Indiana Ben & the Birthday of Doom

For ten days I obsessed over Indiana Jones. Not in the normal "Harrison Ford was a hottie with a whip" kind of way. It was the "How am I going to entertain a gaggle of 6-8 year old boys for two hours Indiana Jones style". Since we decided to only let the kids have a friend birthday party every other year, I was feeling some self-inflicted pressure. Ben's 6th birthday had to rock!

My dirty little secret is that I ACTUALLY LIKE planning and throwing parties and making themed cakes. Ben's birthday bash was no exception! I admit...it was MAYBE a little over-the-top. I knew I was in deeper than I thought when Rob asked how much this was costing & I couldn't give a more exact answer than "probably more expensive than taking them all to Pirate Island, but cheaper than going to Disneyland". Somehow I don't think that made him feel better.

I made fabric whips, satchels, blowguns and hieroglyphics for Ben's friends (nothing like sending a bunch of boys home with a couple of weapons-what a good friend and neighbor I am). Because we haven't finished the backyard we had to be white trash and have the party in the front (which almost drives me crazy). Upon arrival, the guests came to Base Camp (Rob set up a tarp tent, and I put artifacts in the planters, and they sat on a bunch of canvas tarps). Ben's guests were treated to a dinner of boiled snakes (hot dogs cooked in green food coloring), beetle wings (chips), giant spider eyes (grapes), ants on a log (celery filled with peanut butter & raisins) and monkey brains (Jell-o). Rob was a good sport & searched half of Salt Lake County for a brain mold the week before the party ( I love that man for SO many reasons...this time it's because he found me a brain mold)!

After eating we had a note from Indy telling them clues to their next destination. Everyone also got their satchel at Base Camp-you have to have something to carry all your loot in right?


The first stop on the adventure was lion taming. Everyone got a whip and had to knock the "lion" off his stool. We have a size 4 lion costume that fits Rachel's giant dog and voila we have a lion that needs a good whipping! Of course Hayden had to get in on the action. His whipping technique was decent for a one year old, but in the end the lion simply had to be pushed off! My sister, Melissa, was in town from Ohio and came to help with the party. I was grateful she was able to be here (I miss her something fierce)!



On the next leg of our journey we went to a Balloon Fight in Cairo. Each person had to grab a balloon out of the yard toy, slide down the slide, shimmy through the tunnel and pop the balloon. Then run back and do it again. I was going to do water balloons but with the weather getting chilly at night I decided I didn't want a bunch of frozen, wet boys by the end of the party. Some of these kids didn't weigh enough to pop the balloons. They tried to stomp it, sit on it, squeeze it but to no avail...Rob had to help by pinching the balloons as they squeezed it. After all the balloons were popped they recieved a bag of mini-marshmallows (which, like any good parent, I told them the marshmallows might be poisoned so don't eat them). They needed some ammo for a later activity and what better ammo is there than marshmallows?




Next stop: Swing Across Snake River. Objective: Make it across the river (aka. a blue tarp with rubber snakes on it) without falling in. Rob rigged up a swing between some ladders, the boys loved this and had to do it again, and again and AGAIN! When they finally had enough swinging they got a marshmallow blow gun.








From the swing we went to the Tiki Snatch. The guests had to run along a 2x10 snatch a statue and run back without being annihilated by a giant boulder (my exercise ball wrapped in brown paper). Rob & Melissa were teasing me because I popped a couple kids with the boulder a little harder than I meant to! Of course, because they are boys they thought that was funny. No tears were shed so I don't know what the problem was!

Onward to the Creepy Tunnel in search of the Holy Grail. I taped several big boxes together. Then put spider webs between the boxes, bubble wrap on the bottom of the boxes and put loads of rubber rats, spiders, and lizards in the tunnel. One boy told me he WOULD NOT be going through the Tunnel, it was too yucky. The kids had to crawl through the spider web filled tunnel and once on other side they ran to the Snake infested Dig Site to find a Holy Grail.



They filled the Grail with water and ran along a 2x4-this is where the marshmallow guns came into play. As one person ran through the others fired marshmallows at them trying to make them spill their water.










Next we moved on to the mines of India where they loaded into the mine car (a sled pulled by Rob) and had to make it around the corners without derailing. Poor Rob was a little winded after pulling so many mine cars. At the end of the mine shaft was a hieroglyphic tablets for each child. I made up an alphabet and wrote each kids name on the tablet. They didn't get the deciphering key until they completed the next task.








The Garage of Doom...the final task was to build a Temple of Doom out of candy Lego bricks (which they picked up at an earlier location). Once they finished they received the paper to decode their hieroglyph. They also were able to unravel the mystery written on the wall...Meet back at Base Camp.





While I was helping the adventurers build their Temples, Rob & Melissa were at Base Camp lighting tiki torches, and getting out cake & ice cream and moving the gifts out of the tent. Lauren was busy hiding items for a scavenger hunt (in case we had to wait for parents to arrive). Initially I was very worried about the timing, but it worked out perfectly for the allotted two hours!


It was funny and/or semi-embarrassing to note that partying out front made quite a brouhaha. There were neighbors driving by that stopped and came back to find out what we were doing, some older boys hung around on the outskirts of our yard watching, and a couple people said they didn't know if we could be friends anymore after seeing how party-crazy I am. Thanks Melissa and Rob, without you both I would have failed miserably! But it was such a success that I put all the props, and instructions in a box labeled Indiana Jones Party in the basement for use when Hayden is old enough to appreciate it! After this gig, I'm thinking that maybe I will only do parties for the kids between the ages of 4-10...then again they might be turning 18 & I will be begging them to let me throw them a party. Only time will tell!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY BEN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!