The CSI: Love Edition Date

written by Tara

last updated on

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Solve a Crime With the One You Love
Pretty much any night of the week you can find a crime show on TV. As entertaining as it is to see actors solve a crime… we think it’s a LOT more fun to solve one yourself! Get a group together (or just you and your sweetie) and join the case of CSI: Love Edition! This whole idea was inspired by a group date I went on to the CSI Experience in Las Vegas. I have never really watched the show so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Holy hannah! It was a BLAST!! THIS was the inspiration behind creating my OWN “CSI” adventure date so that my friends {…and all of YOU} could have the same experience without having to pay the big bucks! 🙂
CSI-Inspired Date Night
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Being a teacher definitely comes with perks! We may not get paid enough, but getting free things here and there helps to “soften” the financial blow. {WINK} Nevada teachers were given the opportunity to go thru one session of The CSI Experience in downtown Las Vegas for free & we took them up on that offer!
CSI date inspiration

We were given the choice of three possible crime scenes to examine and solve. We chose the most interesting one – a car that had driven through the living room of a house.

The CSI experience that inspired the date.

The driver was pronounced dead but there were some fishy things about the crime scene, there were bloody hand prints on the driver’s door, some bloody footprints, some blood on the couch, and a dent in the hood of the car… that could or could not have been made by a human body.  It definitely looked like the driver had gotten out of the car, yet he was still sitting in it!?!

After examining the crime scene, we were directed to mini-labs in which we would do “tests” which slowly got us closer and closer to solving the crime. We examined the footprints, questioned possible suspects, examined the DNA evidence, learned about “blood splatter”, and much more!
A detective date with the CSI experience.
After the date, Jamie & I were amazed at how much fun we had!  I would never want to be a real detective – I don’t think I could handle all of the horrible things they have to see but I sure enjoyed trying to piece together what events led up to the {pretend} crime as well as how and why things happened. Jamie & I talked about how we could recreate this date for our friends for FREE! All we needed was a crime scene…
OK, so I just have to say that I couldn’t have pulled this off without my SWEET husband!  He kept coming up with the best ideas! At one point while trying to figure out “whodunnit” we had our cute puppy as the criminal and we were going to leave evidence like half of a doggy treat at the crime scene. Haha!! We were cracking ourselves up trying to think of what the crime was and who did it. 🙂 Thanks to my husband’s inspirational ideas I finally came up with a “fun” crime! 🙂 We had Joanna of Cutify Creative put our idea to paper with her PERFECT printables!
First, the invite!  I always like a little suspense!  Even though my husband knew we were going to do a CSI date, I left this in his car the morning of…
Invite your sweetie to a CSI date night.

I sent the invite to a few of our friends and we planned to have a homemade Cafe Rio night. We tried the recipe that Lisa M. recommended, you can find it here. I assigned all of the girls something to bring. Since this was the first time any of us had made this we laughed when every girl showed up saying that she didn’t think her part turned out! 🙂 It turned out tasting delicious anyway.

I tried to make this date as easy as possible and used items we had around the house. I already did the hard part and created the entire crime & all of the handouts. {WINK} Here is a list of all of the things you will need to gather for your date:
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Prepping for this was pretty easy and quite fun!  🙂
Take your confidential envelopes and start solving the CSI Love Edition crime.
1. First, gather all of your materials.
2. Print off the free downloads below, cut everything apart, and adhere all of the labels to your envelopes.
3. Take the shoe that supposedly belongs to the criminal, paint the bottom with washable paint, and carefully “stamp” it on the Footprint Analysis paper. If you use washable paint, and you are quick, it will wash right off the bottom of the shoe.  (HINT: When you are finished washing the paint off, if you are anything like me, you will have gotten the shoe wet in the process.  If your date takes place shortly, then you won’t want a wet shoe for everyone to examine.  Just swap it out for the other half of the pair.)
A date night focused around CSI!
4.  Place all of the suspect statements, the handwriting samples, the fingerprint analysis, and the “Whodunnit?” paper into their correct folders.
CSI Love Edition date night comes with a crime all ready to solve!
5. Place the strips labeled “Owner of Shoe” into four shoes, with the word “Owner” sticking out. Make SURE that the strip that says, “Lois Price” on it is stuck into the shoe that stamped onto the Footprint Analysis paper.
Shoe print analysis for a CSI date night.
6. Cut apart the “Crack The Case” cards & place them in a jar along with pencils or pens.
7. OPTIONAL: Download the “Sticky Fingers” Activity & place the Student Worksheet in the CSI Training Folders – 1 per person. I had couples share a folder.  Also, place balloons in the folders.

