Indiana Jones Birthday Party

Wow! We had BabyBoy's 6th birthday party yesterday and it was a blast! The weather was not so hot...it poured down rain for the first hour or so and sprinkled the rest of the time. Of course, the sun did make an appearance...just as all the parents were coming to pick their kids up!

I had tons of fun planning this party. BabyBoy originally wanted a Lego Indiana Jones party. I finally managed to convince him that 14 boys sitting around a table fighting over legos for two hours might not be that much fun. So, we planned a super fun afternoon filled with action.

I dug through the cobwebs of my old stationery stash and made these invitations:

Front


Back


Basically, I took an image I got from googling "Indiana Jones" and copied and pasted it into the stationery program that I use. I stretched it to fit the size card I wanted to make. I added the text box using the Fedora Font. I then printed these out and burned the edges and glued them to a cardstock backing. For the reverse side, I used scrapbooking paper that looked like an old map. I printed the text onto the paper, burned the edges again, and taped them to the other side of the cardstock. They were really very easy to make and ended up looking pretty cool!

Our friend Andrew agreed to dress up as Indiana Jones for the party. I knew he would be perfect. He's a "semi-retired" high school principal who is now a stay at home Dad to Jack, 8, and twins Alice and Clara, 4. He's totally creative and over the top and he loves to get into characters and mess around with the kids. We went to Disney with them a couple years ago and I swear he had more fun than the kids.

As the children arrived (running inside to avoid the freaking monsoon that was outside) we sent them to the basement. They hung out there watching the first Indiana Jones movie while we waited for Andrew and his wife Christy and their kids. And waited, and waited. It was really only about 15 minutes but it seemed like a lifetime with 12 little boys, one hyper ass little girl (that would be my sweet BabyGirl) and four grandparents trying to corral them all. Finally, Andrew arrived. And he didn't disappoint!

I started the Indiana Jones theme song on the boombox and he came bounding down the basement steps with whip in hand. It was hilarious.







He explained to the kids that Belloq, his nemesis, had stolen his treasure and he needed their help to get it back. If they were successful in their search for the treasure, they would get to share it with him. He passed out the first clue to the kids:



I then passed out some little shoulder satchels that I found at the Dollar Tree. Each child got a bag to put their clues in and to fill with treasure at the end.

We headed to the Mummy Gallery (also known as the garage) and wrapped the kids up like mummies. It was so funny. They did require a lot of grown up help, so this might be an activity for older kids.






Inside their toilet paper rolls they found their next clue:



They headed out to the Snake Pit (our playset draped in fisherman's netting with snakes and clues scattered about)




There they found their next clue:



They headed out to Crocodile Creek (a babypool filled with water and random dirt and reeds. We put the clues inside ziploc bags and weighed them down with river rocks. We also had some rubber crocs and turtles in the water). I had kind of expected the kids to reach INTO the pool but as it turns out they all just jumped right in!




They fished through the water to find their next clue:



They headed over to a table we had set up with Chilled Monkey Brains (cold jello), Beetle Guts (cold spaghetti) and Eyeball Soup (grapes). They had to reach their hands into the boxes and feel around for clues. Too funny. They all loved the jello. I should say, they loved flinging that jello at one another. The girls were totally grossed out.




Inside the boxes of "food" they found their last clue:



They headed to the Airport Hangar (the garage) to find the treasure. Andrew (Indy) had helped them all throughout the treasure hunt and was there with the treasure. He did this elaborate skit about booby traps and spirits and then finally unveiled the treasure box. It was a big wooden box that I use in the basement to store my workout videos. We had just turned it upside down and I taped some pictures of old travel stickers on it as well as the Property of Indiana Jones label. It looked really cool. We then lifted up the box to reveal a huge pot of candy. Of course, at that point all hell broke loose and the kids dove on top of the pot. We had to pry them off and dump the candy all over the floor. I had to drop the camera to break up the kids...thus no pictures of the candy. Oh, well. You've seen one wild swarm of sugar dependent kids diving carelessly for a pile of candy, you've seen them all.



After the kids filled up their little sacks with candy we did the cake and ice cream thing. Andrew sung Happy Birthday to the tune of the Indiana Jones theme music, which we'd had playing all during the party.





The cake was originally an Army cake from Ukrops. They have the best cakes. Unfortunately, they didn't have an Indiana Jones theme cake. So, I just ordered the Army cake, took off the plastic tank, and added BabyBoy's Indiana Jones truck dragging Indy behind it. Big hit.

One of the most adorable parts of the party was BabyBoy's friend Brody. He actually thought Andrew was the REAL Indiana Jones. He stuck to him like glue throughout the entire party. Asked for his autograph (which he got on the back of a party plate) and asked "Indy" to tell him about some of his "adventwars". It was so, so adorable.



And here we have the whole crew:



The favor bags were pretty basic: Indiana Jones coloring books from the Dollar Tree, a plastic compass, a chinese yo yo made to look like an Indiana Jones whip and some plastic snakes. We had also given each kid a paper fedora at the beginning of the party. They were pretty flimsy, so if you're planning a party like this I would definitely forego the hats.

Overall, it was a great party. Putting the clues together was not difficult; it took me about an hour the morning of and then my stepmom helped me roll them up and put them in the plastic bags, etc. The background of the clues was a graphic I found by googling "old maps". I just added a text box on top of it in a font that's part of an old scrapbooking program I have.

BabyBoy got tons of neat gifts. I'm pretty sure his favorite is the Nintendo DS Lite that he got from my father in law and stepmother in law. He got the Lego Indiana Jones game and the Lego Star Wars game. He totally wasn't expecting it but had been begging for one for months. So far, he's cleaned his room, his sister's room and the playroom in an effort to earn "free time" on top of the one hour per day I've allowed him to play the thing. This is working out pretty well for me so far! I wonder if he'll do windows?