Tuesday, September 28, 2010

my baby! he's 8!

The youngest ninja turned 8 (my baby! he's 8!) last week. It's his year for a "friend party." In previous years we've done a few outsourced parties--no, they weren't hosted by an Indian man supposedly named "Greg" but rather a sullen college student in a matted mouse suit performing for a writhing mass of red-cheeked 4 year olds. Our financial situation since the Great American Financial Implosion has, ahem, changed tremendously, so this year it was a "friend party" on a budget. Luckily this particular ninja had no grand dreams of a Batman jump house or some such so we went with a secret agent theme, easily accomplished with office supplies I had on hand.

Here's the invitation, which I put inside a small envelope made from a large manila envelope. The font is Old Typewriter, found here.

When the kids arrived, they filled out an ID badge:

The square was for their thumbprint, or you could put a photo there if you are fancy.

Games included a treasure hunt and hot potato with a "grenade" (easter egg covered in duct tape). Here's the cake, a total non-sequitor (gumball machine) but that's what the ninja wanted:


I finally figured out this mysterious Viva paper towel method of making the cake look like it's frosted with fondant without having to actually eat fondant. After cake and presents and another impromptu treasure hunt, we sent the kids to the basement, threw Cody Banks 2: Destination London up on the projector, and sat down for a tiny rest. After 15 minutes, I heard this: "They said we were going to have popcorn and it's been like 2 hours and WHERE IS THE POPCORN?" That was my cue to get up and pop the promised corn.

On the way out each agent got some Pixi sticks, a secret agent badge (dollar store) and magnifying glass (ditto) wrapped up in some old engineering plans from dh's office. I think we all had fun. And I was grateful for the shop-vac when I saw the basement.













6 comments:

Denise said...

Jackson had fun and I thought the invites were so cute. The thought of having 13 boys in my home at one time is too much for me to handle. Good job!

Lindsay said...

is it lame that I really wish I could have attended this awesome party? I guess it's not that cool for an 8 year old to have his saggy ol aunt pretend to be a spy at his birthday.

pianogal said...

I don't know how a bunch of 8-yr-old boys could ask for more. What a fun idea. Hope it made up for the crazy McDonald's trip!

Marcia said...

Sounds very fun! Just as fun as C.E.C. The kids had a great time!

Patty O. said...

Oh, this looks like it was a fantastic party! I love the invitations. I get such a kick out of coming up with cheap, creative ideas for birthdays and Halloween costumes.

We have yet to throw a friend party here--I am a coward--but I really like the secret agent theme. Great job!

Elizabeth said...

I saw this on Sunday and by Monday night I had 8 invitations delivered. I love it! We had already planned to have a party for Adam (I love kid birthday parties), but I had never done a theme before. I had always thought themes were Disney character themes or something like that. It had never occurred to me that I could do a theme and just have it be casual and not WAY! OVER! THE! TOP! with matching forks and cups and blah blah blah.

I also had not ever thought of having his party in the evening. I love that too! So that's what we're doing tomorrow night. Thanks a million for your ideas.

Any chance I could get you to expound on your treasure hunt? What were your clues? I hate to copy you (not really), but I hate to reinvent the wheel too.