Mission: Spy Party

 Gabe turned eight last week, so we had a party. You may know from the past we always invited his whole class, and that is a lot of people. This year we made him chose just a few friends to invite, and that made it easier to have an elaborate mission for them.

But first, invitations. I took manila folders and cut them in half, then I trimmed the open edges to make it folder-like proportions again and just used scissors to cut the tabs that manila folders normally have.

The glue stick is there for scale.

I used the computer to type a little message with party details, inviting the kids to be special agents and come to spy training. I did glue the top of the paper into the mini folder just so it wouldn't get lost, but I added a paper clip because that seemed more office memo-ish.

I printed TOP SECRET from the computer and cut and glued them to the outside. And that was all that was.

When the kids arrived, I snapped a picture of them, a head shot, if you will. These were to go into their passports with their aliases. I made up the passports ahead of time and just had to print the pictures and glue them in while Matt began to train them.

I'll give a tutorial on passports in another post (or this one will be ridiculously long because this one is already ridiculously long). [Update: passport tutorial here.]

Training included code-breaking. They practiced Morse code and learned about invisible ink. We used baking soda-water, which is base on the pH scale, to make messages. Once dry, they used acid either in the form of grape juice or vinegar to reveal the message. We also showed them some other codes they needed to complete the upcoming mission.

We had a "laser" maze made with string and duct tape. Part of training was to practice going through, and this was probably the part that had them most excited. They all loved it.

We also had them do target practice with water guns. This was also exciting, but honestly, go with the laser maze if you have to pick one. It was by far the highlight.

Then they got a message. They were needed for a top secret mission. Former KGB agent Boris Prosorov had stolen nuclear material and was threatening to destroy a city if the UN did not pay him eight billion dollars! Gasp!
[Not that they know what the KGB is, but we went with something "old-school" and not realistic for today's world on purpose.]

We filmed a congratulatory message for the end of the mission. They will run back to back if you watch the video (complete with outtakes.)

Here's how we did the mission:

They had to get to Switzerland, so they grabbed their passports and guns and ran out our side door where Matt loaded them into the "plane" which was just our car with all the seats folded down so it was more like a cargo plane. He got in and put on a "pilot's hat" and rolled them down the driveway (at like 2 mph). Ta-da! They had "flown" to Switzerland. I was waiting to stamp their passports and give them a clue as to where to start.

They ran to the side of the house and read a message telling them they had to shoot down all of the clues from behind the line (it was a mine field that would only deactivate once all the clues had been released).

Attached to each streamer was a letter. All the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and (sometimes) Y. Each letter was a color of the rainbow. There was also the addition of a Morse code message. The vowels were clues they had to save that would become clear later. The Morse code message led them to the next clue. They had to shoot their water guns at the streamers. We weighted the letters a bit, so that when the streamer got wet, it would break and drop the letter.

The next location was our mailbox. Inside they found a PVC pipe with what looked like a ribbon of gibberish letters. But when they wrapped the the ribbon around the pipe the letters lined up to make a message which read:
Red is a warning.
Green makes up hop.
Snow does nothing.
And tar makes us stop.
This clue told them what the different "bomb" wires did, so to "diffuse" the "bomb" they had to cut the black. (Red made a buzzer, green sped up the clock and white did nothing.)

To get directions on where to go next, they got a call from Headquarters. (I changed my phone so that calls from home said "Headquarters") This sent them to Geneva, and we had a sign on our fence that said Geneva (Clever, huh?). 

At the fence, I quizzed them on their passports, something easy like their alias's last name or birthplace. I told them, "I hear the Russian cafe is delicious."

So they ran to the deck which was set up with a table and chairs. Matt came out of the house with an apron on and presented them with a menu. The menu had an invisible ink message hidden, and so they had to order the grape juice to reveal the message.

The message said, "Time falls like sand. Connect the dots." They could see bocce balls sitting in the sandbox. They were numbered, so they had to use the rope to play connect the dots, and at the point of the arrow, they dug to find a box with a clue and wire cutters. (This was taken directly from Ruff Ruffman, so Gabe knew it as soon as he saw it.)

