Indiana Jones Party -7yr- The Snake Room

For my son's seventh birthday this year - he decided that he wanted an Indiana Jones Birthday Party.  He has wanted this party before, as he has been into" Indiana Jones for a couple of years now - however there were very few Indiana Jones items available - until this year - with the release of the new movie.  Now there are a lot - you just have to search the internet to find them. 

First we made the invitations.  I took brown shipping paper that I found at Wal-mart and cut it into the size of a regular sheet of paper (8 1/2" x 11") - so that it could fit into my printer.  One the front of the invitation I scanned a picture of Indiana Jones from the dvd case along with a partial map of our town and I wrote the following:  "The adventure began 7 years ago on July 4th 2001...the location - the Chambersburg Hospital.  From our first location we traveled to (our first apartment) to (our second apartment) and then onto our fianl destination (our current address) - where the adventure continues... Join Nick as his next adventure begins - the 7 year old birthday crusade."  Below this was the partial map with each of our locations and red marker going from one to another - as this happens in the IJ movies.

The map was gotten from MapQuest.  At the bottom the invitation said "Date of Adventure - Sat. July 5th - Journey begins at 5:00 pm.  Adventure should be complete by 8:00 pm  Anyone wishing to join the expedition - please call (our phone number) by July 1 2008.  On the back of the invitation - I scanned different Indiana Jones pictures that I got from an IJ computere game that we have.  Since the invitation was on brown paper - it looked like it was older.  Which since the movie is set in the 1930's to 1950's - this was great! 

After the inviations went out we started planning the events of the party.  You would need to give yourself at least a month to prepare - as some things we painted.    The night of the party all the boys (as it was strictly a "boys only" party - according to my son - but I'm sure you could invite girls also) played outside until everyone was in attendance.  Once everyone was there - we directed them into the dining room - which was converted into Dr. Henry Jones' office.  On our dining room table I had a couple large wall maps of the World displayed - along with a gold cup (to look like the one from the third IJ movie) - a ancient aztec alphabet (which I copied from online) - a couple of pictures - one of Mutt and another of Indy and his father (from online) - I copied them and printed them out (make sure the one of Indy and his father is in black & white - as colored photos were not available then) - I framed them in older looking frames and put them on the "desk".  Also on the desk was Indy's hat and whip (purchased from the Indiana Jones shop online). 

Along with all of the props - we had a letter - also made on brown paper - in Indy's handwriting (use Staccato222 BT - font) - which read as follows: "Dear Nickolas  I was hoping to meet you in person however due to my academic responsibility I need to spend some more time in the library on research for my next trip to Europe.  Since I can not be with you today I am in need of your help to uncover the hidden treasure of the 7 year old crusade.  I have found that if you start at the beginning uncovering the clues as you go along you should be able to find what you are looking for.  Your first clue will come to you as soon as you become a native of places that I have visited on past trips.  Look for someone who can make you into a new being.  I wish you luck - you may need it.  Your Friend Indy"  After reading the letter to the group of boys they went back outside and saw that Nick's aunt was set up at a table with face paints.  Each boy then picked out a native face painting (from some print art) - and got their faces painted to look like natives of far away places. 

After the face painting the received their next clue - which read "Now that you look the part of an adventure please choose your weapon carefully.  One hold the clue for the next step that you need to take."  They looked for the next area in the yard that held "weapons".  We divided them into teams and they had to shoot weapons to each other - thru a hula hoop tied to our clothes line.  The first one was a nerf cross bow second was a space gun third was a rifle and corks. 

Lastly was water balloons.  The water balloons were camo balloons - which when filled up -looked like dirt.  The boys had a blast with this.  On the bottom of the water balloon bucket - was their next clue.  Which read: "Weapons are needed but in order to receive your next clue you need to realize that the mummy knows best.  Pick one to play and the truth will unravel before you."  Keeping the boys in their teams - they had to pick one to be the mummy.  Each team was given a roll of toliet paper and had to wrap the mummy with the entire roll.  After the roll was finished a clue was found on the cardboard - which read "Search the desert - in the sun - five different colors of jewels to find - before the night comes.  Take your five jewels to the one who leads this crew - she will give you your next clue." 

The boys rushed around to find a desert - which happened to be in our sand box.  I had hidden "jewels" that I found at Michael's craft store.  They dug thru the sand and found five different jewels - which they brought to me - to receive their next clue.  The next clue read "You're almost there - time is almost up - search the cave for the golden cup.  One at a time - must go thru - shine your torch bright and no harm will come to you."  At this time - the boys were very excited - as in the midst of this party - they noticed that our car port was tranformed into a cave.  I used cardboard - which I got from a local appliance store - and I taped and spray painted it all a darker brown stone / cave type pattern. 

Inside the cave I decorated it in two sections - with another cardboard wall inside.  The first part of the cave was the snake room.  I purchased a lot (approx 60) rubber snakes online from party pooluza and oriential trading - along with some at our local dollar store.  I had also purcashed a aztec type container at a yard sale - which I had snakes crawling out of.  The snakes were on the floor of the car port - I used a tan plastic table cloth for covering before dumping the snakes on the floor.  The second room had a couple of large skeletons and a bunch of cob webs along the sides - in the middle was a stool - covered by a tan table cloth - with a golden cup sitting on it.  I found a couple of glass cups shaped like Hawaiian masks - which I painted gold - and put a battery operated flame in it - to look as though it was lighting up.  Inside of the cup - was also the next clue.  The boys had to go thru the cave one at a time - with a battery operated flashlight - that looked like torches (purchased at Oriential trading) - these were neat - they had a fan inside them that blew a cloth flame when they were turned on. 

The next clue - read - "You found the gold - now is the time to be bold.  Look for the snakes on the floor - where there is one clue more."  We had our oldest son inside the cave to help read the clue - and then the boys had to go back to the snakes and get on their hands and knees to search thru the snakes for the last clue.  Once this was done - they came back outside and read the last clue.  We had the hold all the boys at this point until everyone was back outside - before reading the last clue.  It read: "Crusade searches take heart - go back to where this search did start. 

The treasure there you will find - along with fun of a different kind."  At this point my son realized that they needed to go back to Indy's office to find the treasure.  The boys ran back inside - where on Indy's desk - there sat a large arc of the covenant.  I painted a large styrofoam coolor - inside and out - with gold paint - put two dowel rods thru the cooler - as handles - and put my son's birthday presents inside the cooler.  The boys all carried the arc outside to a present table and then my son opened up the arc to find his presents.  The boys thought this was sooooo cool! 

Afterward  they had cake and ice cream.  I made an Indiana Jones shaped cake from an older Wilton cake pan - a cowboy - that had Indy with his whip - swinging it over his head.  I used gold candles to give it a glowing effect.  The party actually only took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours - but I wasn't sure of how much time it would take to go thru everything - so we had it for 3 hours.  The extra hour was spent with the boys all running around to all the different activities and thru the cave.  Which was a big hit!  For party favors I used the torches plus each boy received a large rubber snake from the cave - and I made home-made treat bags - white lunch bags with IJ stickers on them - inside was an IJ chinese yo-yo a gummy mouse a snake finger puppet stickers a telescope a magnify glass and they each received an IJ coloring book that I found at the dollar store.  Most of the favors I found at oriential trading some at the IJ store online. 

One note - if ordering from the IJ store - be sure to order early - as most of my items did not arrive until the day of the party - and I ordered them more than a month ahead of time.  The boys had fun - and they can't wait until next year.  "