Sometimes I get ahead of myself. Case in point…Earlier last month, I threw my son his Birthday party even though he won’t turn 8-years-old until December 18th.
My reasoning was simple. Last year, only 6 kids showed up for his party, because most were either away for the holidays or had prior commitments. Jumping the gun this year paid off—22 of Joseph’s friends showed up for his James Bond 007 Birthday Party at The Children’s Workshop (aka Secret Service Headquarters…LOL).
I made cool James Bond party invitations instructing the attendees to RSVP or their message would self-destruct. I enclosed the invitations in brown kraft manila envelopes addressed to each “Agent” and stamped “TOP SECRET” in red ink.
Since I have a laminating machine, I made personalized secret agent ID badges for each kid.
Then I needed to come up with some Bond games. So I made some faux dynamite using paint rollers covered in tissue paper. I spray painted them red, then added black electrical tape, gold metal bolts, some colored wires and even a timer.
And let me tell you, it’s so much more fun to play Pass the Dynamite than a boring Hot Potato. The kids thought it was a BLAST!
Since I was feeling criminal, I also made a faux bomb. Using a Styrofoam sphere and a 2-liter bottle cap, I spray painted them with black chalkboard paint (don’t use regular spray paint as it will disintegrate the Styrofoam…lesson learned). Glued the bottle cap and a skein of red yarn to the sphere…and there you have Defuse the Bomb. I cut the length of the yarn to about 50 feet and had the kids literally tangle themselves up with it. The one who got the end of the “fuse” (aka yarn) won a prize.
I was tempted to leave the kids tied up in the fuse (aka yarn), but their parents were present (not that a few parents didn’t suggest I do so).
The kids drank fruit punch out of Martini glasses! And no, I didn’t spike the punch.
You can’t have a James Bond party without a little illegal gambling. So, of course, the kids played a little roulette!
Instead of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, I opted for Get the Bull’s Eye on the Body. I printed a free target at Target Printer and brought it to my local printer to enlarge on blueprint paper. Originally, I had planned to use a plastic dart gun, but the darts wouldn’t stick to the target paper. So we ended up using stickers with the kids’ names on them.
No Bond party would be complete without loot bags. I found so many cool things–cell phone flashlights, poker chip playing cards, whoopee cushions, glow necklaces, ID badges, million dollar chocolates, money notepads, play money, regular playing cards, flashlight pens, spy sunglasses, disappearing ink, light-up dice bounce balls, bomb bags, sequined bow ties, and mini Magic 8 balls!
Several parents told me their kids said it was the best birthday party they had ever been to (which, of course, made me BEAM!)
And like my Socialite Sister™ said, “Only you could make underage gambling and explosives fun!”
Mission Accomplished!
