Spy Party

I don’t know how J Boy gained his interest in spies at such a tender age, but he has become rather obsessed with them of late. After seeing on TV that overseas spies had been jailed after being caught there was a brief week when his resolve weakened his desire ‘to become a spy when he was a man.’ During that week, he decided he might become a farmer instead. However, then the toy sales came, and he decided that the thrill of using the myriad of spy gadgets trumped the danger involved with espionage.

This means creeping around the house, covert missions, binoculars and secrets are all favourite occupations of my eldest son.

So, a spy party was the obvious theme when celebrating J Boy’s 6th birthday this year.

With the triplets taking so much time, I tried to keep everything as simple as possible. Easy food and simple games were a must. I wasn’t able to spend as much time preparing as I normally might, so even some of the easy games that required preparation ended up being abandoned. However, I think the day went well in the end and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, and that, as they say, is the main thing.

So here is how the party progressed.

1. Arrival – Security Scan. Photographed. Fill in Sign on Sheet. Obtain Code Name.

Agent Daddy looked very official as he scanned all the Junior Agents with J Boy’s new toy as they entered. Miss Rachael became as efficient as Moneypenny when getting the kids to fill out their names and take their fingerprints. Two words were picked from two separate containers (one of nouns, and one pre-dominantly of verbs) to make into a code name. Some of the classics were Marshmallow Booger, Snot Chaser, Lion Creeper and the birthday boy was Ant Zoomer. The kids thought it was hilarious.

The little ones being processed.

Oh dear. I think Agent Daddy is planning to frisk Agent Mummy.

The secret agents who turned up at Mission Headquarters for an elite spy training program.  The invitation said to come dressed as a spy or in disguise. They did a wonderful job! I particularly liked Agent 99 and Chief in the top left hand corner!

2. Laser Maze
The mission: Get through the course without touching the laser beams. (Red crepe paper, yellow warning tape.)

The course. Training has begun.

Special Agent Dr. Lion (Codename) completed the course with finesse.

I got this idea from pinterest, although the original idea was an indoor laser maze., To avoid extra mess and chaos I avoided bringing the troops inside. So, we decided to do an outdoor maze. Agent Daddy had the brilliant idea of setting it up under the trampoline. The kids loved crawling through the play equipment to get there and then bending and twisting to get through the obstacle course without touching the laser beams. Thankfully it was only a training course, otherwise I’m afraid a few alarms may have sounded…!

4. Spy Tins
Target practise throwing balls at tins painted as enemy spies.

Ze enemy is in ze tin.

This had been a craft project in our house over the last couple of weeks. An excellent opportunity to use up all those formula tins!

5. Pass the Parcel

Classic party game.

You will have disappointed guests at any child’s party if this game is missing. We made it fit the theme by downloading Mission Impossible and James Bond theme songs on I Tunes and playing them as the music. Admittedly, the significance was probably missed on the children who have not watched either movie. My nephew asked why we were playing ballet music. Ballet music apparently is anything instrumental.

6. Food!
Standard party junk food fodder.

Dinosaur fairy bread

To keep things simple, I had a fair few bought treats on the party table such jam tarts, mini pies and sausage rolls, chips and lollies, etc. The kids were mainly concerned with only the lollies anyway, even though we had just had a chocolate treasure hunt. I did have some fairy bread, homemade brownies, cake pops and the birthday cake.

The cake pops were little mini bombs. The little fuses were painted red on the end.

Warning! Explosives. Bomb Cake Pops.

I have been wanting to make a rainbow cake for a little while, so I suggested this be J Boy’s cake this year because I knew that it would be relatively simple to make. To keep with the spy theme said that it was a “Mystery Cake” because no one knew what was inside. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I was generous with the colouring, which resulted in lovely vivid colours. The gasps of approval when I cut the cake was very rewarding!

7. Drinks.

SPY-ders and Water with a twist – Truth Serum!

Proving that consumption is often to do with marketing, the water nearly all disappeared! How often does that happen at a kids party?

We also made spiders/spy-ders. I don’t know if this is just an Aussie thing, but if you aren’t familiar with it, it’s soft drink (soda) with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream in which makes a frothy creamy drink. Always a popular choice with kids. (Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of that one.)

8. Spy Mission.

Operation Retrieve Party Bag.

Towards the end of the party I gathered the kids together and very seriously told them that despite all our security checks at the gate, an enemy agent had got in and had stolen the box of party bags. (Agent 99 was quite alarmed at this news and had a mild panic attack.)  I had previously written out some badly rhyming clues to lead them to the next clues hidden throughout the backyard. The final clue led them to the box of party bags. I then held a spy training course on how to use the secret invisible ink spy pens with the ultra-violet light built into the pen’s lid. Very impressive stuff. (I bought these from Mad About Science. I was so proud to have a party bag that didn’t consist of mere cheap Chinese plastic rubbish toys that get thrown out in two minutes.)

A spy party was lots of fun. It’s a shame that once all the guests went home, the days finale had to be The Accountant severing an artery in his arm while doing odd jobs around the yard. This required an emergency trip to the doctors and six stitches. But apart from that I consider the day a success and my little 006 agent had a super day, and that is the main thing.