Secret Agent Party -5yr- Laser Maze

Thanks for the great ideas on your website.  I used it to plan an awesome party for my five year old who loves spies and Carmen Sandiego.   

For our Secret Agent Party, I sent secret agent invitations in manila envelopes.  They said:  Top Secret on the outside. Inside they said,  Special Agent Jack has selected you for a secret mission.   Your mission, if you choose to accept is to attend Jack's 5th Birthday Party. Please report for duty: Headquarters Location Contact Number:  This message will self destruct in five years.  I decorated the house in flags made out of contruction paper for each of the countries that we visited and then I put maps on the walls. 

When the kids arrived I gave them their passport and put their finger print in it.   Then M (dad) entered in a suit, dark sunglasses, and with a briefcase. He had them promise to be good agents and thanked them for accepting the mission and explained the details. They would need to follow clues, decode messages, and locate contact people in order to discover the location of the stolen artifact. 

Agent training-    How Agents take fingerprints and passports - my husband made fake passports in each country the kids visits they received a sticker from the country  like a passport stamp.  We just printed out country flags on labels. Read book  Agent A-Z-  by Andy Rash Give out Agent Gadgets- Include such items as spy glasses, flashlight , mini pens,  magnifying glasses, note pad.  These were also the party favors.  I put them in a manila envelope with Agent Initials on it.

How Agents give and send messages- we used Candles to write messages on white paper and then used water color paint to reveal the message and Codes- how to write a message on a long thin piece of paper wrapped around half of a paper towel tube. How Agents can travel under laser beams on the stairs through a LASER MAZE I used curling ribbon, stretched multiple times across and around.  

M then explained their mission.  The agent briefcase (a pinata) was stolen by VILE Agents and had to follow clues to find it. He handed them their first envelope, containing invisible ink. He used an watercolors to reveal the message which said that they were to go to the airport and fly to France- formal Dining room. 

FRANCE- A French painter (grandma who could actually speak French) beckoned them to sit with her in front of an easel and played a version of Pictionary. They had to figure out a series of pictures, which spelled out Go Canada.  (Canada)  

CANADA-In Canada, (in the playroom) there were many white pillows on the ground that were icebergs.  James Bond music was playing in the background and they had to jump on the pillows- each time the music played they could run around and then when it stopped we took off one iceberg till they were all on one.  The last Iceberg had a message on the bottom to go to the Tea House in Japan.   

JAPAN- In Japan (the formal living room), I had a low table in the middle of the room.  I welcomed them in Japanese and had them play a chopstick game. They had to pick up one small round rice cracker and put in a bowl.  I then gave them each a fortune cookie.  The birthday boy received a cookie that had a fortune in it that read: Good fortune can be found in Belgium the capital of the European Union - Encyclopedia Book J, page 1.  

Belgium -They paid their bill and headed for Belgium, -the big bookcase in another room.  They found a message in the Encyclopedia to go to Egypt. 

Egypt- They were instructed to find a scroll seller and purchase a scroll. When they did, the scroll told them to search the great pyramid for a secret door with a scroll.  The scroll said they would find what they were looking for in the Jungle (outside)   This involves writing out the message on a long strip of paper which is only 1 letter wide. When you wind this long strip of paper round a tube (I used tube from kitchen paper towels) you can read the message.   

Portugal Outside find briefcase (pinata)  with candy.  (I made the briefcase out of large sweater gift boxes and tied ribbons around it then covered it in black tissue paper.  The kids pulled the ribbons and the bottom of the box came undone. ) Inside were candy and a puzzle. They put the puzzle together and it said the the cake (bomb) was in Russia-  Russia In Russia was the refrigerator and the cake.