Secret Agent Spy Party!

Our 3 adorable boys ready to party!

I mentioned last week that we did a Spy Party for my oldest son's 9th birthday. Click here to see the invitations.

We had a grand time with 20 kids in our home sweet home!
I'm going to break it down into DECOR, FOOD, and ENTERTAINMENT.

THE DECOR:

I made a Secret Spy Candy Buffet as a special treat for all the hard-working agents.








I scattered bullet shells, top secret labels, and handcuffs around the tables. I put up bullet hole stickers throughout the house. We pulled CRIME SCENE yellow tape across doors.
I used a bright and fun color palette to make the crime scene theme more youthful!

I enlarged some fingerprint and question mark clip art and edited the photos by tinting them different shades to color match them. I attached them to corresponding scrapbook paper and hung them from the ceiling.

We made chalk footprints on our walkway to add to the suspense and fun. We also played Mission Impossible themed music in the background during the party.

THE FOOD:

I made custom water bottle labels for the kids.
I took mini chocolate donuts and put cut licorice into each hole to make BABY BOMBS!

Snickers? Twix? or Milky Way? How skilled are these agents at figuring out the MYSTERY BARS?
I had such a difficult time trying to figure out WHAT food to use to create magnifying glasses!! I finally came up with cheese and pretzels. :)
Question Bread, Clueless Chips, Detective Dogs, and Mysterious Munchies were among other snacks.

THE CAKE was incredible! I told a local cake shop that I wanted a bomb with a sparkler for a candle and they FAR exceeded my expectations!

THE ENTERTAINMENT:

I set out a Clue Jr. Game to play at leisure
Upon arrival, each guest was given their professional Secret Agent ID tagged and they were fingerprinted for security.
Party Favors included: Dark Glasses, Beach Bags, Agent Hats, Magnifying glasses, compasses and whistles, red lights, detective bands, and a trip through the candy buffet.
The invitation called each agent to our house (headquarters) for a specific mission. This mission was the MAIN source of entertainment.

A sealed envelope was opened and it stated that Skyler's birthday gift was robbed along with all the treat bags. This was officially a CRIME SCENE and it was up to our team to discover the bad guys and find the missing items! There were clues scattered around our neighborhood.

Each clue had to be retrieved by completing an obstacle. This first clue was hidden inside one of the balloons. These balloons blocking the door were representing bombs and had to be quickly popped to find the clue and prevent them from detonating.
The next clue was hidden in a laser field. This was my brilliant husband's idea and he did such a fabulous job setting this laser maze up!
We have no photos, but another clue used their cipher cards from the invitation to decode, and another had to be read in the mirror.

Another clue was in a bag full of fortune cookies! I took tweezers and removed the original fortune from one cookie and replaced it with a clue! So the kids had to break the cookies open and find the cookie with the clue. Here they are running back from the fortune cookie discovery.
There was danger along the way, the bad guys sprang out and attacked.


This next clue had to be scratched off like a lotto ticket to be revealed.

Finally! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

All the clues led to Skyler's birthday gift: a NEW BIKE! The bad guys had hoisted it into a GINORMOUS tree. BUT when they were caught by our team they agreed to surrender. And they even helped us rescue the bike from the tree.

What nice bad guys they were!

And just when you think you've seen FAR TOO MANY photos I decide to give you one more:

our nine year old...

Cameron Skyler

This posted is linked to:
A Soft Place to Land: DIY Day

Works for Me Wednesday

and
Today's Creative Blog

CandyCorn Sunshine

I whipped up (quite literally because I beat the frosting on super high speed...)
some cAnDYcoRn CuPCakEs.
I saw this idea last year (BHG I believe??) and I've wanted to make them ever since! I've even seen these pop up a little bit on the www this year. They're super fun!

I had this little display set up for my kids to enjoy when they came home from school!

We don't celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense. Though we don't participate, I do SO delight in the adorable children all dressed up with cuddly costumes and painted on button noses that patter around on this celebrated day! And candied apples on a stick are such a treat!

BUT...we do overly obsess over other holidays instead.