(HINT: I would also use a stamp pad when doing your own fingerprints.  The “pencil trick” doesn’t work that great.  Just read the instructions on that paper and you will see what I am talking about.)

CSI Date Night Victim
8. Create your crime scene, or in other words, place the victim & his injury (washable red paint or construction paper) preferably where your guests & spouse will see it first.  🙂

We have a great group of friends that are always game to go on our crazy group dates with us.  When they showed up, they were greeted by the actual crime scene!!  Everyone loved it and it was the perfect way to kick off the evening.

Solve a crime with the CSI date night!

Poor Jack Tupp had been killed!!

Great start to a fun date. 🙂 After eating our yummy homemade Cafe Rio Pork Salad, we got down to biz-ness!

Hand out the “Sticky Fingers” activity to warm up your detective skills!

(Include balloons & pencils!)

This is an activity I found online for teachers to do with their students.  I found it SO fascinating, how different every fingerprint is, that I thought it would be neat for the couples to take their own prints to see what they look like.  You basically place your fingerprints on a balloon, using ink, and then blow it up to see an enlarged version of your prints!  THEN, each couple tries to solve a crime that happened at a local bakery, at which fingerprints were left behind.  It’s pretty interesting.  This part is totally optional!  You can do this to get everyone “warmed up” to solve the real crime or skip right to the action!  🙂

When your group is ready to start the actual solving of the crime…

Group date night in

Read aloud the “Crime Scene” & the bios of the Possible Suspects. (This is on the first page of the download.) Then – get the “Suspect Statement” envelope & hand out the statements to different people to read. The people in our group were HILARIOUS when reading those statements! Cute Lynsie started it off with a funny accent that cracked us up and then after that everyone changed their voice up in some way. Anjuli was last and I loved her expression when we told her that she had to do an accent as well.

CSI group date night in

I then pulled out the Crime Scene Evidence Envelope & everyone looked at that stuff. {You will need those items for the rest of the investigation.} We continued on, going through the different envelopes, checking out the evidence and talking about it each step of the way. I would suggest doing it in this order:

#1 – Suspect Statements
#2 – Handwriting Analysis
#3 – Fingerprint Analysis
#4 – Footprint Analysis
(This should be the most obvious…so save it for last!)

Since you will know who did it as well as all the details, you can slightly “prod” everyone else and make sure they are on the right track, by asking questions, pointing out details they may have missed, or suggesting they go back and look at certain things.

After the LAST analysis is finished, hand out the “Crack the Case” slips, have everyone fill theirs out, and then read aloud the paper in the “Whodunnit?” envelope.

CSI date night where you crack the case.

NOW, this can be a group date OR a date with just you and your spouse.  Whatever floats your boat!  🙂  You could then end the night by watching the classic movie – CLUE!!  🙂

We also have our very own Murder Mystery Party in the store that is a TON of fun! I also found a few other websites that had CSI-related things on them. They looked interesting, but I didn’t play any of them so if they don’t “pan out”… lemme just say they aren’t officially “Tara-Approved!” 😉

CSI Odds & Ends

  • I found an extremely creative KID’S murder mystery party HERE!
  • A bunch of educational & fun CSI activities HERE.
  • Another crime you can download & solve… about a mortgage company & shredded documents….click HERE!
  • A virtual crime you can solve… I am not sure if the entire thing is free or just the first “session”. Go HERE!
  • BBC Radio Murder Mysteries (You download the clues/papers that go with it and listen to the play… and then figure out who the killer was.)

That should give you enough ideas/references to put together a FUN and memorable CSI night with your sweetheart! 🙂

Free Download

CSI Love Edition

Click to Download
Printables Designed by Janna @ Cutify Creative Exclusively for The Dating Divas

Tara

I am an outgoing and fun-lovin’ gal who was lucky enough to marry the man of my dreams! You could probably say I am an “extreme extrovert” as I LOVE to talk and be around people! I love ANYTHING creative and am not a fan of the “norm.” My favorite things in life are my family… especially my HOT husband, my friends, and my faith! After a long infertility journey, we brought two miracle babies into this world via IVF and then a SURPRISE bundle of joy recently decided to join us. I have a passion for life and I am having a BLAST running this website with some of my closest friends. Life just keeps getting better and better!

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Recent Comments

  1. I just did this with a group of Girl Scouts and they loved it! Thank you for making this available for others to use

    Reply

  3. I’m trying to download the files on the 4Shared website. I cannot figure out how to do it without them forcing me to purchase the Premium option to download the Zip file. I’m pretty computer savvy, but I’ve spent over an hour trying to figure it out. It’s quite frustrating. Can you help me or just send me the files? Thanks!

    Reply

  5. Hello,
    I love your idea and would love to try it out one evening it sound’s like it will be perfect to entertain friends. I have tried a number of times and ways to download the document but have been unsuccessful. Please
    could you be so kind to email a copy of the documents via the email address I have provided. Thank you, charlotte

    Reply

  6. Hello,
    I love your idea and would love to try it out one evening it sound’s like it will be perfect to entertain friends. I have tried a number of times and ways to download the document but have been unsuccessful. Please could you be so kind to email a copy of the documents via the email address I have provided. Thank you, charlotte

    Reply

  7. Hi Tara,

    I think this looks amazing well done you. Again I cant download any of the forms other than the invitation would you be so kind to pls forward me them.

    Many thanks in advance

    Charlotte

    Reply

  8. Hi Tara
    This is such a cool idea. I want to use it for my daughters birthday. Shes turning 16 and is in Science Olympiad and her and her friends love the crime buster events. So I thought this would be a great idea but it will not download any of the files. Do you think you could email me the copies at the e-mail address I provided? Thank You for posting this idea and your time and effort.

    Reply

  10. The link for the CSI printable download isn’t working for me. If someone could email the files I would SUPER DUPER appreciate it! I was planning to do this in two days!! 😀 Thank you, thank you!

    Reply

    1. I still havent received anything from you guys, is it possible to mail it or dont you have the file anymore?

      Regards Riana

      Reply

      1. Hey Riana! I just tried it & it’s still working in the post. 😉 We don’t mail them out anymore as we fixed the link. The file is SO huge that instead of uploading them to our website, we uploaded it to another site – 4shared. They’ve changed a few things so you’ll need to sign up for their free version & then you can easily download the zipped file. Good luck!

        Oh – and you should be able to download the invite to this date straight from our website. Have fun! XOXO

        Reply

  12. Hi Tara,
    Like you, I am a teacher, and I was thinking about doing something like this in my classroom. I love the idea and I can think of MANY reading strategies that it would fit! Would you mind if I downloaded and modified your materials to work for 7th graders? I am having trouble getting the materials because the page that the download link sends me to seems to want me to sign up for an account, so if you don’t mind my using them in my classroom, could you also email them to me? Thanks. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hey Erin! You’re a teacher? Me too!! You can definitely modify my materials for your classroom as long as you don’t share them with anyone else. We actually don’t mail them out anymore as we fixed the link. The file is SO huge that instead of uploading them to our website, we uploaded it to another site – 4shared. They’ve changed a few things so you’ll need to sign up for their free version & then you can easily download the zipped file. Don’t worry – it doesn’t charge you anything & it’s actually a fabulous service! Good luck!

