National Treasure -12yr- Cipher the Code

My mom ALWAYS comes to this site to figure out my next party.  She comes up with GREAT ideas by combining items from several parties into one.  This year's party was based on the movie National Treasure.  Since I was turning 12, I really just wanted to go to the mall for my party.  Mom said that was fine but the whole time she was planning this big elaborate thing at the Mall.  On the morning of my birthday, Mom said that we had to run errands at the Mall. 

When we got there my best friend was there and so was my sister's best friend.  They didn't know we were there for a party because Mom had tricked them too.  Their Moms told them they had to run errands to.  So, we were all confused and didn't really know what we were doing there.  At that point, Mom gave us all pink bags and told us to go into the bathrooms to put the gift on.  We went to the bathroom and opened the gifts and in each was a HOT PINK shirt with the word TREASURE on it.  Our friends shirts' said TREASURE? Like it was a question. 

My sister's shirt said, TREASURE. Like it was a fact. And my shirt said TREASURE! Like I was shouting it.  We also each had a word typed on a piece of paper.  When we came back out of the bathroom, Mom had us pose for a picture so that we read like a sentence, Treasure?  Treasure. Treasure? Treasure!"  Then she told us to take our clues and make them into a sentence. 

We had the following words:  LIES    SECRET    THE     WITH.   It took us a while but we figured out that it was the secret from the National Treasure movie Mom gave us an envelope that was marked CLUE #1.  In the envelope was the following clue THE SECRET LIES WITH CHARLOTTE YOU SAY GO TO THE STORE WITH THAT NAME AND YOU'LL BE ON YOUR WAY. 

So now we had to find a store in the Mall that had the word Charlotte in it.  We knew it was Charlotte Russe but we didn't know where that store was so we had to find a map.  We finally found it and headed that way.  When we got to Charlotte Russe Mom said we had to ask the clerk if there was a package for Tiahnna. 

She gave us a pink wrapped present with CLUE #2 on the front.  I opened the package and it was a cute pink satin shirt from Charlotte Russe. COOL!  Now on to CLUE #2 SAILING THE SEAS MAY BE WHAT THIS MEANS BUT IT'S REALLY FOR YOUNG KIDS WHO LIKE TO WEAR JEANS.   The words SAILING and YOUNG were in black letters and the rest were in pink so we knew those were the keys to the clue.  We figured out that the store was OLD NAVY and we took off for that store.  I had to ask for a package for Tiahnna again and I got another pink package. 

I opened that one and it was a blue long sleeve shirt from my Aunt Sara.  It had clue #3 on the front of the package.  CLUE #3 said LESS IS MORE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY A NEW PAIR OF THESE MAY JUST MAKE MY DAY!  The words LESS and PAIR were in black letters.  We figured out that it meant PAYLESS and we took off running for that store. 

I asked for a package and I got 2 huge boxes with CLUE #4 on them.  I opened the packages and I got two pairs of shoes from my Grandma J.  One cool pair of black patent leather shoes and one brown pair of clogs.  CLUE #4 said STUFF FROM HERE IS FOR LIPS EARS OR LOCKS MY MOM CALLS IT JUNK BUT I THINK IT ROCKS.  I knew right away that the store was Claire's because my Mom is always complaining about the junk I buy there.  Claire's was on the WAY other side of the mall so this time we just walked rather than running - we were getting tired.  Once we were at Claire's I asked for a package for Tiahnna and they brought out a big BLACK gift bag and 3 small PINK gift bags.  The small bags were for my friends and sister.  They each got a cool pink mechanical pencil an emory board and a huge Green Apple Jolly Rancher Lipgloss.  In my bag was a Cheetah shoe cell phone holder from my sister the same 3 things my friends got from my Mom a silver watch from my Grandma J. a make-up case with make-up from my Grandma J. and two butterfly picture holders from my Grandma J.. 

This was the JACKPOT and I thought for sure we were done but inside was CLUE #5.  CLUE #5 said IS THE WORD GREEK OR DANISH OR DUTCH I DON'T KNOW BUT THESE COOL CLOTHES AERO WARM WHEN OUT IN THE SNOW.  I figured it out because Mom spelt ARE wrong on purpose so that it was AERO like AEROPOSTALE.  We went over to AERO and I asked for my packages.  There were 2 of them wrapped in pink.  I opened them and they were a pair of skinny jeans and a cool brown sweater from my Grandma E. 

