Police Party -5yr- Crime Scene Tape

At practically the last minute (three weeks before), my five-year-old stepson decided he no longer wanted a sports party, but instead wanted a police party. Since I hadn't invested much in the original theme, I set out to see how much I could do with this he definitely tested my creativity and this website was a blessing in the planning stages! 

Invitations: At my local scrapbook supply store, I bought badge shaped die-cuts in yellow. They were probably about 4 or so. On them I printed Calling all officers! Chief (birthday boy's name) needs your assistance in keeping the streets safe. There has been a breach of security and the chief needs helping catching the perpetrator and reclaiming the stolen money. I glued the badge to one side of a blue cardstock square. Then I printed Roll call is at 1400 hours (date of party) Headquarters Address: (location of party) Please call the chiefs assistants (parents names) at (phone number) to let them know if you will be reporting to duty on a square of yellow cardstock and placed in on the back of the blue cardstock. I added police stickers at the bottom (by Frances Meyer). I got tons of compliments on the invites! You can actually see it at http://scrap-addict.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=69&password=&sort=1& cat=502&page=2  

Favors: This is where I really lucked up! I contacted our city police department and they sent me pencils, erasers, coloring pages, and badge stickers. My husband hooked up with the Sheriffs Office and got fingerprint cards, coloring books, badge stickers, plastic badges, and bags. From the dollar store I bought police sets. Obviously, each one was only $1 and included a police mask, whistle, badge, and binoculars.

They actually had several different sets that were police related so I let the birthday boy choose which he wanted everyone to have. Before I got the bags from the police department, I was planning on using plain yellow bags (purchased at Wal-Mart) and letting the kids decorate them with stickers and markers. So, that’s an option if you don't end up with free bags! 

Activities: On my computer, I created a wanted posted. I did WANTED at the top in block letters. I left the center open and typed your photo here. Along the sides of the spot for the picture, I put police clip art. At the bottom I left blanks for name, alias, height, weight, eye color, and hair color. I printed it all in black and white so the kids could color. I borrowed a Polaroid camera to take their pictures. You could also use a digital camera if you had someone that could print them out during the party. I decided this was too much of a hassle I made a poster with white poster board and black paint to look like the backdrop of a mug shot (with the height markings). The kids stood in front of it to have their picture taken (I told them to make mean faces pretty funny).

The kids had NO interest in coloring. They only wanted to play. So basically we just glued their picture on the wanted poster and sent it home blank in the goodie bags. I also had the fingerprint cards out with a washable stamp pad and baby wipes. A few kids did this, but not all. The biggest hit was the robbery. Before the party we hid play money all throughout the yard (I believe I got this idea from this very website). We told the kids they had to recover the stolen money and they could keep what they found. They thought that was pretty neat.  

Decorations: I had practically NO luck finding actual police stuff to purchase. The only thing I did find was part of a Rescue Team set at www.birthdaydirect.com. The small dessert plates have a police car on them and they also sell the mylar balloon, both of which I used. And I bought the confetti. For bigger plates, napkins, cups, tableclothes, streamers, etc. I just used solid blue and white. I used blue and yellow balloons, in addition to the mylar balloon.

I also got some crime scene tape, which I used both inside the house, out front, and in the backyard. I painted a blue poster that said police headquarters and hung it on the front door. My husband is in law enforcement and even he had trouble getting the crime scene tape with his connections. If you can't get the real thing, caution tape would work just as well. One thing that I wanted to do and just ran out of time, was to have the birthday boy lay out front in the driveway and trace his body in chalk a few times. I thought that would be a neat extra for people to see as they are walking to the front door.

For the cake, I took the police car plate to the bakery and had them use that as a guide. It came out really cute.  Last, but not least, we had a police officer show up. He let the kids get in the back of his car. He did the blue lights and the sirens, which the kids loved. He was very nice and even came in and stayed for a while with us.   I haven't done thank you notes yet and I'm trying to decide if I want to take a police approach to those or just go generic. I'm thinking something like Chief (birthday boy) would like to thank you for your assistance in keeping the streets a safer place. Your contribution of (gift here) is greatly appreciated and has been put to good use here at the headquarters. Oh, and I'm definitely going to send a thank you note to the police officer that came by, and probably the people at the PD and SO that helped out as well.