My middle son Oliver recently turned six. I don’t throw the boys a “friends” party every year but this was one of those years for him. At Christmas time the boys got Spy Gear and loved it; then while looking at party ideas I came across a laser maze idea, I was inspired. I then googled “Spy Party” and came up with plenty of sites of Mom’s who had done it, yay!
I sent the invites out via Evite, not my first choice, but it’s so fast and convenient I caved. Here is what the invite said:
Your mission should you choose to accept it:
You have been selected to attend STA – Spy Training Academy. You will complete the steps necessary to become a Level 007 SuperSpy.
Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Cake are necessary parts of this training.Hope you Accept this Mission!
For the spy party we decided to have the kids start off with training at our Spy Training Academy. Training started with distribution of essential spy gear: sunglasses and ID badges with their own pictures on them. On their ID I also assigned everyone a code name using colors and animals (black panther, pink dragonfly, silver cheetah, etc.).
Next we had set up an obstacle course. We set up cones for them to ride a big wheel through, then off to the army crawl mats, laser under the trampoline, through a mystery black curtain, finishing with a crawl under/jump over the bar. Each trainee received a gold medal to wear around their neck.
Spencer cruises through the course.
Adam sports his new ID Badge and Glasses, MR starts the obstacle course in the background.
Then while they were training, someone stole the CAKE! They were to immediately start their mission. We brought them into the living room for a short video we made. After that they received their first clue verbally which lead to the next clue and so on.
We attached one clue to a helium filled balloon in the front yard, then one in the gate, one in a backyard tree, then back gate, finally ended up in the alley to search for a pink box. This was filled with the thief’s stash of money and a clue where the cake was. (click here to download the Clue template and Spy Training sign)
R was thrilled to find the package in the alley!
Another game we played was a huge hit with the kids and parents. We went to google map images and printed up satellite aerial shots of each party guests house. We laid them out on a table and read a clue, as they all were looking at them… they started to realize that these were their neighborhoods and homes. Each guest took home their image. They all really loved that.
We had a pinata, at the boys request, it was jammed packed with candy (thanks Grandma Peanuts).
MR takes a swing.
We served the “Juiciest Hamburgers Ever” a recipe from allrecipes.com, Undercover Hot Dogs from Pinterest, the world’s most delicious Macaroni Salad (thanks Grandma Tootsie), chips and lemonade. I was thinking of making a dynamite cake or a briefcase. I wimped out and bought a chocolate cake from my grocers bakery, it was good, just not “cool”.
Each child took home a file folder stamped TOP SECRET, inside they each received a mustache, an eye patch, a laser pointer that attached to their finger, money and coins from the thief’s stash box, their own ID badge, neon sunglasses, a satellite picture of their house and a Superman ring.
It lasted 2 hours and we had a wonderful time!
