Indiana Jones Birthday Party

My son hit double digits today :(  He's getting way too big too fast! He wanted to do an Indiana Jones birthday party so I got busy googling and found a ton of awesome things to do :) I promised my family a blog post so they could see how it went :D Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures lol It's hard to play photographer with a bunch of 10 year olds running around! But I did get a few and got some prep shot pics.

I found a lot of great blogs with awesome ideas, but the one we followed the most was HERE (I believe the blog is called Four Little Monkeys...I can't see the blog heading for some reason). So, here's what we did for our party :)

The Invitations:

I found a pic of an old map, downloaded the Indiana Jones fonts, and printed these out. Then I burned the edges a little, rolled them up, and tied them with twine. They turned out really cute!

Upon Arrival:

I made a CD of Indiana Jones music and had it playing and each child who came got their archaeologist on ;)

I made these easy Indy satchels out of brown felt and printed out a paper label (I found a blog that shows you how to print on fabric but I didn't get that fancy. I just sewed the paper right to the bag). 

And each child got an Indy fedora. I found these at Oriental Trading Company. They are New Year's Gangster hats - but I just pulled the New Year's band off and spray painted them brown. They worked great!

The Games:

Our group of archaeologists had seven missions to complete (pared down from nine - the party could have easily lasted another hour with all the fun stuff I found to do, but we stuck to the seven missions) :)

Each mission was preceded by watching a clip from the movies. I created a DVD that had an intro highlighting a skill an archaeologist must have followed by the clip followed by their Mission Assignment. The kids LOVED this :)

#1: An archaeologist must know where he's going

Clip - the scene when Indy is flying and it shows the plane flying with the red line traveling along the map

Mission - Discover where Indy is going

I did have a very nice world map but I put it someplace safe, so had to make this one at the last minute :D

I found an image of an old plane, printed it out, glued it onto some cereal box cardboard to make it stronger, and these were our Pin the Plane on the Map markers.

The kids had to get it closest to the big red X over Egypt that marked where Indy was going to find the treasure.

#2: An archaeologist must be quick on his feet

Clip - The famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indy replacing the golden idol and then running from the boulder.

Mission - Grab the idol before the boulder gets you!

This was our idol (thanks to Target's Halloween decorations and a cheap bottle of gold spray paint) :D

We placed this on the stairs and the kids had to replace it with a bag of rice before the "boulder" (my exercise ball, manned by my husband) bounced down the stairs and hit them. The kids had a blast with this one - I think some of them purposely went slow to get hit lol

#3: An archaeologist has to be handy with a bullwhip

Clip - I found a great montage on youtube of a ton of Indy with his whip scenes set to the song "Whip It". 

Mission - Take down the bad guys with your bullwhip!

So, I found out how to make bullwhips out of duct tape and they are AWESOME. However....I decided a bunch of 10 year olds hopped up on sugar running around with working whips might not be a good thing :) So, we used the one my son got for his Halloween costume and they took turns.

I lined up some action figures on a table outside and they had 10 seconds to knock them all down. They did surprisingly well!

#4: An archaeologist has to learn to use the weapons of the natives to defend himself

Clip -  Natives shooting at Indy with blow darts

Mission - Perfect your blow dart aim!

We gave the kids blow darts (big straws) and had them shoot spit wads at a target outside :D Tons of fun!

(I don't have a picture of this one, but I'm checking with the moms who were there and will update if anyone has one)

#5: An archaeologist should know how to fly (and land) a plane

Clip - Indy and his dad in the plane when his dad shoots out their tail end

Mission - Get your plane on the landing strip without crashing!

I made a simple "landing strip" out of cardboard and duct tape and found these great foam planes at the dollar store (each child got to keep their plane). Whoever made it closest to the X won :)

The kids were thirsty at this point so they came in and got a drink. I'd planned on doing the "you've been poisoned" bit and having them search through balloons to find the antidote but cut due to time. We did a modified version later on though :)

#6: To find the clues, an archaeologist must conquer his fears!

Clip - Indy with the snake in the plane and again finding the Well of Souls and seeing the snakes. We had the scene from Temple of Doom with all the bugs but decided to cut it due to time. We actually ended up cutting this entire game because the treasure was found a little early lol
Mission - Get past the creepy crawlies to find your clues!

#7 (we ended up skipping 6 and going to half way through 7): An archaeologist needs to know how to read a map

Clip - Indy in the map room with the Staff that showed where the ark was buried

Mission - Assemble your map to find your treasure!

We had planned on having them search through some slimy stuff (spaghetti and fake bugs and snakes) to find pieces of a map that they'd have to piece together to find the treasure, but as the treasure was spied a bit early, we skipped this.

The blog we found these ideas on built a model of their house out of Legos and rigged up a laser pointer staff that shown into the room where the treasure was hidden. I really wanted to do this but ran out of prep time.

So, I showed them a clip of what they were looking for - the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the open the ark (minus the sort of gory parts, just the shots of the arc) and then sent them into the yard to get it (they'd already found it earlier).

This was their treasure:

It was much more gold-looking in the sunlight. Just a cardboard box with vague angel shapes and paper towel rolls for the  handles spray painted gold and packed with candy :)

Then they came back for a final clip:

Message - Well done archaeologists! You've found your treasure! You must be hungry! An archaeologist has to eat strange foods when he is in other countries.

Clip - the "snake surprise" scene from Temple of Doom

Followed by the message - Enjoy Your Treat!!
But wait!! (Clip - Indy being told by Lao Che that he'd been poisoned, and he holds up the blue antidote) You've been poisoned! Quick, find the antidote!!

They all ran to the kitchen and grabbed their antidote bottles and had some cake :)

(Food table)

The Cake:

I found this AMAZING cake online HERE. Mine didn't turn out as well, but it was pretty dang cool :) The boys loved it. And, following the Snake Surprise clip, I hid a few gummy snakes and spiders inside the cake :D

Each boy went home with his satchel, hat, a ton of pinata candy, his plane, and a goody bag with gummy mummies, gummy spiders, eyeball gumballs, gold chocolate coins, plastic snakes, spiders, and scorpions, and a glow in the dark "crystal" skull. (All purchased very cheaply - definite perks to having a party like this around Halloween time) :)

The party was a blast! I just wish I'd been able to snap more pics :)