Scavenger Hunt -11yr- Foam Fourtune Cookies

For my 11th birthday I wanted to go to the Mall for my birthday party. A clerk at Claires in our small mall told us about scavenger hunt parties at the mall where she used to live.  Our mini mall doesn't have any clothes stores for children, so the next closest mall is 35 minutes from us. There is no food court, so we decided to go to Koto's, a Japanese Restaurant with hibachi's at your table, for lunch.  Since we were only inviting a few people, we called each of them to make sure they could go with us. 

Before they arrived Mom and I made fortune cookies out of craft foam.  It was really easy, but the glue took a long time to dry.  You cut a circle out of the craft foam, do a soft fold and glue where your fingers are pinching across the fold.  While pinching that side, put your other finger and thumb on the other ends and gently bend the craft foam back to resemble a fortune cookie.  Add a drop of glue where the two sides pinch together.  We used a clothes pin to keep it pinched shut while the glue dried overnight.  Definitely, use craft foam glue.  

I took different color gift bags and wrote the girls' names on the bag and attached ribbon at the handle. Mom rolled a twenty dollar bill in pretty scrapbook paper and placed it sticking out of the fortune cookie, and put  in the take-out box.  She also typed up a scroll about what we were going to do at the mall, and rolled that into the pretty scrapbook paper. Then we put both things in the gift bags for each of my friends and me. 

The idea was that we were going to fill our own party bags.   Parent's dropped my three friends off at our home at 11:00 am and we drove to Kotos in Burlington.  We had our own table and watched the chef cook for us on the grill in front of us. I openned my gifts from my friends there, and Mom took digital photos of us.  When we were done, Mom handed out the party bags with the $20 and the scroll.   

The Scroll read:  Mary's 11th Birthday Celebration  Let's go to the Mall And have a Ball  Actually, let's get a ball, A teensy, weensy ball.  The trick is to not throw your money at the wall.  At Limited Too, get styling and Take a photo by the Stall  At a different stop, top off your top and take a photo of y'all  Gap Kids, get something on sale. Say, maybe something from the Fall  At Claires, Earrings or anything  you desire, that is really, really small. 

Stand by a painting in the hall and Take a photo of y'all  Have Fun, but Take a moment Use Mary's phone to make a Call  Visit the Bookstore and  Buy a Tale.  One that is tall  Our Extra money goes for a treat  from Ben & Jerry's, cone or "waffall"  Let's Have a Ball!  Mom said we could go in any order we wanted or could follow the order of the scroll, but that we had to stay together and of course she would be with us.  We did not have to buy all the same things and we didn't. 

The hardest part was finding a small ball. We thought superball, but the mall didn't have a toy store and noone carried a superball.  So when we saw a chocolate shop, a few of us said Chocolate ball. And another friend thought Gumball.  Little problem, the candy stand couldn't make change for our four twenties, so across the Mall we went again to Filene's Department store, wher we had to go to customer service to get change.  They were very nice and going back and forth through the mall made it an adventure.  

Note: Stores like Limited too, don't like photo's taken in their store, just in case we were design theives.    Be ready to change plans from the scroll.  Gap Kids didn't have their usual good selection of really sale items, so we crossed the mall to Old Navy where they had lots of stuff.  I got fleece pants for $3.99. Everyone got cool things.  We all had enough money for Ben & Jerry's and since mine was free for my birthday, I got to go to another store to spend it.    My friends all said they had a great time.  I did too.