This party is for all the James Bond’s out there! It’s taken me a whole year to post but Sam’s 8th Secret Agent / Spy Birthday party was heaps of fun and full of activities!
A Secret Agent or Spy birthday party requires quite a lot of advanced planning so I hope that this post gives you some ideas and inspiration.
To make your party planning even easier the printables you see in this post are nearly all from my Spy Party Printables package which includes LOADS of printable decorations (& a fun invitation too!).
These templates have an editable text feature so you can change all of my sample wording to suit your own party easily at home! This gives you lots of flexibility to tailor them to the ages of the children involved and with your own activities.
Spy Birthday Party Invitations
Invitations were sent out to each guest in a little folder. Each invitation was personalized for every guest, who was given their own Codename (referenced throughout the party), a secret password to decipher and a secret handshake to learn.
Spy Birthday Party Registration
On arrival at Secret Agent Headquarters each child came to the Registration Desk. They did the secret handshake with Sam and whispered the secret password decoded from their invitations.
They then each received a clipboard, a pair of black sunglasses, a black t-shirt and their Secret Agent ID Badge. I had already glued a photo of each child onto the badges (but my template lets you print a spy silhouette instead of photos if you prefer).
This checklist was on their clipboard and they were told to check off each activity as it was completed.
Our Special Agent Grandpop “Codename: Bonkers Poppy” (named by the birthday boy ) then fingerprinted each child using Fingerprint Cards I had ready.
If you do this activity, don’t forget to have wipes on hand to clean ink-stained fingers afterwards (and try and find washable ink!).
After putting on the shirt and being fingerprinted, the first thing the kids did was fill out this background check. This was approved by Secret Agent “Bonkers Poppy”.
As the children were only 8 years old, I tailored the questions to suit that age group and the kids took it very seriously and even answered truthfully!
While we waited for all the kids to arrive, we used the mugshot backdrop and took photos. The kids loved hamming it up in front of the camera with the mustache & fedora props!
Once everyone had arrived and all background checks were completed it was time for secret agent training!
Secret Agent Training (or Spy Birthday Party Games!)
1. Face Identification
I had previously cropped photos of each child’s face (either the eyes or mouth) and the kids used their observation skills by looking at their fellow agents and matching them to the respective photo.
I assumed that this activity would take a minute or two, but they were very thorough in their investigations and it took a little longer than expected.
2. Code Breaking
Using my automatically encrypting Secret Codes and Ciphers I created a couple of secret messages that the Secret Agents needed to crack. As they were only 8 years old I used 3 simple codes – Reverse Alphabet code, Polybius Grid code and a Cut-Out code/cipher.
At this age, I found that some kids were easily able to crack the codes and others found it more difficult (particularly the Polybius Grid) so I was thankful to have a few adults on hand to help.
If your kids are older you can use some of the more difficult codes to challenge them.
3. Bomb Detonation
This was Sam’s favorite activity! I released 100 red balloons that were already blown up and waiting and the Secret Agents detonated as much “TNT” (as we called them) that they could in 1 minute. Next time I would blow up more as I found out that boys can pop them really quickly!
It was fun to see the creative ways they used to pop the balloons. The boys loved this. The girls … not so much – some of them went outside as it was too loud.
After all the TNT had been detonated, we went outside where everyone was given some bomb bags (like these ones on Amazon). Each Secret Agent had the chance to throw some bags and watch them explode.
4. Laser Beam Training
All Secret Agents were instructed to navigate the Laser Beam course without touching the beams. This is a really fun Spy training activity (and is definitely an easier activity for the gymnasts in the group)!
We used yellow ribbon (I wanted to use red but didn’t have any) and taped it with really strong tape to the walls at the back of the house where there was a kind of corridor.
This activity was inspired by some I had seen here on Pinterest.
5. Target Practice
Target Practice involved about 500 water balloons. Sam’s dad was the ‘target’ and the kids had a ball throwing the water balloons at him!
You could also do this activity with Nerf Guns, or marshmallow shooters and have some proper targets to aim at.
Top Secret Mission
After the Secret Agent training was completed and the kids had graduated to proper Secret Agents, it was revealed that Enemy Spies had stolen their favor bags and their first Top Secret Mission was to find them.
These Enemy Spy mugshots had been plastered all around the house and it was disclosed that they were indeed the suspects in this Favor Bag theft.
This newly graduated Secret Agents were shown this Suspect Board and told to use the clues on the board to find the suspects.
The Enemy Spies (“Absurd Anna”, “Crazy Kamla”, “Afraid Aimee” and “Angry Alex”) were Sam’s big sister and friends, who had strategically left lego pieces, soda bottles, flip flops and candy wrappers in a trail to a neighbors house.
Following the clues led the Secret Agents to the right place to retrieve their Party Favors!
Spy Birthday Party Favors
Kids were all sent home with a favor bag of candy, some extra mustache photo props, and a couple of harder Secret Codes to crack.
They also wore home their black t-shirts, sunglasses & ID badges.
Phew! I hope you have found lots of Spy or Secret Agent party ideas and inspiration! Spy theme Birthday Parties can be a lot of work but the kids have an absolute ball.
Remember to check out my Spy Party Printables package for all the printable invitations, decorations and backdrops seen here in this post (comes in purple as well for the intrepid Spy Girl) and also my popular auto-encrypting Secret Codes & Ciphers too!
Happy Partying!