Moments of Marlowe's: Secret Spy Training Camp (Mason's 4th Birthday)

About 4 months ago, Mason told me he wanted a Secret Spy Birthday Party. Not just any secret spy party, a Pixar's Cars 2 Secret Spy Party. We talked about where the party would be, birthday's in July are hard- it is HOT, two weeks before his birthday is was over 100degrees. But he insisted he wanted the party at home. I searched everywhere, etsy, pinterest, even Google, but all Cars 2 parties still focused on McQueen. I soon realized I would be flying solo on this one. He also told me wanted to use the colors blue and orange (which coincidentally worked well since Finn is blue and one of the bad cars is orange) so I got to work.

I started with the invitation. I tried to use as much spy lingo as I could. I wrote Top Secret on all the envelopes (we hand delivered most, but two went through USPS- I wonder what they thought!)

I was worried about the weather so I kept the party early- 10 a.m., it made choosing food pretty easy. I loved how the table turned out. To me, it's all about the presentation.

I made the grapes into caterpillars (aka grapes in disguise), sausage balls- regular and gluten-free (we had a friend coming who is gluten free), watermelon stars, Allinol Punch, stop light rice krispies, and of course, the cake!

I couldn't find a cake that I liked- so I came up with this idea myself. Mason LOVES Finn and Holly, so I had Target decorate the cake with a half land/half water theme. Then I put skiing Finn on the water side, and I took a toy Big Bentley and hot glued Holly to the top and placed it on the land side. Overall I thought it turned out cute.

You can't have Secret Spy Training Camp without some activities- so we played "Disguise a Spy." I made paper sunglasses for each guest with their name on them. Then they were blindfolded and had to get the glasses over either Mater or McQueen's eyes. It was a lot of fun and the kids did pretty well!

You can't attend training camp without a "Master of Disguise Mustache" station. I bought chipboard mustaches, and provided markers, stickers and sticks for the kids to decorate their own mustache.

And what would a party be without a Pinata?!? (or as Mason calls them a PEEYata) Again everything was geared toward McQueen and I couldn't pay $55 for a Mater pinata on Etsy. So I made this one, bought a Cars 2 movie poster and let Mason pick out what part of the pictures would be featured on the Pinata. So one side was dedicated to Holly, the other to Finn chasing Professor Z and two other bad guys. I did a pull string just to be on the safe side. And it worked out that everyone got a turn before it popped open!

Mason gave his stamp of approval before the party started.

After opening his presents he spent some time "inspecting his loot!"

And finally, no secret spy party is complete without an "Anti gravity Chamber" (aka bounce house!) We had it the entire day so after the party- the kids jumped, and jumped, and jumped!