Then there was another clue.  CLUE #6 said SMELLING GOOD IS IMPORTANT WHEN YOU'RE ALMOST A TEEN BODY SPRINTZ AND BATH SPRAY IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?  Body and Bath were in black and my best friend yelled out BATH & BODY WORKS.  That store was right beside AERO so we didn't have very far to go.  I asked the clerk for my package and I opened it up to find a package of 4 lipgloss samples and a bottle of Sweet Pea body spray from my aunt Jaci.  There was a letter with this package. 

We opened the letter and read the following:  NEW SHIRTS SHOES JEANS PERFUME - WHAT MORE COULD A GIRL ASK FOR? PERHAPS THE ICING ON THE CAKE WOULD BE A RIDDLE FOR YOU TO EXPLORE.  WRITE DOWN THE NAMES OF ALL 6 STORES YOU WENT TO ON YOUR JOURNEY. WRITE THEM IN THE ORDER YOU VISITED THEM DON'T BE IN TOO BIG OF A HURRY.  AFTER YOU HAVE WRITTEN THEM DOWN YOU MUST FIND THE RIGHT LETTERS FROM EACH. AND THEN YOU HAVE TO UNSCRAMBLE THEM TO MAKE THE RIDDLE COMPLETE.  REMEMBER THE "CIPHER" FROM NATIONAL TREASURE?  IT IS YOUR FINAL CLUE. THE STORE THEN THE WORD THEN THE LETTER LET'S SEE IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO?  11 9  *** 22 1  *** 22 4  *** 31 6  *** 41 7  *** 51 4  *** 61 1  *** 64 1  ***  

My sister and I are HUGE National Treasure fans and so we knew that the CIPHER was the code that they found on the back of the Declaration of Independence.  It was used to look at the Silence Dogood letters to get a riddle for the next clue.  So we had to do the same thing only with the names of the stores.  We wrote down all six stores and then used the CIPHER to figure out our letters.  The letters were E N Y S S O B W.  Then we wrote each letter on a separate piece of paper and we started to work out the puzzle.  It was kind of hard and it took us awhile but we finally figured out that it spelled NEWSBOYS! 

Once we figured out that clue Mom gave me a key with the locker number 95 - which was the year that I was born.  We ran over to the mall lockers and unlocked locker 95.  Inside was a pink purse from Charlotte Russe - it matched my shirt.  I opended the purse and inside it were 5 tickets to the NEWSBOYS concert that night at 7:00 pm!!!!  It was the BIG TREASURE!!  All of us were JUMPING UP AND DOWN - we must have looked absolutely NUTS!  So then Mom explained that the pink shirt jeans black shoes & pink purse were for me to wear to the concert.  Along with whatever make-up I wanted to put on.  She also explained that everyone was going to the concert and they were going to sleepover after the concert was over!!  HOW TOTALLY COOL WAS THAT! 

We had about 3 hours before the concert so Mom took us back to our house and we spent the afternoon reliving our Treasure hunt.  We had pizza and cake before the concert and then we went to see the NEWSBOYS.  It was crazy and we screamed and jumped and had the time of our life.  The concert would have been enough for me but my Mom always has to go physco overboard and I love it!!  My Dad thinks she's crazy that she has to make everything so elaborate but she says that we'll never forget our parties and I think she's right. 

**NOTE FROM MOM - This party was great because I was able to get everyone in the family to help pay for the gifts so it really didn't cost me very much out of my own pocket (other than the concert tickets - those were kind of spendy).  It took a lot of coordination to pull off buying items from particular stores so that we could make sure we had all of the letters for the last part of the puzzle.  But we only ended up buying a shirt and purse at Charlotte Russe the $5.00 gift packs for each kid and the $3.00 T-shirts from Hobby Lobby.  Relatives kicked in the rest and were glad to so that they didn't have to do the shopping for the Pre-teen.  She ended up with 2 whole outfits a bunch of 'junk' and concert tickets.  Not bad for a day's work."