Boomer-Whitz

Hidden in plain sight was never so much fun.

What do you get when you cross the childhood favorite games of I Spy and Hide and Seek?  A fun and fast paced birthday party game called: Boomer-Whitz! This game is great even for the youngest party goers, and encompasses age groups right on up to the Tweens.

Items needed and pre- party preparation

All you need to play Boomer-whitz is an object to hide.  This makes it fun for themed birthday parties.  If you are having dinosaur parties hide a toy dino, or a bone. For Princesses hide a doll, crown or ring.  The possibilities are endless.  The only suggestion is that the object you choose be small.  Any object that could fit in the palm of your hand is small enough. 

Appropriate ages for play

Any child over the age of three can play Boomer-whitz.  Even very young children with short attention spans can play. 

If your party includes a wide age range of children it could be frustrating for the littlest players is all age groups play together.  To avoid frustration it is easy enough to divide the players into similar age groups, and use a different object for each group.  That way the younger children have their own object to find and the older children can be as tricky as they want when they hide theirs. 

Object of play and general instructions

The object of the Boomer-whitz is very straight forward.  The premise of the game is for one person to hide an object in plain sight, and then the other players find it. There are only two rules.  One: The object being hidden must be in plain sight.  Two: When the toy is found the finder calls out ‘boomer-whitz’. 

Show each player the object that they will be looking for and select a child to be the first hider.  The other players go into another room while the hider secrets the toy.  When it comes to hiding anything goes, but at least part of the toy must be showing.  Younger players might need help with this concept.  Have an adult help the youngest hiders.   If you are divided into age groups for this game the hider from the older playing group could also help.

Once the toy is properly hidden bring the other players back to search.  When a player finds the toy they call out ‘boomer-whitz’ and they become the hider.

Variations

Instead of having the children hide the objects select several objects yourself and hide them.  Show the children a picture or the object or an identical object so they know what they are looking for.  This is a good way to adapt the game for very young children. It does require a little more preparation on your part.  You’ll need to select and hide the objects as well as saving an example object. 

One idea to cut down the pre-party leg work is to use the party favors as the objects you hide.  Then each child can keep the one they find.