I enjoy seeking out the light in life: warm, bright, and happy things. I'm not a fan of the black darkness, tombstones, or grossness (is that a word?!) that Halloween brings. I know it's all in fun but I still haven't seen an attractive skeleton...and monsters freak me out! And I just can't get excited about filling my house with spiderwebs and big black spiders. I have enough of that without intentionally adding more. ;)

I prefer comfort over fright.
Color over dark.
Hope over despair.
Beauty over ugliness.
Fresh life over death.
Smiles with rosy cheeks over blood stains and painted on frowns.

However, if YOU my friends are celebrating, I will gladly share your enthusiasm over your creatively made costumes, or perfectly carved pumpkins as you unwrap another sweet treat to eat!

One. More. Thing.
I have always so adored this poem
and wanted to share it with you all as we close the month.

October Gave a Party!
the leaves by hundreds came
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And the leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
-George Cooper

(above photo courtesy of google image search)

"I want to be in the light as You are in the light,
I want to shine like the stars in the heavens..."
-DC Talk

This post is linked to:
The Beautiful Life at the Inspired Room

Secret Agent Party INVITES

The Name Is Bond,
James Bond.

It's a TOP SECRET,
Secret Agent,
Spy Party
for our oldest son, Skyler.



Here are the invites:

Click on photo to see detail

Secret Cipher Cards:

Next week I will share the party details!

Family Rules: Dance in the Rain

Dance in the Rain is such a beautiful phrase and what an excellent life application! We all pass through seasons of difficulty. BUT if we can figuratively dance through the rain, it's a lot smoother journey. Attitude is key to happiness....especially during the storms in our life.

As I was thinking about all of this one day, I realized that there were a few more life lessons that I wanted my family to know about....I just needed a way to express it as a daily reminder!

Then I came across the most beautiful canvas of FAMILY RULES on Lindsey's blog. I knew I could take that concept and use some rules mixed in with helpful phrases to create MY OWN canvas! I mentioned in my giveaway post that I was doing a project from Lindsey's lovely blog and this is it, finally!

Here's the how to:

-Paint your blank canvas. I painted the whole thing but really you just need to cover the edges and sides. I used a 24x36 inch wrapped canvas. The original canvas on Lindsey's blog was made with one much bigger though.


-Select your paper (this is the fun part!)


-Cut your paper using varied widths and fun edges. I have scissors and rulers that do some fun cuts as you see in these photo below:
I left some edges straight as you can see here:

I also used traced the edges of bowls to cut some scalloped edges, see photo below:


-Use mod podge to adhere your paper to your canvas. This stuff was a little beast for me! It wouldn't cooperate, leaving my project with tons of flaws!! BUT, I tried my best and that's good enough {wink}. I also used the gloss finish mod podge to give my canvas a finished look. I did 2 coats on the top of the paper. Let this dry overnight.

For fonts I read ideas to either use scrapbook vinyl stickers or print out fonts from online. You can also just "go with it" and write using your own style. I wrote free hand and just went with it to give it a more personal look. I used Painter's Paint Pens and they ROCK!! I adore these pens now! I used dark brown with a medium point. Here are some up close shots of some of my varied writings:

And this last font I waited until the paint was almost dry then I dabbed and rubbed a Q Tip on it repeatedly to give it a worn look.
-To finish the project off, I added ribbon to either side of the canvas. The ribbons are two completely different sizes, patterns, and colors because my intentions with this canvas were to have the whole thing be mixed and varied.

- I also added a couple paper frames to cover my mistakes embellish it.

This square frame was originally a bright white and it looked terrible! So I soaked it in a cup of tea to give it a more antiqued look so it would match my color theme.

And that's a wrap!

MOORE FAMILY RULES
1) Show respect at all times
2) Celebrate together
3) Cuddle when you're sad
4) Keep your promises
5) Dance in the rain
6) Never give up
7) Use gentle words
8) Be on each others team
9) Work cheerfully
10) Be honest always
11) Listen with your heart
12) Forgive easily

This post is linked to: