Wanda Witch

First off: You probably *were* invited. We hand delivered invites, mailed some and then e-mailed some, so I apologize if you felt slighted, but I promise, you were on the list!!! I'm pretty sure I ended up in a few people's spam filter. I definitely learned a lesson, but it's hard when you're throwing an ANONYMOUS Halloween party to ask people if they got their invite.

Secondly: What the heck is Wanda Witch? My friend Sarah called me about a month ago to see if I would be interested in throwing a Halloween party. It's sort of an Amazing Race style party where you follow rhyming clues all over the place and finally end up at the party. See here for more info: meckmom.com. I'm SO glad she asked me to host it with her because I LOVE this sort of thing and I had way too much fun.
We spent a month coming up with fun locations that are sort of spooky at night, rhyming clues, invites, even set up an anonymous e-mail account for RSVPs and communicating with our guests, setting up teams, trying to accuse other people of throwing the party as to avoid suspicion, running away from friends at Target when we were out buying cauldrons, bats and other such supplies, rhyming my heart out, and finally hiding the clues (thanks Sarah and Steve for doing the hard part all by yourself since Dustin was on a plane home from St. Louis).

Friday night an e-mail went out at 6 pm letting everyone know the starting point for the game: Tumbleweed Park. My team (the blue team) met at Casey and Scott (our team leaders) house before we headed over for some treats. Yes, the team bonding made our team that much awesomer! When we drove down to the park it was so fun to see all the cars starting to arrive and people scoping the other teams out (part of the fun is you don't even know who else is invited). We had 36 people playing and I was impressed with how many teams dressed in their colors even.

The starting clue directed people to meet at a bridge and "look up" meaning the next clues directing everyone to their cauldrons was in the trees. People were climbing trees and taking off -- the competitiveness was evident from the get go. The worst part was that I *knew* exactly where everyone's cauldrons were, but I had to act like I had no clue, so Dustin and I took off in the complete opposite direction.

Some of the stops along the way:
*Barnes and Noble where you had to find a book with your clue. Casey reading our next clue.

*We found this little archway down by the San Marcos Hotel and the clue was in between two palm trees on the other side.
*El Zocolo where Dustin had to take a shot of spicy salsa

* The Janda's backyard -- they had NO clue. I had talked Kyle into hiding the clues floating in their pool. She even called her kids multiple times and I'm so proud that they acted clueless.
* The Train Museum. That place is so spooky and deserted at night plus it had a huge ditch to hide the clues in so people had to climb down. So sorry for the poor team that thought the clue directed them to a port-a-potty.

* The field by our house where we hid pumpkins

* Canyon Oaks park where we ran into 2 other teams all digging for one clue which directed us up along the canal.(Brenda -- I think your camera lens needs some cleaning!)

I think I lost my pants a few times hopping in and out of the back of the van. Also, despite the fact that I knew there would be running and mud, I still wore flip flops.
*And the final clue had the house number for Sarah's house where my team arrived #1!! GO BLUE!
Some of the party-goers. It was so fun to hear about how they figured things out, or where they got lost. . . but a huge bummer for the few clues that were misplaced :( Sorry guys. I definitely learned a few things for next year.
Just realized that there were a lot of shaved-head guys at this party.
The green team was our biggest competition. Unfortunately they smack-talked the witches a little too much before the party so their cauldron and pumpkin were a little bit harder to find than everyone else's.
Susan deserves an award for being pregnant and running around all over Chandler.
Sweet white team. One of the clues talks about "2nd from the end and South ten paces, looking down into wide open spaces. . ." It meant the 2nd parking stall, but they went with the second train and I guess a port-a-potty was ten paces South. Poor Michelle had to go in and look into "wide open spaces."
Orange team was definitely competitive, their book wasn't there and the manager that swore she would get them their clue was missing :(


I had so much fun and I'm already excited to do it again next year. We ARE doing it again, right Sarah?? That gives me 365 days to scope out even less-known places with harder to figure out clues! Of course everyone will know it's us so we'll have to spice it up some. The website has some fun ideas.

I will need a good few months before I can rhyme again! Thanks everyone who played. You made it so fun!

Side note: Today is officially the start of my 30 days till 30. I was stressing out all week about what I was going to do on the first day but instead I decided that the BIG event for today would be: RECOVER! Between Dustin being out of town all week, swine flu, strep throat, 4 kids at home 24 hours a day in quarantine, throwing a Halloween party, prepping my craft for Super Saturday, soccer, two birthday parties plus Dustin and Nate's birthdays and Halloween next week, this almost-30 year old body needed to lay low today.