First of all meet Allen! This is my cute geeky son I’ve never told any of you about.
I thought this theme (a spy birthday party) was gonna be a yawner when Allie told me that is what she wanted. Bless the internet which is full of awesome ideas! Because this was an awesome party.
You all saw the invites a while back. Here is another picture in case you forgot.
The inside said that they were hand selected to join a secret spy organization. They were to show up on Saturday, Sept 27 at 16:00 hours wearing a disguise.
When the girls arrived I had them place their gifts for Allie on the fireplace.
When the girls arrived to the house (in disguise) I took their photos and fingerprinted them, then had them fill out their “personal” information all to be used for their passports. After this was done, it was time to begin the spy training.
First the girls did some mental training. I showed them a tray full of items that might be used by a spy. They were supposed to remember as many of them as they could. I then left the room, removed a few items from the tray and then they had to guess which items were missing. They were able to pool their answers together and get all 5 missing items.
After the mental training came the physical training. We set up an obstacle course outside for the girls to run through. We had several things to do, but at the beginning they had to turn 10 times with their forehead on a baseball bat to get a little dizzy.
After the physical training, I suggested that we go inside and open up presents. But when we went inside, the presents were gone and this large manilla envlope was left in place.
Inside was a letter.
The letter stated that Allie was visited by the Birthday Bandit. He has taken the presents and hidden them. Allie/Allen and her little spy friends would have to embark on a trip around the world to collect clues in order to find the hidden presents. The letter indicated that they would be given all their necessary travel vouchers and money to buy food along the way.
Yes, I spent well over 2 hours making up these tickets. I went onto websites and got actual travel times, amounts, distances and logos to create these tickets. (By the way, for the most part they traveled with only a couple of hours layover at each country. They were leaving Saturday evening and they wouldn’t be home until Friday am. Lots of travel time).
Nearby was camo 3 ring binders with camo notebooks inside and a 3 ring vinyl document holder for each of the girls. There were also camo pencil cases containing: a mini flashlight, a magnifying glass, a pen, play money and transportation tickets. Then finally there were small “suitcases” packed with snacks for the trip. Since they were getting ready to embark on an international trip, I handed out their passports.
According to their tickets, the first place they were going was to Mexico City, Mexico. They hopped on a greyhound bus and headed for Mexico. Mexico, just happened to be in our backyard. But they had to figure out which country was Mexico. They did this by identifying the flag of Mexico I had printed up. In Mexico, they were served chips and salsa. The clues (puzzle pieces were hidden in the chips).
I loved the chip container. I found these snow cone holders on clearance at target less than a month ago. I wanted to somehow use them. I figured chips would work well in them, but I couldn’t find any paper cones to fill them with. But while at Party City it hit me….use party hats for the cones. It worked perfectly. And I put the salsa in these cute little cup holders that Clay’s mom had left over from one of her demo’s at Walmart. I originally put all the chips in red baskets. In the bottom of the baskets I placed a couple of puzzle pieces that were part of the clue. As they moved the chips from the baskets to their “party hats” they found them. One small problem that I encountered was the girls were reluctant to buy the food. I assured them that they would have plenty of money to buy everything they needed. Still only 2 took the bite. So finally I had to tell them that the clues were hidden in the chips and that they wouldn’t have the necessary clues if nobody bought the chips.
When they left Mexico, we stamped their passport.
After going to Mexico, the tickets instructed them to board a plane for Rome, Italy. When we found the Italian flag, the girls found pizza waiting for them. And what do you think they found hidden under the pizza box? More clues.
After Italy, they were told catch a train to Brussels, Belgium. Belgium is gonna have the best darn food of this trip.
They had these waffles. Last week I purchased this very reasonably priced Belgium waffle maker. Of course I had to try out the recipe first. We have now had waffles 3 times in less than 10 days. They are that good.
I made a fruit topping with canned apple pie filling, canned peaches, canned pears, some brown sugar and some cinnamon. So the girls had the option of plain waffles, waffles with peanut butter, waffles with syrup, waffles with fruit topping or waffles with whipped cream. And what do you think they found under the plate of waffles….more puzzle pieces.
After leaving Belgium, they were told to take a plane to Beijing, China. Upon arriving in China, they found a Chinese take out box filled with fortune cookies (which I made myself).
In the bottom of the take out box was the final clue. They then had all the pieces to assemble the puzzle. They were told to head back to America.
Upon arriving in America the puzzle told them to look in Clay’s and my bedroom to find the gifts. When they got there they did find the presents. But this is what they saw. The room was covered with red laser beams (red yarn strung all over the place with little bells hanging from it so they would ring if knocked). The girls had to make their way through the laser beams to grab their present and bring it back to Allie.
I have to say that this part was a HUGE hit! The kids loved it!
After all presents were retreived, Allie opened them. To finish out the party we had cake and home made ice cream.
Here is a photo of all the spies and their code names.
Here is a shot of some of the party gear. I thought you might want to see the lovely teeth. It’s not every kid that gets a custom made pair of dentures for their disguise. Notice the varying colors of the teeth. If you look real closely you might even be able to see the tooth that is put in backwards. And what made it even funnier was how far they stuck out since they had to fit over her braces.
Well the party was definitely a hit. And the only detail left to cover is to get the thank you notes made up.
And if you made it all the way through this post…Wow! 
Before taking her back to school, we stopped at the drug store so she could get sour gummy worms. 
