simple spy 5th birthday

Hello Monday.  My most unfavourite day of the week.  We were supposed to have soccer tonight, but had a tornado watch pop up and it was cancelled.  No storms here, thank goodness.  I have a few scaredy cats (and dog) when it comes to storms.  I'm a little tense too, I must admit.  When my girl was a baby, we had a tornado slide right past our house- it can make you more than just a little weather wary after that.

I thought I'd take this unplanned evening at home to share a bit of  Miss E's spy party.  Now just a couple of things to preface this- we did this on the cheap.  I didn't get all spendy- over budget renos can change the way you do things.  I have been feeling less than inspired- I didn't go all out like I normally would have- I'm spent in both the pocket book and the inspiration bank with this reno.


READ- IF THIS PARTY WAS LESS THAN STELLAR IT WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE RENO

But- yes, there's a but.  Everyone had a good time- and that is always the main goal.  Smiling, happy kids who go home exhausted = good party.

If you remember, I told you here that my daughter wanted a "Spy Party" for her 5th birthday party. Spy party, huh?  I was at a loss (remember- uninspired) so I checked out Pinterest and found some ideas.  She also told me that a spy party is black and white and red.  Ok.

First we needed invitations.  I had totally forgotten her party was fast approaching, until Tim asked me about the invites.  Didn't have any.  So the girls went out to do some running around and hit the good old dollar store to look for invitations.

This is what we came home with.

"Mom, it's a spy party with kitty invitations."

Ok, I'm sorry, but this wasn't going to cut it for me.  (And these were not $3.25, nice try, dollar store) I put on my thinking cap and grabbed a marker and my letter stamps and some ink.

A spy wears sunglasses.

Perfectly, cheese-ily Laura.

Tag line.....spy party.... James Bond.... Agent 00...5

Perfect.  I loved them.  Cheesy.  Silly.  Totally my jam.  Tim had a BIG eye roll with these.

When the kids arrived, I had these secret agent name tags for them to fill out.  I made the artwork and just printed them out on regular printer paper.  If I had been more organized, I would have done them on cardstock.

I thought I'd share it with you, just in case you have a small (or medium) fry that wants a spy party too.  Click here to get the free download.  

They drew pictures of themselves in the little box and filled out the rest (or we helped)  It was great listening to them come up with different code names.  I'm pretty sure we had both an Anna and an Elsa.

I also found this code breaking kit at the dollar store.  You put a secret message within a bunch of jumbled letters (using different coloured pencils) and the red magnifying glass reveals the message letters, but not the rest.

But really, what did these guys want to do?  Play.  On the swings,  In the yard.  With the dog.  And that was fine with me.  But the best part- their favourite part?

Trailer rides!  I swear Tim drove them around for a half hour.  Putt putt putting around the yard.  The fact that Casey was riding with them, was the total cherry on top.

For her cake- I did cupcakes with cake pop "bombs"  It was cute and the kids tore it up.  I cheated and used the cake pop maker, it was less mess and that was fine with me.  I got chocolate melts from the bulk store and dipped them into that.  I gotta say, they did taste good.  They don't look the best, but  5 year olds, they don't care.

Now here's where my effort went.  The favours.  I found these plastic milk bottles at Walmart one day when I was shopping for cat food.  I thought they were super cute and for $3 each- I grabbed the carton of 12.

I made a graphic for each bottle with the kids' first initial and filled them with a "compass watch", mustache stickers, a few candies and a magnifying glass.

Really simple and really cute.  Even if you don't have the program, you could easily contact a sign maker (or me!) to do some graphics for you.  I love personalized stuff- it just gives it that little extra.

So all in all, the party was a success.  It was fun.  I didn't stress.  Our friends from out of town came down and they helped us kid wrangle then we had a nice visit after the guests went home.  It was a pretty perfect day.  Celebrating my baby girl turning 5- it was pretty bittersweet.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into her day.  I'll be back again this week, I hope with more reno updates and a few other things.  Have a great week!