Indiana Jones Adventure -8yr- the Dig Site

Indiana Jones Adventure Party - 8 YEAR OLD -   Several months before the new Indiana Jones movie was released, our son watched for the first time Raiders of the Lost Ark" and then wanted an Indiana Jones Adventure Party.  And so the planning began for an 8 year backyard adventure party.  The party was set in hot June and so we purposely planned for early evening and some water activities. 


INVITATIONS:  Invitations were printed on brown paper with a faded 1930's map of half of the world and then using the computer and some clip art we dotted lines and added planes where Indiana Jones had already been.  We used a special font feature on our publisher that made the title of our invites look like the lettering on the posters.  Since they looked like maps we made them into a tri-fold wrapped with twine and braided some glass beads on the front and then used hot wax and sealed them with a monogram seal and these were hand delivered.  The wording on our invites.. Front of the tri-fold: Indian Jones is back and he is searching for the crystal skull but... (picture of Indiana Jones (from the movie website) and a world graphic). 

Open the tri fold and inside is the map with the following wording...(all in the Indiana JOnes font) Indiana Kyle is planning his own adventure for his 8th birthday and needs your help... Please join him for an archeology expedition - date- address - wear your explorer gear - Be prepared for water hazards - global food will be served (cake available for those that don't like slime slugs and monkey brains) - Hope you can join us - We need you - Reserve your dig spot by date with (Last Name) Expeditions.  We also found some 3-D stickers from Michaels that looked like scarab beetles....and added those to the front as well. 

DECORATIONS: We held this party in our front and back yards.  Upon arrival our front yard was decorated with an oversized army tent cargo supply boxes (made these from different sized brown cardboard boxes and made signs on the computer - stencil font - explosives danger expedition supplies destination: cairo etc.) skull tiki torches (Oriental Trading) and a homemade directional sign (made from a packing pallet...the flat pieces were broken off and had rough edges and sizes then we wrote the different destinations on with black paint and brush.  Neatness didn't matter and then they were attached to a post...our sign listed the following locations - india egypt italy south america and of course nevada for the location of our party).    

COSTUMES:  After the kids arrived and most of them were dressed in their explorer clothes  we outfitted them with a dig bag to be carried for the whole party (we wanted these to be similar to the one that IJ has but also needed something simple and inexpensive to make for 20 guests...we made these from the small 3 in a pak black canvas bags from Michaels - cut off their handes hole punched the sides and then double laced twine with dangling beads at the bottom).  They worked great.  The kids found the ones that fit them best and then put them on over their shoulder and we did not see one of them removed.  We also gave them some props for the  boys -  indiana jones style leather whips (ebay for about $2.00 each)and for girls - asian purses.  The girls were not interested in the purses but all wanted the Indiana Jones whips too so we had plenty for all and then took a group picture in front of the cargo supplies and directional sign.     

ACTIVITIES:  Also in our front yard was a load of sand that we had delivered from a ready mix company and placed on the front driveway.  We put up a shade cover and again homemade sign from the pallet pieces that said DIG SITE.  Also had some shovels (dollar store) and a foam skull (from a bag of bones from Birthday Express) sticking out of the top of the dirt.  The week before the party we had made homemade rocks (recipe on Family Fun - treasure rocks) from coffee grounds salt and sand and inside each rock we placed a clear bouncy ball with a bug or spider inside from (Oriental Trading).  They were great treasure rocks and after a few days became really hard.  WE hid these in the sand mound and the kids loved trying to find them.  We also hid quarters and some egyptian treasures and the remaining bag of bones.  The kids placed their treasures in their dig bag and tried to recreate the skeleton bones.   After the dig we had whip lessons and they had fun trying to make the whip snap...THe whips looked authentic but we spaced the kids apart from each other so they could practice safely.   

After they finished practicing we proceeded to the back yard where we had draped our two story jungle gym with construction blankets to make a cave.  Inside we had draped cobwebs (oriental trading) mummies and skeletons (Oriental Trading) snakes and bats (Oriental Trading) and hidden the holy grail.  They explored the cave with flashlights that we made to look like torches (Dollar store flash lites placed inside a paper towel tube and then add yellow orange and red tissue paper to end and cut to look like flames.) These flash lites really looked like torches...and the kids thought they were cool.  Also the backyard was decorated with lit tiki torches and the indiana jones movie posters some asian lanterns (Oriental Trading) with lights strung to look like a marketplace masks more cargo supply boxes tables draped with tarps and mosquito netting.  Also playing in the background was the Indiana Jones music from the latest movie.     

After exploring the cave the gazebo was set up to look like a temple of sorts and they had to decipher heiroglphyics...first one to complete could then experience their final adventure - Crystal Falls (which was an inflatable double water slide)  You can rent these but we purchased ours to be used the rest of the summer...(Wal-Mart or Toys R US).  It was hot outside and this was the perfect thing to cool them off and clean them off after digging in the dirt and exploring the cave.    

PARTY SNACKS:  Our food for the party consisted of finger food which was displayed under a mosquito netting canopy.  We served the food in interesting containers...coconut cocktail drink holders (Target) and a Monkey without the top of his head bath trash can (Target) (trying to replicate the monkey brains food scene from sequel 2) and some purchased mess kit pans from the goodwill store.  We labeled the food with names like alligator eyes (grapes) monkey brains (fruit inside the top of the trash can) butterfly wings (potato chips) worms (gummy worms) and beetles (choco covered raisins)and more.  Also we had jungle juice (which was raspberry lemonade) and next to it were antidote containers (from the 2nd movie) with m&M's and labels that read -poison antidote - must be swallowed within 3 minutes of drinking jungle juice.  The containers were paint pots (Michaels) with the an RX label on the front.  The kids thougth these were great fun and an M&M treat too.   

CAKE AND FAVORS:  Our cake was an Indiana Jones cake purchased from Wal-Mart. It was great it even had a decoration with a lever to release the boulder.  FUN!!  We served cake and ice cream sandwiches (not so messy as ice cream).  To end the party we broke the pinata which we made out of another cardboard box - added a label that said expedition supplies (stencil font) and then tied rope around it and hung from our patio.  It looked like a crate from the 30's hanging in our marketplace and a great looking prop and cheap pinata.  It was filled with candy bugs snakes and slimy frogs.  The kids used their dig bags to put all their loot in.  We didn't do more goody bags for the kids as they alreay had treasures from the dig whips asian purses and pinata treats.     We all had a great time and it was truly an adventure for our son and all his friends…       "