Get Smart Spy Party -5yr- Top Secret Envelope

Get Smart/Spy Birthday Party My son had been watching Get Smart reruns with us, and decided that this was the theme he wanted for his 5th birthday party.  Realizing that most 5 year olds would have no idea who Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 are, we tried to tie in a Spy theme with enough of Get Smart to satisfy him. So after searching this and other sites, this was the party we came up with.

INVITATIONS; They were mailed in a manila envelope, marked TOP SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL using the stencil font from our computer. The invitations read as follows "Christopher Spy Agency invites you to participate in our Spy Training Academy.  On the inside left it read; Please help celebrate Christopher's 5th birthday by attending our Agency's exclusive spy training academy.  You will be fingerprinted, and have your picture taken as well as participate in various activities to earn your secret spy certificate and spy case.  Be on guard, Kaos, the spy enemy, may be trying to foil our plans!   And for the RSVP, I downloaded a picture of Maxwell Smart talking on a shoe phone along with our phone number.

DECORATIONS: We covered our walls with many pictures we downloaded from Get Smart Websites, as well as enlarged thumbprints, and gray and black streamers.  Black balloons hung around the table, and in corners, and various spy items (binoculars, telescopes, dark glasses, etc., made up the centerpiece. I turned an empty refrigerator box into a telephone booth. 

I hooked up a children's telephone to the side, and cut out an escape flap in the back.  We explained to the kids that spies have to enter the house in secret ways, so others watching wouldn't know where you were going, and this was our secret entrance.

SPY TRAINING ACTIVITIES; It was set up to run like stations, where each recruited adult would help with an activity, but it ended up that they all wanted to go through it at the same time, so it got a little busy.  As the children arrived at varying times, they were given a scavenger hunt list to go in the backyard and find items to practice their clue finding skills. Things like a lemon tree leaf, small smooth stone, a blade of grass, small weed, etc. To help with the non-readers, they were accompanied with sketches for each one.

1. DISGUISE Practice   My husband took a close up picture of each child with a digital camera, and printed it in black and white. They then were encouraged to design disguises, with crayons, markers, foam pieces, sequins, buttons, FEATHERS and other doo-dads.

2. CAR CHASE PRACTICE We used my son's new battery operated racecar track set for this 

3. TARGET PRACTICE.  We used 2 disc shooters for this.  The kids had to shoot them through a hoop. (a nerf basketball hoop set on a stand). Two children at a time would compete.

4. FINGERPRINTING I got a form from the this site,(www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/fingerprintcard.htm) and each child was fingerprinted.

5. Each child got to dress up in a trench coat (a size small raincoat, found at a thrift store, and I simply shortened the sleeves, and the overall length.), sunglasses and a plastic gangster hat (can be found at party supply stores, or Oriental Trading), and a picture was taken which was printed on the certificate.

6. We discovered that our big briefcase (a pinata) was stolen by Kaos, and had to follow clues to find it, only to realize the key was missing, so we needed to break it open with a stick.

FOOD; Cake in the shape of a question mark, pizza with pepperoni in the shape of a question mark, fun fruit in the shape of bugs (sometimes spies need to eat whatever is available when they're on a case), and chips.

FAVORS  I got plastic briefcases from the Back-to-school sales, that had compartments and this was filled with the items they got from each activity station; disguise glasses/with nose, notepad, pencil with bug on the end, plastic ruler, and compass ring. 

The certificate was presented at the end, which read; Congratulations, you have graduated from the Christopher Spy Academy.  You have proven that you've got what it takes to be a secret Agent by passing the following Spy classes; Fast Driving and Quick Getaways, Target Practice, How to Disguise Yourself, Fingerprint Identifications, and Survival Eating.  Their picture from the dress-up was added to it. 

We all had a great time. The children were still talking about the party weeks afterward.