Indiana Jones turned 7!!

So if you remember, last year for Ashlyn's birthday I went "all out" and threw her a really cute tea party for her birthday. Well this year it was Blake's turn for a "thought-out" birthday party. I asked Blake what theme he wanted it to be, and with no hesitation he chose Indiana Jones. I thought, "this should be a piece of cake!" Boy was I wrong. Its been a few years since the most recent Indiana Jones movie came out, so it was IMPOSSIBLE to find anything Indiana Jones. I spent a whole week going from store to store looking for things I could use for the party. In the end, I had to make pretty much everything I used. So below are pictures from the party and descriptions of all the work that was put into it...

First off, is the Indiana Jones gear...

Blake's Indy hat in the picture above was something I bought from Michaels a couple of years ago, but I really wanted the kids at his party to have a hat to wear as well. So I searched and searched until I finally found some green St. Patricks Day hats at the dollar store, and with a little bit of brown spray paint I transformed them into Indiana Jones hats...

Here's the whole group of them wearing their hats...

(Ellie, Hailee, Ashlyn, Max, Charlie, Haydn, Blake, Levi, Shawn, Dallin, and Connor)

Then comes Indy's whip. Once again I came up with nothing at the stores, so I found some cheap rope at the dollar store and made my own. First I made a loop by the hand grip, then I braided it and left some unbraided pieces at the end. Then once again took some brown spray paint and painted it to look like leather. Here's a picture of it...

Blake was SO excited for the whip. The entire week before his party he begged me to play with it, but I made him wait because I wanted it to be special on his birthday.

And of course you have to complete the outfit with the little side bag that Indy always wears. So I found an old handbag of mine in the basement and and old belt/tie thing that came on one of my skirts, and WALLA, you have Indiana's little bag...

Next comes the party games...

I made the game kind of like a scavenger or treasure hunt. First I read them the introduction to the game...

1st clue...

Here are some pics of the Archeology Dig. I hid the next clue in it for them to find, along with some snakes and "treasures".

(Bins filled with rice, plastic snakes from the dollar store, candy rings, bracelets, and golden coins.)

3rd and final clue...

Here the kids had to dig into the different "yucky dishes" to find the golden idols. First one was "eyeball soup", which was a bowl of grapes in water. The next was "monkey brains", which was cold spagetti noodles, and the last was "snake guts", which was green jello. The "golden idols" that they found were these...

(Army men that I spray painted gold. We already had these so all that it cost me was a can of gold spray paint.)

I also had a pinata for the party.(Something Blake requested.)

I couldn't find an Indiana Jones one, so I just got a treasure chest to represent "The Lost Arch".

The kids each got 2 or 3 tries to break it, but in the end the birthday boy was the one to smash it open. GO BLAKE!

Last, but definately not least, was the birthday cake...

This was by far the biggest stress of the party planning. First I just made a regular 9x13 cake. Plopped it on a board and frosted it. For the cave and boulder, I first made rice krispy treats, and formed them into the shapes I wanted. (the cave was threatening to cave in!) I frosted them the colors I wanted by just taking cream cheese frosting and adding food coloring until I came up with the color I wanted. And the rocks you see on the cave and randomly on the cake, are just these chocolate rock candies that I found in the bulk candy section at Winco. But the biggest problem about this cake was finding and Indiana Jones figurine to put on it...

So now that you see a closeup, you can probably tell that this in not Indy at all. I finally had to deal with the fact that I wasn't going to find him anywhere, so I took one of Blake's Obi Wan Kenobi action figures (from Star Wars), made him a hat out of paper, and a whip out of brown thread, and there you have it... Indiana Jones!!

Blake and his friends LOVED the party!! I'm glad they had a good time, cause it was alot of work on my part. Here are a couple more pictures I wanted to add...

Blake's Grandpa showed up for the party also dressed like Indiana Jones.

And I couldn't leave out this GREAT reaction to one of his presents!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GUY! WE LOVE YOU!