Monday, January 27, 2014

007 Secret Agent Birthday Party! {and a bit about the healthier side of birthday parties}

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This week, my kiddo turned the big 007!  So in honor of his 007 birthday, he wanted a 007 party!  Bring on the spies, incognito, Secret Agent Training, and all sorts of gear and gadgets!

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The invites were simple {mostly} file folders that had the birthday info {in spy-speak, of course} and an areal map of our neighborhood.  The not-so-simple part was the video that went along with it {outtake pictures below… WHO ARE THOSE CHICKENS WORKING FOR???}. 
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The video was epic in it’s awesomeness, but parts of it were copyrighted so I will not be sharing it on here.  But mostly, it was my son, sitting in his blue chair with his fedora and spy glasses stating that “there is an important mission, if you chose to accept it, to join a group of the very best spies to find the bomb that is hidden in our headquarters and disarm it…”  The kids who received this invite were very excited to join in the mission and all of them wrote “MISSION ACCEPTED” …. from a secure phone line, of course!
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The food was basic healthy fare.  “Secretive Sandwiches” were the only things ‘in theme’ with 4 different kinds of homemade jelly and a mix of almond and peanut butter which were all mixed up so you didn’t know what you would get.  All prepped with my ‘cut and seal’ from Pampered Chef oh so many years ago.  {That thing has seen a LOT of miles and the kids LOVE it.}  In this case however, I honestly don’t think the kids noticed the differences, and I was not going to stop their revelry to make sure they did… so my effort was wasted and I could have saved myself a whole 15 minutes of prep time by making them all apple peel jelly and peanut butter… but I digress.
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We had a lose ‘international super spy’ thing going on with the mustaches and world maps and world flags, which I just loved.  It kept this theme from being too ‘grown up’.  Many spy movies you see now-a-days, even the good ones, end up with someone being tortured or some other ‘verynotformysevenyearold’ type stuff.  I wanted to keep it as ‘G rated’ as humanly possible while bringing in a little ‘Spy Next Door’ and ‘Get Smart’ for good measure.
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(Soapbox alert: skip this paragraph if you love bathing small children in incredible amounts of sugar for every birthday celebration.  For I am currently channeling a healthy food nut and you will find no quarter here.  lol)  Notice how these water bottles are in theme and yet, still water??  I am not above a little sugar on a special day like this one, but I am not going to deck a whole table out in sugar and dye like I have seen the trends moving towards with these incredibly beautiful, but deadly, dessert tables.  Who needs cake pops, and popcorn balls, and cup cakes, and four jars of candy, and giant lollypops AND a full sized cake all at the same party!  There are so many other ways to make a party theme than to have hundreds of pounds of sugar and dye available for all the little kids that I have invited over.  Pinnably beautiful?  Yes!  But dang!  I wouldn’t want to take my kid to that party, nor would I want to deal with her after.  So I stuck with one cookie, and one cupcake, and the rest was the same thing you’d see in any really healthy lunch.  You’re welcome.
Ok, soap box over.
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One comment about my spy travel line… “How very ‘cold war’”.
The activities were all part of one big hunt… to find the bomb!  We had a ticking suitcase located in the house that was locked!  What to do?!?  Well, I made a treasure hunt of sorts, where each clue the kids had to use a different cipher or spy technique to figure out where the next clue was.  One was a riddle, another was a finger print match, another was disappearing ink, and yet another was a cipher wheel with a code they had to break.  They were smarter than I was though, and ended up solving them all in short order.  At the end of the treasure hunt, they found a envelope with 5 keys in it, one of which would open the ticking suitcase…  which was at the end of a ‘hall of lasers’ they had yet to navigate through.  For the setup of said ‘hall of lasers’ I had superspy help:
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The lasers were passed, and the proper key was found.  They brought out the ticking suitcase, but inside was…. dum dum dum…  my kitchen clock and homemade marshmallow shooter kits!
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  I sent them outside, into this glorious {and completely unseasonable} day to decorate and assemble their marshmallow shooters.  They took this job VERY seriously.  I even have a picture of Logan saying “MOM!  No pictures, I’m working here!”  LOL!   They proceeded to pepper each other and my lawn {and my dog} with high-speed, international  super spy marshmallows.
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Then it was cupcake time.  I got to do the honors and light the dynamite candles for my sweet birthday boy!
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Happy Birthday to you, Agent 007!
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The favors {along with the marshmallow shooters that they got to take home} were CD’s of our favorite Secret Agent Tunes, a gum ball, and a large homemade sugar cookie in full incognito. 
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Secret Agent Tunes were:
  • Peter Gunn
  • Dick Tracy Theme
  • Secret Agent Man
  • Superspy (by Save Farris)
  • Mission Impossible Theme
  • The Pink Panther
  • Theme from Dragnet
  • Super Bossa Nova (from Austin Powers)
  • Get Smart theme
  • James Bond theme
And that was a wrap!  The kids had a great time and the marshmallow shooters have already been brought back to my house on a playdate for more sticky fun.  My dog is convinced they are food dispensers and follows the kids around when they have one in their hand.  The Secret Agent tunes have been played around the clock and all the ‘in theme gifts’ have been locked up in a box at night so the ‘bad guys’ {ie: Little Brothers} don’t get them.  It was a huge success! 
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2 comments

Jamie said...

Great party ideas! How did you do the sugar cookies with the glasses and mustache?

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Hi there! I actually found those bags at my local Joann’s store in the cake decorating section. 😊

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