Mall Scavenger Hunt

THEME:
My daughter went to a friend's party last year that was really fun and creative. All the guests met at the birthday girl's house then were driven to the local mall. They divided into two teams of about 5 girls each and an adult. Each team was then given $20.00 to spend to help purchase the items on their list.

INVITATIONS:
It would be really cute to do the invitations like a credit card and put it in a little paper purse.
This one is an SVG cutting file from the digiplayground.com website. But there are tons of other ways to do paper purses. Just do a search on Google or Pinterest.

ACTIVITIES:
The Lists (this is what my daughter can remember, but there were 20 items on each list.)
Find...
...a candy that doesn't break.
...something that dangles.
...something that bounces that isn't a ball.
...something that smells like fruit.
...socks that have purple and orange on them, but not red or yellow.
...something brown with pink polka-dots.
...something furry.
...something red.
...something Christmasy.
...something you could use for school.

A single item could fit multiple categories. So they went to the candy store and explained that they were on a scavenger hunt and needed to find a candy that couldn't break. The girl working there gave them a bag of multiple candies (for free) that they started throwing on the floor. One of the candies didn't break, and also bounced, so they got to cross 2 items off the list!

My daughter's group had a hard time finding something brown with pink polka-dots, but the other group had someone put pink sprinkles on a chocolate cupcake. My daughter and her friends had a blast acting silly, and got really creative.

FAVORS:
Each girl got a Symphony bar and a bottle of candy-smelling lotion. Then they put all the items they got in the scavenger hunt into a pile and the girls took turns picking items until they were all gone.
Some of the items they found: Webkinz (they were buy 1 get 1 free), candy, cookies, silly putty, lip gloss, socks, jewelry, charms, hair accessories, notebooks, and lots of food items.

CAKE:
At this party they served ice cream between chocolate chip cookies. But I was thinking, how cute would it be to have this purse cake from Wilton or one like it! Just do a Google image search.
We found some other fun scavenger hunt party ideas on Birthday Party Ideas in their teen party section. You could also do one by taking photos instead of purchasing items. This is a great party for pre-teens and teens, or a boy/girl party. It's also a great theme during months when it's not good weather outdoors.