Quest For Golden Dino Egg -9yr- Mummy Game

For my son's 9th birthday he wanted an archeology theme. 

INVITATIONS: I used paper with the world map on it throughout the party. I made a scroll and tied it with burlap string and the map paper on the back of it. On the front I wrote the story: The archeologist Indiana Jones and the Leggend of the Lost Dinosaur Egg of Gold": A long time ago in the amazon forest there was a village of native people who loved Dinosaurs. In fact they built their village next to a field filled with dinosaur fossils. The legend is that the people created a dinosaur egg of pure gold and hid a map within it which showed the way to an incalculable treasure. They loved the egg so much that they created a temple around it to keep it safe. The people disappeared and the temple was lost. The egg which is special because it belonged to a now extinct people group and because it shows the way to their treasure. Indiana Jones wants to find the egg and he needs your help. Come very for an archeological adventure October X at X's house where we will leave for South America at 10am and return by 12:30. We hand delivered the invitations.

DECORATIONS: We decorated the entrance to our house like that of a temple. With dinosaurs on either side and vines hanging off of it. Inside and outside of our house we decorated with a lot of antique vases and other old relics stones and fossils that my son has collected. We hung a huge web with spiders and more vines all over the house. We hung a snake from the lamp too. The food table had a tablecloth with dinosaur footprints all over it and behind it I used the same paper with a picture of Indiana Jones in the center and dino footprints too. There was a dinosaur head on the food table as well. There was also a large Mummy drawn and hung in one corner of the living room which was also part of a game. It was all made to look like a temple.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: When the kids got there I had them do excavation kits I got from OTC. When everyone arrived we read the story again together and then I gave them each their own journal to write down their clues (I had prepasted several clues into them). They looked up the first clue which was a picture of a whip. Then we had whip practice. They divided up into teams and tried to knock down pyramids of cups with their whips. Everyone got several tries. Then they looked up their next clue which was a temple. They figured out the house was the temple but their was an ancient language written above the doorway that they had to decipher in order to get in. Once they figured out what was written (Temple of the Dinosaurs) they went into the temple. The next clue in their books was a path with dinosaur prints. They looked down my hall and there was a long path with various types of footprints on it. They had to jump across the path stepping only on the dinosaur prints.

Then we went into the living room. There they had to get the last clue but the Mummy was holding it so they had to disguise themselves as Mummies. They divided up in pairs and one person was the Mummy and the other disguised him with toilet paper and then they had to hop over to the Mummy to get the last clue. The last clue was a large wooden chest. They opened the door to the kitchen and found the chest. Inside was the Golden egg (made like a pinata and spray painted gold). They opened the egg and found the map which had a picture indicating that the treasure had been divided among several miniature eggs in our yard outside the temple. Then they all went to find them. I had them collect all the eggs into a basket and then divide them evenly so that everyone got the same amount. After that we took a break to eat. And then they made their own fossils with salt dough. Lastly we did presents and then cake. The cake was actually an activity too.

COSTUMES: We all wore polo shirts khaki pants and hiking shoes and carried our whips with us. My son also had an IJ hat. 

FOOD: I had fun with the food! There were monkey brains(popcorn) Mummy eyes(grapes) Compsognathus eggs (mini choc eggs) Volcanoes (brownie pops) Poison snake (sub sandwich shaped like a snake) T-rex eggs (egg shaped sandwiches) beetle wings (chips) velociraptor bones (pretzels w marshmallows dipped in wht choc) Mummy blood (red punch) Temple Water (water) Antidote for poison (Coke) Liquid Gold (tea). I made all the labels with the same paper. 

CAKE: The cake was an archeological dig site. It had IJ lego men on top and a sign that said "Archeological Dig". There was even a little shovel and map. The kids then had to use paint brushes to slowly excavate the fossils which I had made and buried under the "dirt" (cookie crumbs). They had a blast and were so precise about it! 

FAVORS: I bought Indiana Jones gift bags. The kids got to take home their whip their journal the treasures they found in their eggs (a growing dinosaur dinosaur fruit snacks and sour gummy worms) and their fossils that they had made.  It was a great party. The kids were ages 5 to 12. They all had fun and enjoyed themselves and my son said it was his best party yet!  "