Spy Party

Makenna has been planning a spy party for the entire past year. I tried to interest her in some other ideas along the way but she has knew what kind of party she wanted. We had fun planning this party even though there weren't a ton of ideas out there to "borrow." First up is the invites. We made each invited person a "Top Secret" spy file for the invitation. This is the outside:The inside had all pertinent party information and a password they had to decode along with instructions on a secret handshake they had to learn.
Once all the agents arrived at the party they were all fingerprinted to prepare for training. Our spies in training:
The first training exercise was bomb detonation (popping about 100 black balloons):

The second training exercise was getting through the laser beam maze (red string criss-crossed a ton of different ways):
The third training exercise was target shooting (water shooters on a target on our back fence). After the training exercises it was time for the agents to undergo an actual mission. We told them there was a dangerous object hidden somewhere in the neighborhood that they had to get rid of.

The first clue was written backwards so they had to use a mirror to decode it.
The second clue was a map of the neighborhood leading them to an obscure location. The third clue used the same code as the invites and led them to the 4th location. The 4th clue was written on the sidewalk behind our house and led the kids to our neighbors house where they picked up the "weapon" (a bomb piñata)
After they found the bomb we brought it back to the house and destroyed it!
After the activities we had a nacho bar and "bomb" donuts for the treat:
After opening presents (where Kenna was spoiled rotten) we gave out the goodie bags. They included secret message decoder kits, spy glasses (you can see behind you when you wear them), spy notebooks/pens and candy from the piñata.
Makenna had a fantastic time with her friends and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves! It was fun to pull together such a unique themed birthday party!

Angry Birds Birthday!

For Carter's birthday party this year he decided he wanted an Angry Birds party! This past weekend was the only time the entire month we could host his party due to other commitments and traveling. It was a terrible weekend because of a big Primary activity, his actual birthday and having to do sharing time. It was crazy but thank goodness for Pinterest for providing most of these ideas and for Allen who I could not have pulled this party off without!

Cupcakes:
These were surprisingly easy to put together on the day of the party and all the boys got a big kick out of them!

Party Decorations:
I made a bunch of these Angry Bird lanterns in different colors and hung them all over the house and outside.

We had a hard time finding things for the goodie bags for this party, which was very surprising considering how popular this game is. I found the mini notebooks at Wal-Mart and ordered these fun keychains off of Amazon.
There were 12 different bird and pig characters that came in the keychain package and the boys loved swapping them to get their favorites.
We had two activities. First, we made a bunch of these pig boxes to use as targets for the boys. Allen bought a water balloon launcher and we filled up an insane number of water balloons before the party. (picture us dragging the hose into the house and hooking it up to the washing machine water outlet and filling up balloons for hours in the middle of the night....the things we do for our kiddos!)
The boys went to the park down the street and had a blast launch balloons at the pigs.
Carter and his friends:
After the water ballooning we had a food break. We had a nacho bar that the boys LOVED (seriously, this will be my go-to boy party food from now on!) We had a bunch of toppings and let everyone go to town. After nachos we had cupcakes and ice-cream.

After the food we had the boys hit pig pinatas. We made one for each boy and they had the BEST time whacking the heck out of the things. We just had a bunch of candy for them to take home inside each piñata. The green bags are the pinatas and the red bags are the goodie bags.

Carter was spoiled rotten by his friends and they had a great time together. I have no idea what happens between ages 7 and 9 but his friends have really grown up nicely. His 7th birthday party was WILD but a couple years later all those boys have really mellowed and were really pleasant and fun to be around!

Of course, I'm insanely relieved to be done with another birthday party. I'm glad I get a slight reprieve before the craziness of the February birthdays begin!

Pinkalicious Party!

Saturday was Makenna's 5th birthday and we were able to have her friend party on the actual day! It was such a FUN party to put together and throw and she had a wonderful time.

The invitation:

(courtesy of my friend Becky)

The decorations/table/food:

(also served bagels with pink cream cheese, pink lemonade, pink applesauce)

The activities:

The girls decorated pink, glittery crowns and made pink beaded bracelets.

The CUTE Party goers:

The Birthday cake:

The favors:

(Pink gumball machines, candy bracelet and cupcake charm necklace, plus the girls got to fill up a bag of treats from the jars on the table)

A closeup of the cupcake charms I made for the party. Turned out so cute and I made them into necklaces for the girls.

We also read the book Pinkalicious and opened gifts. Makenna has such a cute little group of girls her age in our ward and neighborhood and they all had a great time together. This party was much more laid back than Carter's bday party last month and the girls were so cute and ladylike.

More birthday fun to come!

LEGO Birthday Party

Saturday we had Carter's party here at home. He asked for a Lego party months ago and even though I tried to convince him to have a party at a destination (less work for me) he REALLY wanted this party so we obliged. I'm so glad we did it. It turned out to be really fun and easy. He invited all of the boys from his primary class at church and all of the boys from his class at school. ALL of the church boys came and only 1 class friend. It was a wild bunch with the 8 boys we had so it turned out to be a perfect number.

We played a bunch of LEGO related games and building challenges - picking up Legos with chopsticks, spell out your name with Legos, build the tallest tower, build the biggest space ship, etc. We also had some relay races and a Lego matching game. The boys had a lot of fun and were very competitive.


After games we fed them pizza for lunch. I ordered three large pizzas thinking we would have lots of leftovers but the boys pretty much devoured all the pizza - so funny. We moved on to the cake. Carter really wanted a Lego cake and this is what I came up with:

The boys loved the individual blocks and thought it was really cool. If I could do it again I would probably use fondant instead of frosting for a more smooth look but Carter LOVED it so that's what is most important.

After eating Carter opened his presents and then we let the boys play for awhile before it was time to go home.

For goodie bags we gave out bags of misc. Legos (ordered in bulk off of ebay), Lego block candy and Lego keychains (made by Allen). The boys thought it was great.Overall it was a fun and easy party to put together and Carter and his friends loved it!