Danger & Adventure Around Every Corner: Big Birthday Bash!

Lucas wanted a big birthday party this year so we discussed all sorts of possibilities. He decided that he wanted a party here at our house! YIKES!!!! This half frightened me until we came up with a plan! :)

We decided to do a Spy Theme and with so much out there on the Internet, it didn't take long to come up with some great ideas. The problem was slimming down all the ideas into something doable. It had been really rainy so the chances of good weather were slim to none. This was going to be an indoor party with the potential of his entire class showing up. We needed to make a plan and here's how it went...

The easy part, the ice cream cone cupcakes!

Arrival:
Each kid received a gear bag (brown paper bag with a drink, pen, notebook, secret message decoder, beaded necklace, raffle tickets, stickers, list of riddles with no answers and name tags)

i.e. \/ = S, |_| = C, /\ = Y

They filled out their name tags and learned how to use the secret message decoder while visiting friends during the pizza picnic.

THE PARTY

All 16 kids arrived (yes, 16!!!) It was the rainiest weekend in history so we had a great turn out. We separated the kids into 3 teams (Orange, Green, Red/Pink) and rotated them through 3 spy training stations:

1. Laser Maze

The kids had to try to get through the maze without touching the streamers. They loved it!

Axel testing out the course before the guests arrived.

2. Target Practice. We put our friend Eric to work on this one and he did great job training everyone in the correct use of nerf dart guns. The boys and I made a big target with multiple sides and it fit perfectly in our entrance hallway. Thank you Eric!

3. Dynamite Toss.

This is just a version of hot potato but the timer is strapped on to the dynamite. I set if for 15 seconds and the kids passed it around and around. If you were holding it when the time went off you were out. It was tons of fun and we did numerous rounds per team.

ORANGE TEAM

RED/PINK TEAM

GREEN TEAM

Once fully trained, all the teams met back at headquarters (living room) where they were briefed on their mission. A bad guy had planted an explosive somewhere in the house and each team had to work together to find it. Each team received their first clue hidden in a balloon that matched their team color.

The scavenger hunt was on!!

It was so nice to have Daddy home and he did an awesome job planning the scavenger hunt. He had 5 different clues for each team and skillfully de-conflicted the teams using different locations in the house. Each team had to find color coded clues in balloons, riddles or secret messages. It was a true work of art and it worked splendidly! Clues were found in places like the bath tub, dryer, toaster, microwave, Lego bins, on the globe, in beds, on pillows, etc. So fun!!!!

The final clue all led them to the explosive!

A highly-trained-newly-turned-8-year-old-professional was qualified to get the explosive down.

The whole crew cheered Lucas on while he climbed up and back down to safely get the explosive.

The teams gathered around to find out what was inside that explosive???

It was a big tube with only one correct end to open. One little guy really thought it might blow up. :)

Inside, they quickly discovered that the search was still on! Along with all the answers to their riddle sheets, they found yet another clue!!!! This last clue required all the teams to participate to figure it out and with the help of Lucas and Axel, they were led to their goody bags!

Each goodie bag contained a personal piñata stuffed full of knick-knacks, candy, coins, etc. They were homemade out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. I loved making them! I attached a pull string to the bottom so detonate their own party popper piñata!

After all the scavenger hunt excitement, it was time to chill out a little with some cake and ice cream picnic style. The picnic idea worked great...what else were we going to do with 16 kids on a rainy day?!

It was cake time!!

Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Lucas!
Happy Birthday to you!

Oops...I tried getting the photo! :)

This will work!

We made sure everyone had their raffle tickets submitted for the drawing. I had two prizes, a couple pull string spinning helicopter toys all wrapped up.

We also had some guessing games.
How many pom-poms in the jar? 80!
How many calories in a jar full of M&M's? 1,760! (I wasn't going to count the M&M's one by one so that's where this came from)

The winner took home the jars.

After the raffle we took some time to go through the fun riddles and wait for parents to pick up their newly trained agents!

We had such a fun time and were so proud that the birthday party was such a huge success! We received many compliments from our young guests, and their parents. Most importantly, Lucas had a blast and got the party he had been dreaming of for months!