Age of Birthday Boy: 10 years old
Age Range of Guests: 7-12 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls
Potential Age Range of Theme: 5-13+ years, depending on specific focus & activities
Invitations: The invitations were requests to join a top secret agency of spies. Guests were asked to report to headquarters (our house) at a certain date and time for training to become secret agents.
Cake: This one was easy but still turned out great. We made a stencil template on paper that read "TOP SECRET", placed it gently on a frosted 9x13 cake and sprinkled red sprinkles over top. To make it neater we could have used a stiffer icing or a larger piece of paper but for the limited time we had to prepare we think it turned out really well.
Activities: As guests arrived their names were checked off the official secret agent training camp list. They were given name tags to wear and each guest chose an alias or code name, marking their name tag with a fingerprint (using washable ink).
Guests were put into two groups of new recruits - it happened to be a girls team and a boys team this time but it didn't have to work that way. The teams were instructed that they would go through secret agent training to see if they had what it takes to be a spy. There would be stations to get through to test such qualities as teamwork, accuracy, agility, and problem solving.
Teamwork: This was essentially the human knot game - an old stand-by that remains a favorite. The kids stood in a circle and reached across it to grab someone's hand. Anyone's hand was fine as long as you weren't holding both hands of the same person. Then they tried to untangle themselves into one big circle. You could also try this blindfolded for a bigger challenge, or have only some kids blindfolded and/or some unable to speak.
Accuracy: In this challenge one of our secret agent instructors (aka: dad) sat by a tree. The kids were given water balloons and told to break the balloons on the tree over the head of the instructor. Points were awarded for correct placement, and deducted if you hit the instructor. Of course, some kids didn't care about the deductions so the instructor got fairly wet!!
Agility: Teams were given a rope with loops for handles and instructed to go through an obstacle course all together single file. We set up chairs to crawl under, board to cross, hoops to jump through, etc.
Problem Solving: Here, teams were given some items and a task. They had to create something long enough to reach and grab a key hanging on our play structure while they stood on the deck. The kids had to figure out the best way to use the sticks, rope, and a hook to create something both long enough and strong enough to reach, grab, and retrieve the key.Final Challenge: As kids were finishing up their last task it was announced that an urgent matter had come to the attention of the instructors. Since all other active agents were currently assigned it had fallen to the new recruits to solve the mystery for the agency. They were given clues and coordinates to a hidden stolen treasure.
The teams had to decipher the coded messages to determine the general location of the treasure. Then they had to follow instructions for placing string from one spot, across the playground area, to another spot. This was done 3 times. Where all the strings crossed is where they were to dig for the treasure (sort of an X marks the spot kind of thing!). Each team had a different specific location in the same general area.
Both teams found their treasure which meant all the new recruits graduated form their training and were granted full secret agent status.Goodie Bags: Kids were given certificates of completion and they also kept their new recruit name tags. In addition to various candies and chocolates, the goodie bags included a stick-on mustache and sunglasses to help with their spy disguises. Each child also got a pen and notepad as well as a spy decoder ring.
This party was a bit more work to pull together as far as planning the activities, but was so much fun - as long as you don't mind kids digging up your yard! Fortunately we were getting our playground area ready for wood chips so it was ready for the purpose. A sandbox would work just as well.