      Reply

  13. Hi there, I am new to your site and been browsing. I’d love to see the downloads.I been trying everything to download them but it doesn’t seem to be working still. Thanks so much. Angela

    Reply

    1. Hi Angela! I just tried all of the links and they worked just fine for me. 🙂 The CSI Invite will open up as a PDF file and the other files are grouped together. Click on the link and it will take you to another page. You will need to click the blue “download now” button, wait for around 30 seconds and then it should download. Good luck!

      XOXO

      Reply

  15. Hey Tara! I want to do this game on Saturday! Looks like a blast could you send me the downloads too? That would be amazing if you could! Love the blog, thanks for all the fun ideas!

    Reply

  17. LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS IDEA! Thank you so much IO am excited to start planning our group date night. Can you email me the CSI Downloads? I am unable to download those files. THANK YOU AGAIN! Can’t wait for your next couples night posting 🙂

    Reply

  19. Would love a copy of the file if you would be so kind as to send it to me. Actually going to do this as a family game/date night with the whole brood. Looks like so much fun!
    Thanks!

    Reply

  20. Hi! This looks like a lot of fun and you did an amazing job with it all. Could you send me the file as well? I’d love to throw a little CSI party for my friends 🙂

    Reply

  21. Hi Tara. My wife is excited about hosting a party like this, but like all the others we are having trouble downloading it. Would you please send me a copy of it? Thanks.

    Reply

  22. Hi Tara, this is such a great idea and I love it! Thank you for putting all of this together, as I’m sure it took quite a while! I was thinking about doing this with a group of couples soon:) I’m also having trouble with downloading the file. Do you think you could do me a HUGE favor and send me a copy of this? I would really appreciat it:) Thanks!!!

    Reply

  23. Hey, this looks like a lot of fun! We just moved and I thought this might be a good way to get to know some people. Could you email me the file? Thanks!

    Reply

  24. Hi! This looks like an awesome couples night! Unfortunately, the only file I can get to open is the invitation (which looks AMAZING). The handouts link comes back with this error “The file link that you requested is not valid.” I would love to have them if you find time to fix the link 🙂

    Reply

  25. I would love the handouts as Monthly Date nights are going to be our christmas gifts to each other and this is great. Please try to upload them again or feel free to email me.

    Reply

  26. Hi Tara,

    Thanks for taking the time to get the printables online for us! For some reason I still can’t download it. Maybe it’s too big to upload/download. I’m still hoping we can get it to work, but understand if it wont’t.

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  27. I love this idea!!! I just discovered this website and I LOVE it! I was trying to download the files for the crime and the handouts and I couldn’t download it. An error came up that said “The file link you requested is not valid.” Am I doing something wrong? Or is there a problem with the link? Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Hey Melissa!

      I will need to re-upload a lot of our files. Sorry about that! Give me about a week & a half. We are on vacation right now….but I will do it as soon as I get home. 🙂 XOXO, Tara

      Reply

      1. Thanks (I was also unable to download them)! Looking forward to having the handouts back up. This date sounds like a blast!!

        Reply

      2. Am I doing this wrong? I can’t seem to download your awesome printables! This looks like SO much fun! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

        Reply

        1. Hey Jessica! I am going to re-upload them right now. Hang in there. The file is pretty big so it’s taking me a while. 🙂 XO, Tara

          Reply

  28. Tara, oh my gosh! This looks like a kick in the pants to do! Looks like you ALL had a blast! Can't wait to try it out!

    Reply

  29. Tara! You are amazing! What a great idea, and thank you for making this something everyone can do at home! Looks like so much fun!

    Reply

  32. such a cool date! We did a murder mystery date a couple months back and this would be fun spin off! I am so going to us this after the crazy holidays! We are also going to be in vegas for my baby brother's graduation this year. So we are going to us grandma the free babysitter and go to the CSI adventure!

    Reply