Double Agents

Two of my favorite spies (I'm not disclosing their identities) just had a birthday.

Their mission, that they chose to accept was to have a spy party. They invited their fellow CIA agents, the best in the business, and selected among them members of their special spy teams.

The invitations contained secret codes concerning the location of the rendezvous point, as well as the date, time, and the guest agent's secret name and password. (Pssst. The secret password was "Happy Birthday." Tell no one. This message will self-destruct as soon as you finish reading this post.)

Who says my twins aren't identical? Bet you can't tell which is which!

When each agent arrived, and after successfully given the secret password, they were given a spy kit containing everything a good spy needs to get the job done, including a top secret spy notebook and pen, invisible ink and a decoder light, a compass, a small gun that ca be easily hidden from search, a compass, a great disguise, and a Wooly Willy, so they can practice their disguises. And of course Abba Zabba (the candy of choice among spies.)

Then each agent was fingerprinted, and picked for either Derek's of Dylan's team by selecting a top secret file.

Then they were put through a series of training drills, where they had to diffuse bombs with their rear ends (what is the spy word for hiney, anyway?), practice their interrogation skills, decode secret messages, and then whisper their codes into one another's ears to try to find their secret contact.

And of course the had to do some weapons training on the CIA shooting range.

When they were all successfully trained they were ready for their first mission.

It was explained to the agents that it was feared there was a mole among them, who was on the inside, gathering top secret information, and selling it to the enemy. Each team was privately told to suspect the other team, and try to find out who, and where the double agent was.

First, the teams had to diffuse balloon bombs on the trampoline and retrieve a letter clue inside each one, then unscramble the letters to see where to go. They had to start in the side yard, and get through a tangle of red yarn "lasers" in the garage.
Then they had to go through more lasers, real ones this time, in the dark hallway. (We rigged up a laser pointer and tapes some CDs on the wall to reflect the laser beam, and make it bounce back and forth a few times. They squirted a cloud of baby powder to reveal where the laser beams were so they could crawl under. It was very cool, but not good for taking pictures.) Then they had to retrieve a lock box and return through the laser maze in the garage.

But the lock box required a key, so one team set up a series of motion detectors then the other team had to figure out how to get past them without setting the alarm off. If they did, they had to start over. Once safely across, they then had to pick a lock to get into the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, a whole bunch of keys were laid out, and the agents had try each key, and put them carefully back exactly were they originally were, just like real spies, so that no one would know they had been there. We had to make sure that they left everything exactly like they had found it.

Then the box was unlocked, and a blank paper was inside. They quickly figured out how to read it using the decoder light. (Thank you Dollar Tree!)

then it was time for birthday cake. Dylan was nowhere to be seen (suspicious!) so Derek got to do the honors. But it seems the villain double agent replaced the regular candles with relighting ones, and Derek had a heck of a time trying to blow them out!

Then when Derek went to cut into the cake we discovered it was styrofoam! The villain had stolen the real cake. The kids used to secret message to find him, down by the mailbox.

The double agent was Dylan! He was in his get-away vehicle, and he had a gun!!! But the brave spies chased him down anyway. They retrieved the stolen birthday cake, but Dylan got away by jumping over the wall. Then the getaway driver gave all the agents rides on the getaway vehicle.

Some of the agents finally caught Dylan in the back yard, using the hose to wet him down, while other agents snuck through the motion detectors and lasers to rescue Agent Derek who had been kidnapped by Dylan's henchmen and tied up. Hooray! A successful mission completed for these special agents!

Finally, Dylan, the humbled and repentant double agent, revealed that he was in fact a triple agent, and had been working for us all along, so we let him have his chance at blowing out the birthday candles on the real "bomb" cake. He sure was surprised that he couldn't blow them out either.

Finally, they got to open their presents. Dennis surprised them with twin skateboards - fire and water - about a different as Derek and Dylan are. They were so excited, because I keep telling them they couldn't have skateboards because they would break their arms like my brother did - twice. Now they just have to learn to ride them.

Happy birthday special agents Derek and Dylan!!!