Preston's birthday party

On the Saturday after Preston's birthday, in March, we had several of his friends over for a Spy themed birthday party. It was super fun. Thank you to Alyssa and her friend, Teesha for helping a lot with the party.

The first things the kids had to do was "spy training." This involved seeing how fast they could get through an obstacle course we set up in the garage. The course involved balance beam walking along boards, jumping through tires, shooting a hockey puck in the net, rolling a tire, riding a scooter and putting a golf ball.

Once they had passed their training, the kids all made spy identity cards. Alyssa and her friend took pictures of the kids and they put their pictures in the cards and filled in their information, etc. These cards were pretty special because they look the a credit card, but if you open it up there is a spy identity card  hiding inside.

One of the activities was to pass through a zone of "Laser trip wire" The kids had to contort their bodies and try to get through without touching any of the "lasers." They loved this and wanted to do it again and again.

Preston's cake was a 60s style black bomb. 

I guess I got too busy to take pictures of their secret mission. They listened to a voice recording of Austin with his voice modulated so that it was really low. He called himself "Agent X" and told them they had a special mission. They had to look for one clue to the next, each in a manilla envelope labelled "top secret" Each clue led to the next, but each had something to solve--a cypher, or decoding the invisible ink, or figuring out a picture that was taken super close up, etc. Finally at the end of the clue trail they found their gift bags which included invisible ink pens, magnifying glasses, a notebook, disguise glasses with nose and mustache, etc.

I think the kids had a great time.I am discovering that parties are so much easier and better since the invention of the internet. We found so many cool spy party ideas online and Alyssa helped implement them. The kids were very well-behaved because they loved the activities.