An Epic Indiana Jones Birthday Party

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My son just turned seven, and he requested an Indiana Jones birthday party.  He dressed up as Indy for Halloween, after watching the movies and becoming obsessed with treasure hunting.  It’s actually adorable.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve thrown a big themed birthday bash, so it was super fun to throw my creativity into it and see what we came up with!  I searched Pinterest for all the Indiana Jones birthday party ideas and there were actually some really great ones out there so I was able to come up with some fun plans.

Invitation

I designed my invitation on Photoshop and used the Adventure font which is pretty similar to the Indiana Jones font.  I rasterized the type and used a gradient on it to have it yellow and orange.  I think it turned out super cute, layering an old timer map in the background with a Quick Burn action.   Then I just printed them on my color printer.  Not too shabby.

 

Decorations

I didn’t go crazy with Indiana Jones birthday party decor, since I didn’t want to spend a ton of money.  The plan for the party was the send the kids on an Indiana Jones-style adventure all over our house and yard, so at each area, for each “challenge”, there were varying amounts of decor.  However, you basically just go with a wild safari/exotic theme.  The biggest things I did was to get each child a hat and a satchel so they could feel like they were really going on an adventure.  I found the hats at Zurchers; they were just brown plastic cowboy hats with a paper bandana loop around the brim, which I took off and covered with a brown grosgrain ribbon.  I sewed the satchels myself from some tan felt material.  It was a super basic pattern I made up and most people can figure it out.  I sewed two sides closed, then added a little corner, flipped it right side out and added a strap.  If you need more, here’s a link to a free pattern.

Inside the satchels I put a little scroll of paper detailing their challenges as well as a ‘dart gun’ (a smoothie straw) and a little plastic flashlight, which I also found at Zurchers (12 for about 12 bucks.)  It was actually great to have them carry the satchels throughout because we had a few activities which they got more items and they could just add them to their satchel.

Challenges

Challenge #1:  Discover Hidden Gems

We started out in the front yard where they hunted around for some small geodes (Amazon) which my hubby smashed open for them.  These are such a novelty for kids and super affordable.  Some of the geodes can actually be broken open by simple throwing them down hard on the sidewalk, but it’s best not to do that because then the pieces go everywhere and into the grass.

Challenge #2:  Blow Dart Dash

Then we headed to the backyard where we had them try to hit each other with the ‘darts’ (Q-tips) from their dart gun straws.  This was pretty fun.  I had the kids all in one line, but if I were to do it again, I would have them on both sides of a designated path for the kids to run.  It got a little chaotic.  The dart guns were smoothie straws, which are wider than regular straws and I found them at the grocery store.  They blew Q-tips out of them and it worked really well.

Challenge #3: The Leap of Faith

Next up was the Leap of Faith, copied from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  We set up some wood planks over a little kiddie pool filled with water and plastic snakes and they had to walk on it from the ground up to our little back deck steps.  This was pretty simple actually.  Once they got across, they got a little gold chocolate coin from a mini treasure chest.  If I were to do this again, I would make this challenge a little more difficult by making the plank longer or extending it with a few other planks.

Challenge #4: The Idol Swap

The next challenge was the Idol Swap, like in the Raiders of the Lost Ark–the classic scene where Indy swaps the idol for a bag of dirt and then is chased by the giant rolling stone.  We didn’t have a giant rolling stone, but we placed our ‘idol’ on a skinny candle holder and they were supposed to swap it for a little bag.  I wasn’t in charge of this station so it didn’t actually work out that well, haha!  They only did it once even though they were supposed to each have a turn.  That particular challenge kind of fell through the cracks with everything else I was doing.  If I did this again, I would get a smaller ‘idol’ and set up the station a little better.

Challenge #5:  Dinner with the Maharaja

You can’t throw an Indiana Jones birthday party without the dinner with the Maharaja, as seen on the Temple of Doom.  The actual scene is the movie is super disgusting to me, since they are served baby snakes, beetles, eyeball soup, and monkey brains.  I tried to recreate this meal with kid-friendly things:  baby snakes=gummy worms; beetles=potato chips; eyeballs=grapes; and the monkey brains were chocolate cupcakes in a printed cupcake wrapper with a monkey face and I piped pink frosting on top in the shape of brains.

I decorated the room with a long table close to the ground so they could just sit on the ground.  I lined the ground and table with a magenta colored plastic tablecloth.  I found some giant paper leaf placemats at Hobby Lobby as well as some cheetah print napkins.  I got some cool Indian looking candle holders which I spray painted gold and put candles in.  I also bought a big rubber snake for the centerpiece.  The final touch was sprinkling the entire table with fake jewels and chocolate gold coins, which the kids helped themselves to.  The lighting was low and I used some candles and some sitar music to set the mood.  This part was really fun and the highlight of the party for sure!

Challenge #6:  The Tunnel of Bugs

The last challenge was the hardest to set up–the tunnel of bugs.  I made a tunnel on our basement stairway by using cardboard to create a very low ceiling.  Then I put fake spiderwebs all over it, as well as a whole bunch of fake, realistic looking bugs and snakes.  We hid these little gold bricks in the tunnel and the kids were supposed to climb through it and use their flashlight to find a gold brick.  I took them one at a time so it would stay dark and stay a surprise to the other kids.  There were a few kids that were a little too nervous to brave the tunnel, so we just took them back the way we came.  I liked the way we did this, although it was a huge pain before the party started, since the only way to get downstairs was to actually go through the tunnel–not as easy for big adults!

Challenge #7: Gold Brick Excavation

The gold brick was the treasure at the end of the adventure, and the best part of this is that these bricks are actually meant to be excavated so the kids were able to dig out real ‘gold’ (pieces of pyrite) from the bars.  Normally it takes quite a while to excavate these, but my husband helped the process along by breaking them open for the kids.  Get this Kit

The one thing I didn’t expect about the party is how quickly the entire adventure went!  We should have made each challenge take a little longer and possibly make them more difficult.  My son also had a meltdown in the middle of the party so that was a little distracting.  I’m always so shocked at how fast kids can rush through activities! We opened presents and afterwards the kids went back downstairs to eat more of the food and play with each other.  It was a beautiful day so it all worked out.

Here are a bunch of links to the supplies I used: (affiliate links)

If you liked this post, check out some of the other parties I’ve thrown!

Minecraft Birthday Party with Free Printables

Hair and Nails Birthday Party

Summer Water Themed Birthday Party