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When Magnolia's 6 friends (+ her sister) arrive at our house they enter using the iPad that is set up to take their fingerprints. Then they choose spy disguises and receive their official ID badges.
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| 2nd-grade spies in disguise |
In the kitchen, prominently displayed, is the ice cream buffet, with all kinds of candy sumptuously laid out. Once everyone is here, Shannon instructs them to head upstairs, but the stairs are rigged with yarn—I mean lasers—blocking their path and they have to Mission Impossible through without touching any. When they all successfully complete that first training exercise, they watch an orientation video, which is interrupted with an urgent communication.Marc Firsht, a known criminal, is on the loose. No specific action is required at this time but everyone is instructed to be on the lookout.
At that moment, a clatter downstairs in the kitchen—banging, clanking, doors slamming—and then a loud cackle and heavy footsteps as the intruder flees. When the new spies, on high alert, run downstairs, the magnificent ice cream and candy display is gone! And so are all the gifts! Stolen!
Shannon gets a text on her phone. It's from headquarters: "It is no longer safe to communicate with you at your current location. Security has been compromised. Drive immediately to Magnolia Park to receive further instructions."
When they get in the car, they are handed a printout of information about the villain:
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| Some villain origin stories are more epic than others. |
At the first stop, Magnolia Park, they are given clues that have them scurrying across the park to tupperwares hidden in shrubs with clues to ponder, codes to decipher, and an invisible-ink map that promises to lead them to their next destination. All are excitedly contributing, brows furrowed, suggestions and guesses voiced confidently among friends.
They are super smart and figure it all out, with the help of their tool kits which include black light flashlight-pens!
Shannon loads them all into the vans and tells them they are totally responsible for guiding her, using their piecemeal map, to get to the next destination. Shannon and I are in communication this whole time as I am setting up the clues, scrambling, not ready at all. Did I mention that I was up all night creating this thing and it's still not quite done?
The lead van, meanwhile is the best kind of purposeful chaos. The girls are trying to hold the pieces of their puzzle-map together to figure out the best route. At one point, Shannon circles a roundabout umpteen times before the girls, frantic, tell her which road to get onto. A little later, to buy me some time, Shannon pretends, twice, to be distracted by an airplane and misses a turn. Much shouting ensues—"Mama! Pay attention!!"—but they eventually get to the library.
Once inside, they, on the orders of a text-message directive from headquarters, retrieve a tube from a librarian. It contains a riddle that leads them to a cipher taped to the bottom of a table. By solving a math problem, they get the call number of a book, and nearby library patrons are amused by the excited gasps as they near the appropriate decimal on the spines of the books. The chosen book contains a slip of paper, a coded message, spaced oddly and written in backwards letters.
At this point, with all the library clues planted and found, I make a quick appearance (as myself) to the group, hoping they won't realize I've been, and will be, absent from most of the party. Then I slip away again as they pile into the girls bathroom to hold the code up to the mirror and use the cipher to decode it. Again, they are super smart. I didn't make these things easy. The code tells them their next destination: Costco.
Once there, headquarters instructs them to get some lunch and await further instructions. This whole time my parents have been driving their own car and meeting us at each location. This time they meet me early at Costco so I can get my mom into costume and set her loose.
Another text: a senior agent (Grandma) in disguise in Costco is trying to give them another message (the combination for the other lock on the ice cream case). Our heroes must find her so she can inconspicuously drop the note on the floor for them, but they must avoid being seen by Marc Firsht.
Seven little girls in disguise SWAT teaming it through Costco on a Saturday receive their final directive from a grandma in Groucho glasses.
They pile back into the vans and head to their final destination, their school, where Firsht is headed to eat his ill-gotten ice cream. They've guessed he'll be at the playground, but when they arrive and tiptoe through the forest he's nowhere to be seen. His case, however, is sitting right there, unattended, atop the playground. And all the presents! They sprint—the ones who are brave enough—to retrieve it, then hide in a little wooden fort a ways away.
Firsht comes back moments later and is increasingly frantic and devastated to discover his ice cream is gone.
Some of the girls work to figure out the combination lock, while others keep their wide, wary eyes on Firsht. As he wanders around, woebegone, the girls are unsure what to do. Feels weird to have an ice cream party while the guy you just stole your ice cream back from is wailing nearby!
As the actor playing Firsht, I'm unsure too. Should I just exit stage left so they can enjoy their ice cream in peace? That doesn't feel right, though. Thankfully, some of the grown-ups suggest the girls come tackle me and invite me to their ice cream party.
Maybe such extravagant magnanimity for a criminal is naïve and ill-advised, but their readiness to forgive and extend radical hospitality was truly inspiring. For many of them, among the mix of intense emotions today has been legitimate fear—while there are suspicions that this villain is really Magnolia's dad in costume, no one, even my own kids(!), is totally sure—yet despite their fear they are so ready to forgive!
They jump out of the fort and start yelling after Marc. He takes off across the soccer field, afraid he's in trouble. They pursue, yelling things like "We wanna share!! We wanna share!!"
When they catch up, they group-hug him and convince him to come back to the fort.
The ice cream is a little melty, but there's plenty for everyone, even the parents who are now arriving to retrieve their children, and it tastes that much better with a little reconciliation on top.
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If you have 9 minutes, I highly recommend watching the video below to see a little more of the girl's enthusiasm, and trepidation, and courage, and cleverness, and astonishment. Full screen is best.