The clue was missing it's vowels, and those spaces were replaced with colored boxes. They figured out the rainbow colored vowels they received before were the key, so they began to fill in the box. 

It was message from Boris taunting them about understanding the clues about how to diffuse the bomb. 

It's really just a  simple electrical circuit that Matt made look messy.

And there was an address in french. A little jaunt over to the laptop to type it into Google Translator and they knew that they had to go to the Alley beside the Garage.

But, gasp! They still had to get through a laser maze to reach the bomb which was hooked up to the nuclear material (green jello).

So they followed the clues from the pipe code to figure out that they needed to cut the black wire.

It was hilarious how stressed they were watching the lights count down. Clearly they were in to the make-believe. After they successfully diffused the bomb, they got the congratulatory message from the DVD and they "flew" back to headquarters.

Matt had taken away the training supplies and set the table for cake and ice cream during the mission. The cake was a old-school round bomb with a curly candle for the wick.

We also set out Twizzlers since they kind of look like wicks and M&Ms just for fun color. And that was all we did for food. Our party was late afternoon so I figured we were already spoiling their dinners; we did not need to push it. :)

I'll give you a cake tutorial in another post as well, but I can tell you it was sooo simple. [Update: cake tutorial here.]

It was a really fun day. They were thrilled that I sent them home with their water guns and passports. Were we doing this again, we'd simplify it a bit or plan for a three hour party instead of two. We came down to the wire with the timing. 

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Star Wars Party: Episode 3

Games and costumes.

If you are looking for invites and lightsabers, check Episode 1 and for food check Episode 2.

I'll confess, the party wasn't as smooth as I had hoped because it RAINED! I was planning the whole time to play games outside and even though I had the "rain plan" in the back of my mind, I never really believed I'd need it.

Mostly it worked inside, but we had to make some adjustments. For simple games we told them that part of Luke's training with Yoda was about balance, so we had different activities. We had small, flat rocks that they had to see who could balance the longest on one foot. 

We also had them sit down back to back with a partner, link arms and try to stand up. That was funny to watch! We tried the human knot, where you hold hands with different people and then work as a group to untwist the knot. Um, save that for older kids. It didn't work so well even with adult guidance.

We did "The Trench Run" from A New Hope when Luke has to go down the Deathstar trench and hit the small target. The target? Milk bottles. The ammo? Straws. Yep, it was really the old fashioned drop the straw in a bottle game.

I'm indebted to the Family Fun magazine's April issue (I think it was April, I can't find it now to double check!). We played Asteroid. Played one on one, each person stands inside a hula hoop and they have to toss bean bags into the other person's hoop while defending their own. The person who gets the most bean bags to land and stay in their opponent's hoop wins. This was a lot of fun. I plan to have my kids play this game all summer.

We also played Nerfherding. In Empire Strikes Back, Leia calls Han a scruffy-looking nerfherder. So we blew up a bunch of balloons to be the nerfs and had a large bucket turned on its side to be the pen. We had the kids use their lightsabers to corral as many "nerfs" in the pen as they could in a minute.

And only the ones that stayed in counted. We had them work in pairs, but you could do this individually too.

One game I desperately wanted to use but we couldn't because of the rain was another idea I got from the same Family Fun. I think it was called Planets or something. We were going to call it Destroy the Deathstar. Divide the group into two teams. One team has a soccer ball they can run all around and pass it to one another, but it stays on the ground and they can only use their feet. (In my mind, the soccer ball is the Deathstar.) The other team has a softer ball and they can only move their ball around by passing it to one another and they can throw it at the soccer ball to try to strike it. The catch is that when the ball is in your hands, you cannot move your feet. I think this would have been so fun and it would have used up as much time as we wanted.



