Last summer my youngest was turning 4 and he asked for a Scooby Doo Birthday party. For some reason it was really hard to find Scooby Doo anything just then. I managed to get the Shaggy and Scooby standing in front of the Mystery Machine from the bakery at the grocery store. If you ask them they will sell you just the decorations.
Since Scooby Doo was so hard to find we decided on a second part to the party theme. We had a Scooby Doo Safari party. This way we could decorate and plan party games around a safari theme.
First off Let me tell you about the cake. You can make a Mystery Machine cake by making your cake in loaf pans instead of cake pans. My van is really two loafs with one inverted on top of the other. I then sliced the end of the top loaf to make the angle for the wind shield. That is about all the altering I did with the cake. The loaf pans already had a slight angle to the ends.
My craft store has a cake decorating section. They carry gel food coloring sets. You can buy sets with 4 colors and they are marked “Scooby Doo”, “Spiderman” or some other popular theme. This is nice because it takes the guess work out of mixing colors.
Get out that trusty rolled fondant. This time I bought white fondant instead of the primary colors I used for the castle cake. I bought the fondant at the craft store as well. I used it for the windows, green side panels, tires and flowers.
I was able to find an image of the Mystery Machine on line by Googling “Mystery Machine pictures.” I actually printed out the one I wanted to use as a guide. I used the print out as a template. I had a nesting flower shaped cookie cutter that I used to cut out the flowers with. I also used the cutter to cut out the negative space out of the green side panels.
The tires are black fondant that I pressed into a lollypop mold. If the flowers were not on the wheels you would just be able to make out a happy face. To stick the fondant pieces together I simply dabbed water on the back side like glue.
The head lights are Shock Tarts candy.
For party games I had a series of clues that the kids had to decipher to find prizes. The first clue was a riddle. The kids had to figure out what object the riddle was talking about. In this case they had to go to the backpacks hanging by the front door. Inside were animal themed pencil cases with a pencil and a paper note pad. They needed these items to complete the next clue. I used a symbol font to write out a message. At the top of the message was the key for the symbols. The older kids had lots of fun figuring out this puzzle. It was another cryptic clue. This time it lead them outside to find their Outback hats. They needed the hats because the next part of the game took place outside.
The next clue lead them to some monster feet stilt stompers. The clue instructed them to have races and to just have fun. After the races the next clue instructed the kids to go inside for a snack and refreshments. My idea here was to keep the kids moving between inside and out. The party was in early June but still it is too hot to spend the whole time outside.
Inside we had a HUGE 4 foot Hoagie Sandwich and Eegees frozen fruit drink. This is a local thing here to Tucson. The best way to describe it is like a frozen fruit slushy drink. Sort of an Italian ice.
The monster stompers were the only thing the clues lead them to that they didn’t get to keep and take home.
Even my oldest son got in on the fun with the monster stompers. It was less of a competition and more of just a challenge of being able to walk across the grass and back.
Once everyone ate and had cooled off the next clue lead them back outside. The clue lead them to the flower garden and warned them about showers. I sprinkled them with the hose from my hiding spot. In the flowers the kids found magnifying glasses growing out of the ground.
They had to use the magnifying glasses to read ultra tiny text. I printed out a clue in the font size of 5. So small that you can’t read it with out the magnifying glass. This clue lead them to find compasses. The compasses were then used to find the final prize of mini flashlight key chains. All the prizes are something adventuring mystery solvers would need. They spent the day collecting items for their goodie bags.
Just for fun I printed out animal face masks. If you watch Scooby Doo then you may have seen an episode where all the animals they saw on safari were glowing. I outlined all the masks with yellow highlighter.
If you want to know where I found those great hats, head on over to Oriental Trading.com and search for “Outback Hat.” They were only about $2.00 a hat!
It is interesting to see just how the sisters and I differ in how we throw a party. You will notice for example that I make my own cakes. Anjeanette makes her own favors (that usually involve sewing). Rebecca makes her own decoration details. These are the things you will notice are the differences between us. The one thing we have in common with our parties is that we go for the gusto and have lots of fun. It must be great growing up having so much fun with your cousins.
Another great party post was my "World Explorer Party" post.
Be sure to come back all week long. We are going to party like it’s our Birthday!!! Psst…….. their Birthdays are coming up this month. Don’t tell them I told you but they are the old ladies of the group. ;p~~~
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3 comments:
What a great party! I think I've seen every episode of Scooby Doo. I'll be linking.
Your cake is amazing!
I guess this info is totally unique.
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