Super Spy Party

Written by Maria of  Dirtundermynails

My husband and I both work at home.  We are lucky that we get to see a lot of each other.  However, we get more quantity time than quality time.  We are either sitting down for a quick lunch (if we even sit down), planning the next project, or just doing the daily grind to keep the home and homestead going.  We’ve learned that it is really important in our lives to set aside time for family and friends, and to make this time count. We will often invite friends over for bonfires or potlucks, we gather to celebrate holidays and the change of seasons.  If we didn’t do this, we would be isolated in the country, away from our community.  Having gatherings and parties gives us a chance to not only see our friends and family, but to visit with each other:  husband, wife and kids, too.

So, when my daughter Kaia said she wanted a Super Spy Party for her 6th birthday, I was all about it!!  She mentioned this to me as we got into the car to bring her to school, and by the time we arrived at the school door, we’d planned the whole thing.  Here’s how it all played out:

First, we sent out the invitations.  They were written backwards so that you had to use a mirror to decode the message.  “International School of Spies invites you to attend Spy School in honor of Kaia’s 6th birthday.  Spy attire required”

Agent L inspecting the trainees

Five Agents-In-Training joined Kaia this past Saturday to complete six missions before they could graduate.  When the agents arrived, they were briefed in the importance of having a signature drink.  They were able to choose between apple juice or Shirley Temples, both served in champagne glasses with cherries… shaken, not stirred.

Once they had their drinks, they were given detailed instructions on how to use the tools in their ’spy kits’.  These consisted of party favors that we got at the local party store… Chinese finger cuffs (to trap your enemy spy), noise makers (to distract your enemy while you steal the jewels/gold/map/etc.), squirt guns (AKA “Super Laser Blasters”), novelty rings (AKA “Miniature camera”), and other such things that the spy in training needs on their missions.

Then came the first training mission.  This one was easier since it was their first one.  “Secret Mission 1, Code Name: Crupcakes – Sinister Villain Crupcakes is planning to take over the world with his ‘Stakes of Meanness’.  To save the earth you must weave through the stakes without making the bells ring and grab a hand full of Earth balls chocolate.”  The stakes of meanness were wooden stakes driven into the ground.  Between them hung string with bells tied on.  The kids got on their hands and knees and crawled very slowly in between these strings so the bells didn’t jingle.  Everyone got a handful of chocolate.

Mission number two and three soon followed. “Secret Mission 2, Code Name: Window – Sneak through the window and retrieve a jewel without Agent T (hubby) or Agent M(me) seeing you.”  We took a cardboard box and put some window curtains on it.  Inside the box was a bowl of plastic gems.  They really liked this one and used their noise makers to distract Agent T and myself so they could steal the gems when we weren’t looking.

“Secret Mission 3, Code Name: Farfanoodle – Kind Farfanoodle has stolen the gold of Ubovnia.  He hid the gold in easter eggs, but on his plane ride home, the eggs fell from and landed in the yard at the spy school.  Your mission is to find them and recover the stolen gold”.  This was basically an easter egg hunt and the eggs had chocolate coins inside (more chocolate!)

The agents took breaks in between missions to refuel with more drinks, pretzels, and popcorn.  It was a hot day at training school, so we all needed to stay hydrated.  Then on to the next missions.

“Secret Mission 4, Code Name: Bomb – Sinister Villain Crupcakes heard that you saved the earth from his Stakes of Meanness, and he is very angry.  So, he took all the yumminess out of the world and stuffed it into a bomb!  Your mission is to diffuse the bomb by beating it with a stick”  Woohoo!  Pinata time!  We found a basketball pinata and spray painted it black to look like a bomb.  Then we stuffed it (and I mean stuffed it!) with all sorts of cool ol’ timey candies from the Mast General Store (Ohhhh, the parents of the agents were not going to be happy with me now!  Talk about sugar overload!)  Agents took turns beating the bomb, but to their chagrin, the bomb would not diffuse.  So, Agent T stepped in to take a few whacks at it.  The yumminess exploded back into the world and all were happy!

Diffusing the bomb

And, of course, we couldn’t have spy school training without a cake.  So: “Secret Mission 5, Code Name: Dino – King Farfanoodle was very disappointed that you found his gold.  So, he decided to steal all of the baby dinosaurs from the Spy Zoo and hid them in cakes all over the world.  Agent T and Agent M traveled the world to retrieve their dinosaurs and have found most of them.  But, we suspect that this birthday cake holds the last of the baby dino’s.  Your mission is to eat the cake and find them!”  We had fun making this cake.  It was a double layer into which we smashed plastic dinosaurs.  We frosted it up with home made cream cheese icing (YUM!) and made sure that each slice given to the Agents had a dinosaur in it.

Dino Cake

We took time to open presents before graduation. Unfortunately, we then received info that there may not be a graduation!  “Secret Mission 6, Code Name: No More Spies! – Sinister Villain Crupcakes and King Farfanoodle have teamed up to keep you from graduating, and have stolen your graduation certificates!!  Oh No!  No graduation??   Wait!  The certificates are hidden in these balloons.  Your mission is to pop them and retrieve your certificates.”  We made up graduation certificates, folded them as small as we could, wrapped them in saran wrap and put them inside of black balloons.  In the balloons, we also put some shaving cream and then blew them up.  This was not the easiest task, but, you do what you have to do when you are the mother of a spy in training.  Some agents used sticks, some got other agents to pop their balloon for them, and some squeezed the balloon until it popped.  Everyone got a little (or a lot) of shaving cream on them!  Agent T and I thought this was a pretty hysterical mission… some of the agents in training might have disagreed.  See, it’s not easy to be a fairy princess and a spy at the same time.  Fairy princesses don’t necessarily like to get dirty!  Not to worry, we had a towel handy for cleaning off.

Shaving Cream blast!

I’m proud to say that all of our agents in training went on to graduate from International Spy School with flying colors!  Now let’s hope they can come down from their sugar highs as easily.

Yes, the garden is growing a new vegetable called “weeds”, and my house has more cobwebs then I can count, but we all had a blast with family and friends at the party and in the end, that’s what counts!

What do you do to stay connected with your community?