We were also going to set up an Obstacle Course, but we just pared this down to a relay race instead. Had we been able to use our Destroy the Deathstar game, counting in all the other games, food and opening presents, we were right at two hours. Without the one game we had to kill some time so we put in a Star Wars movie. Oh, and we used a lightsaber battle as the filler while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Gabe wanted to dress up for the party, so we all did. We invited the guests to dress up too and several did. I made Gabe a Obi-Wan costume.

I was going to do a whole tutorial, but honestly, when I sew, I just McGyver things together. There are other, better sewers out there who have tutorials. You could check out Booga-loo for a Jedi robe like what I made.

I used a white shirt and pants (a little baggy, but no one cared), my winter boots and I happened to have a tan vest, which is what Princess Leia wears in Episode 5 at the Battle of Hoth.

I also made a Yoda robe for Malachi, but he misplaced it before the party. I don't think he would have kept it on.  Oh, well.

And as he was done at the last minute, we forgot to take a picture of Matt, but his was super simple. He was a Republic Officer. He wore dark gray slacks and shirt and made his rank insignia out of duct tape and drew one the bars with marker and just stuck it on his shirt.

Star Wars Party: Episode 2

All righty! More party prep: Food time. To see the invites and lightsabers, check out Episode 1. And games, check out Episode 3.

There is a lot of fun to be had with the combo of Star Wars and food.

There is the practically required Yoda Soda.

Mix green sherbet and lemon-lime pop. (Yep, we really say pop around these parts.)

And your Wookie Cookies.

We made banana cookies using this recipe. I figured Chewbacca kind of looks like a big ape-man, so banana seemed right. If I wasn't concerned about peanut allergies, no-bakes would have sort of looked like Chewie, and I might have done that.

I also figured if you take Trail Mix when you travel, they probably had Space Mix when they went into hyperspace.

I mixed Cheez-its, popcorn, and pretzels.

You may have heard of Coruscant (say core-i-sant), the planet-city and seat of government. We made Coruscantwiches. Get it? I love it.

They are just little lunch meat sandwiches on rolls.

Also in the running were little burgers and calling them Bantha Burgers, but I didn't want to mess with keeping them warm.

This hilarious idea was from Angie at The Cellar Door. Help free Han Solo from Carbonite! It's grape jell-o with a Han Solo figure (first cleaned) and submersed in the gelatin.

Here's a little bit brighter picture from when I made it:

Just mix your jell-o (2 boxes) and then add the figure and let it set up like normal.

And the  pièce de résistance:

Millenium Falcon Cake. With Darth Malt ice cream.

To make the Darth Malt ice cream, let vanilla ice cream soften, crush Whoppers candies, and mix into the ice cream. Let it set back up in the freezer.

If you would like a cake tutorial, keep reading.

The first step was to make a board shaped like the Millenium Falcon. I had it easy because we have a Lego Millenium Falcon, so I put it on my board and traced around it.

Then Matt cut the board and used a couple wood blocks to raise it up and to secure the cockpit to the side.

We used a brownie cake recipe because I wanted a thin, dense cake. We needed three 9 x 13 cakes. I set one cake on the base.

Used a knife and cut the excess cake so that it fit to the base.

And did this until the base was covered in one layer of cake.

On the part of the Millenium Falcon that is domed, I first frosted the cake and then added another layer. I trimmed where needed and filled in with cake I had already cut off where needed. Shaving carefully with the knife, I made the dome shape.

We bought a package of premade fondant at Michael's and some black food coloring, super concentrated kind. Matt added the food coloring and kneaded the fondant to work it in until we liked the gray color.

He rolled it out while I frosted the whole cake. Then we carefully laid the fondant over cake, smoothed it down and trimmed the excess.

The next step was detailing the Millenium Falcon. I used my Lego version as a guide, but a picture would work too. 

I put royal icing in a squeeze bottle and drew lines where the ship's panels came together. 

I added black coloring to the icing and did some black details and I also used some red piping gel for a few more details.

Matt shaped the dish out of fondant and he also made the guns. We came up with the idea to use four candles as the four guns on top.

Our little guy was so happy with it, and we were too!





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