Simple Indiana Jones Birthday Party Ideas

For our son's 8th birthday, he wanted an Indiana Jones party.  Since I knew adventure and gore was up my husband's sleeve, I thought I'd just let him take over.  I did some initial research, some shopping at the dollar store, then he put it all together.  He did a great job.  There is tons and tons of stuff on Indiana Jones b-day parties out there, and some people go all out.  That's not really my style, especially with 3 kids and one on the way and a super-busy summer, but here are our ideas.

Some stuff from the dollar store.  I did buy the gold paint at Michaels.

Each of the clues was printed on a paper using Papyrus font.  We could have burned the edges or printed on cool paper, but just ran out of time.  The first clue was switched to Wingdings font that they each had to decode a piece of the clue with a key then put it together like a puzzle.  That took about 20 minutes.

Decoding the first message.

  1.

Welcome adventurers! I need your help recovering the Golden Skull of the Amazon. It’s hiding in the Arc of the Covenant which you will need to find. There will be a lot of challenges along the way and you’ll need to be brave and smart, but I think you can do it. The first clue is found at the end of boulder canyon. Be careful it’s a dangerous journey. You must all cross boulder canyon before
going onto the next clue.

Your friend,

Indiana Jones

I read online that some people painted their beach balls; we obviously didn't.

Finding the next clue.

2.

Good job adventurers! You made it past boulder canyon. The next clue is on the other side of a deep canyon. You will have to cross over an old bridge. You’ll have to be careful around the canyon lives a tribe of head-hunting amazon men who would love to knock you off the bridge with
their poison darts.

Indiana Jones

Yes, if these boys didn't know about spit-wads before, they do now!

3.

Adventurers. You must now cross the white sands desert for the next clue. Make sure you drink plenty of water at any oasis that you find. On the other side of the desert look for the next clue in the treasure chest.

Indiana Jones

I used clear Kool-Aid for the poisoned water.  I put their names on the cups so we could re-use them when we ate b-day pie.

4.

Danger Adventurers! We’ve just learned that an enemy has poisoned the white sands desert water. Your lives are in danger. You must find an antidote soon or the poison will kill all of you. Unfortunately the only antidote is to eat the raw guts of an Amazon Tree Rat. Find the nearest tree and look for a tree rat. When you find it cut off his head and eat the guts. This will cure you so you can go onto your next clue.

Indiana Jones

"Catching" the tree rat, ripping off his pre-cut head that had been sort-of super-glued back on and tossing the guts (Starbursts) down to the kids.

 

5.

Good job Adventures, you survived the poisoning. You must now find the cursed mummy skull. Many years ago, grave robbers stole the head of an ancient Egyptian mummy and buried it under a cross in the mountains. You must find the cross and dig up the mummy’s head. Inside its skull you will find the clue that will lead you to the Arc of the Covenant which contains the Golden Skull of the Amazon.

Indiana Jones

6.

Now onto the Arc of the Covenant. I don’t have a lot of information on where to find the Arc, but it is rumored to be deep in the Amazon jungle. Go find the jungle and crawl through the trees until you see the Arc. Inside the Arc is the Golden Skull of the Amazon. Good luck Adventurers.

Indiana Jones

My husband had tied a fishing line to the golden skull to fling it out at the kids when the lifted the box, but it didn't quite work.

 

7.

Great job Adventures, you found the golden skull! Take this skull back inside and you can sell it for a bag of treasures for each of you.

You were all excellent!

Indiana Jones

All this took about an hour.  We were also going to have the kids make snakes out of pretzel dough, but forgot!