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My kid wants a detective birthday! Today I'm sharing with you my party preparations and the decorations, party games & ideas for our detective party.
Like every year, our mini can choose a motto for this birthday. The choice quickly falls on the current favorite audio books: The Three Exclamation Marks! So it's going to be a detective party. Well then, let's go!
Birthday invitation for the detective birthday
Before the party can start, all guests must first be invited. That's why my kid and I made the invitations together. Do you know the logo for “The Three Exclamation Marks”? We recreated exactly this and stuck it onto folding card rolls. Quickly add the most important information and the invitation for the detective's birthday is ready.
Of course, this idea can be implemented just as quickly for an invitation to “The Three Question Marks”. If neither “The Three Question Marks” nor “The Three Exclamation Marks” are of interest to your child, a homemade magnifying glass is always very suitable! Of course there are also really cool invitations for detective birthdays in stores, I have linked a few great invitations for you*.
(*The links marked with an asterisk (*) are affiliate links. I can recommend suitable products that do not cost you more and I receive a small commission that helps me finance my blog. Thank you!)
Party decorations for the detective party
Since I know how much my kid loves “The Three Exclamation Marks”, I immediately searched the internet and saw if I could find any party decorations from the detective club. Spoiler: I found absolutely nothing. But plenty of “The Three Question Marks”. My kid and I quickly decided that we would make the party decorations just as colorful as the logo: colorful party tableware, colorful balloons, colorful rosettes... everything just beautifully colorful!
However, for a “classic” detective party, you can find tons of party decorations online (In this list I have put together some inspiration for your detective party).
Party food for little detectives
What's delicious on the party table? Of course, that's what makes detectives' hearts beat faster! ... but in any case a suitable birthday cake for the theme (I'm in my element 😉)
Birthday Cake
Inspired by my kids' audio book favorites, we are of course having a “The Three Exclamation Marks” cake for the detective party. You can find the recipe for our detective cake here.

Partysnacks
When it comes to party snacks, I always base it on what the birthday child likes. This means that, in addition to the birthday cake, there are also sweets on the table, and of course there are also lots of fruits (grapes, berries, etc.).
Party games for an exciting detective party
My kids are essentially interested in a party game and don't want to miss out on it and assure themselves several times that there will be a treasure hunt again this year. I think treasure hunts are great, they have many advantages that are important for me: the children are outside, moving, are busy for 1-1.5 hours, etc. Of course there are also some nice party games for the little ones.
Agent case (treasure hunt)
This year I mainly focused on the treasure hunt and tried to make it a little more exciting for the children. After all, they are little detectives this year! 😉 There are of course countless ways to hide treasure and send the children on the trail. Whether with chalk arrows, hidden dinosaur eggs, tasks to be completed or simply with the help of puzzles. In order to get the clues for the next station, the little detectives had to solve puzzles together this year.
Clue 1 – The Agent Letter
The doorbell rings as all the children are eating birthday cake and there is a small package in front of the door labeled “top secret”. The birthday child opens the package and in it it finds the agent's letter from Miss X with the 1st clue and magnifying glasses and detective ID for yourself and each birthday guest (The magnifying glasses and ID cards I used are linked here.) The treasure hunt can begin.

Clue 2 – Get your magnifying glass
At the birthday table, the children go looking for the next clue. You will find what you are looking for there after a few minutes. I hid the next clue under the plates. Each child has a line of a letter under their plate. I have numbered the sections and the children can now read them by number and find out the next clue. To make this a little more difficult, I printed the message in Arial 6 font size. The magnifying glasses are used with great enthusiasm!

Clue 3 - Let it pop!
The tiny plate message refers to something “unusual” behind the garden gate. The detectives quickly find the tree with “balloon fruits”. At first they are a bit perplexed in front of the balloons. Until a detective discovers that the balloons are filled with “something.” Now the children pop the balloons and each finds a piece of paper in the balloon. All but one are filled with a piece of paper with sayings like “No clue”, “You won’t find the package!”,…. However, a balloon contains the clue. This consists of the answer sheet for a cipher. The children quickly realize that they have already seen the characters on the cipher paper today...

Clue 4 – Secret writing
...and you recognize the secret signs as the ones you saw in front of our front door today when you rang the doorbell. The word that they have to decipher using the answer sheet reveals the hiding place of the next clue.

Clue 5 - Puzzle
The little detectives found an envelope with a small puzzle under the table tennis table. When they put this together, they were able to read the message and discover the next clue. I wrote the letter entirely in small letters, except for the letters that form the solution word, which were written in large letters. The solution word gave the location where they can find the next clue.

Clue 6 – Let the stones speak
The detectives first had to find out at the new clue location what was different than usual or what looked like a clue. After a few minutes, a detective realized that there was a letter painted on a stone in the stone bed. All the detectives then went looking for stones with letters painted on them and found them. After they have arranged the stones in the correct order, they recognize the new clue location. After a long, intensive search, they found the lost package. This package includes a small snack bag plus a secret pen* for each child.

Party games
Of course there are tons of party games. The classics are still popular with us. Hitting the pot, “picking cherries”, trip to Jerusalem, stop dance, newspaper dance, etc.
When the weather is good, we also like to play catch and hide outside or do chalk painting.
“Murder in the Dark Disco” and “Zinkermurder” are also thematically appropriate party games for the detective party.
Party bag bags for little detectives
Opinions about party favor bags are known to vary widely. I'm trying to take the famous middle path here. The little bags are always the “treasure” of the treasure hunt on our birthdays and contain 2-3 sweets and a little something such as a pen, glitter tattoos or, for the current detective party, a secret code pen. For the detective party, it is a good idea to give the detective ID cards and magnifying glasses to the little guests as party bags. This was really well received by our little detectives!
More tips & ideas for your detective party
There are great cases for detective parties that are already prepared*. They contain the essential materials you need to solve the case. I find the idea really practical if there is little time available for preparation.
It's also a fun idea to invite the children dressed as detectives. Most kids really enjoy dressing up and this is definitely an extra bit of fun!
I have prepared a list of a few products as inspiration that I find very suitable for a detective party - both for the party and as a gift for the birthday child*.
I'm happy if I could give you some inspiration for your mini's detective party. I wish you and the minis a lot of fun and an exciting case for your birthday! 😉
Yours, Lia
Have you baked the recipe?
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