placed a word search puzzle with a hidden message and another clue in invisible ink on playing cards at each seat. The hidden message said "use blacklights," and they found the clues on the cards, which said to check the phone. Greg had sent the second Spoonman video, which led them to the garage with a riddle to solve that gave them a number for the second combination lock they hadn't opened yet.

Inside that locked suitcase was a pigpen cipher for them to decode. That message said, "Jump
And Bounce" which led them outside to the trampoline where Greg had placed yet another riddle/clue that they eventually figured out meant they needed to go out front to where the flag was (the words "you're a grand old flag" were interspersed in the message). Below the flag, they found a box with tiny compasses and a message with direction and number of steps.

The clues led them around the front yard and to the basketball hoop where Greg had placed a puzzle in a ziplock bag and a hint that they were to do the puzzle on the glass coffee table inside. They quickly figured out they had to use their blacklights again. We had written another clue on the back of the puzzle. It was funny when a couple of the girls decided to just lie on the ground and wait for the others to finish puzzle so they could see the message. That clue--"I have keys but do not open locks and have feet but do not need socks"-- led them easily to the piano that held the last clue, which took a lot longer to decipher and required a couple hints.

They eventually figured out they were supposed to look on Joel's bed, where they found Spoonman and his friends tied up together. They freed the spoons and went down for their ice cream sundaes. They'd earned them!

Greg's party plan--elaborate!

Kari has great friends. It was a joy to have them at our house. Looking forward to some good teenage years!