One Year Older

Last week, my cute Little J had his 6th birthday! On his actual birthday, he had a cookie cake in his class at school and we went out to dinner to the restaurant of his choice. Then on Saturday, he had his birthday bash. This year, he wanted to have an Indiana Jones birthday party. Which is funny, because he's never even seen any of the movies. He just knows about it because of his Lego Indiana Jones Xbox game and Lego sets, and of course all the commercialism of it. But an Indiana Jones party it was!

I made simple but cute invitations that looked like old leather journals that you open up and there was a picture of Indiana Jones with Little J's faced photoshopped on and then the invitation part that looked all burned and old around the edges inviting them to join him on his "birthday quest." I wanted to do the party in the back yard, but the weather is so unpredictable this time of year, I couldn't plan on having it outside, so we had to do it inside which limited things a bit. So I did my best to decorate the inside to look like a jungle with green crepe paper as vines and snakes and bugs, etc., so they could have their adventures.

As people arrived, they got to make their own Indiana Jones whip. I just bought some backer rod (I think that's what it's called - I happened across it at Home Depot when I was there to buy some paint) and then black duct tape for the handles. Then they had to prove they were brave enough to go on the quest by jumping over the "snake pit." I had ordered these big plush snakes that they eventually got to take home as part of their party favors to use in the pit. We kept moving out the perimeters of the pit further and further with each round. And since it was a group of extremely excited and rowdy boys, of course they had to do things like fall into the pit and scream and writhe like snakes were attacking them, use the snakes as whips, etc.

Then it was time for the quest to find the hidden treasure. I gave each boy a map I had made from brown paper grocery bags and they had to work together in a group to find the treasure. It was a scavenger hunt around the main floor of the house, with clues on the map as well as clues they found that would lead them to the next clue. Since they were all kindergartners, the clue on the map gave them the first letter of the next place to look, while the clue they found was a "sounds like" clue. For example, the clue on the map may say Ch_ _ _ and the clue they found that coincided with it was the picture of an ear for "sounds like" and a picture of a bear. So putting the two together, they knew the next clue was hidden under a chair. Get it? Anyway, they had fun doing that, but I thought the end was hilarious. I thought the last clue would be the easiest. It was "T. __." for the location and the sounds like clue was a picture of a bee. They were like, "Uh, tea? Tree? Pee?" Finally, they figured out "T.V." and ran downstairs to the TV and totally don't even notice the big treasure chest sitting on a gold table cloth right in front of it!!! They were looking all around the TV for the next clue! So funny!

I had spray painted a small styrofoam ice chest gold and put inside it individual little linen pouches marked with their name on it. The pouches were filled with Hershey's Nuggets chocolate candy, fake gold coins, and fake "jewels" which were really just clear and red decorative rocks that looked like diamonds and rubies. The funniest quote of the day has to be the little boy that grabbed his pouch and goes, "Yeah! We got power ups!!!" I don't have any pictures of the treasure hunt to share, though, because we realized afterward that we had only gotten video of it. I guess I could get some stills off of the video, but I'm not that ambitious when it comes to blog posts.

After that, it was time for presents and cake. I loved the cake this year. I'm a big fan of doing cupcakes at birthday parties because it makes things so simple and easy, but I couldn't think of anything good for a topper that would go with Indiana Jones, so I ordered a cake (which actually the store had to special order). It turned out so cute with Indiana Jones running from the big boulder on it.
After that, I sent them out back for the remaining 15 minutes until parents picked up and just let them chase each other around with their whips and do whatever boys do. And then I took an Excedrin and had a strong drink...(jk on that last part, but I could have used it!) I think it turned out to be a fun party and now my Little J is six. I love that creative, funny, insightful little guy!