Invite: We started with the invite. I found an 8x11 Indiana Jones Lego Poster on the Lego website archives at Lego.com. I had my local UPS store download and print them out so the color would be brilliant. I also made extra copies of the poster and used them as decoration at his party. For the actual invite I printed out the details on plain 8x11 paper, then used a sponge dipped in coffee to "age" the paper so it would have that "ancient artifact" feel. Finally I rolled up a poster and invite for each guest, then tied each one with twine.
Party Activities: We always have a pinata from Villafan Pinatas in Santa Ana, California. With enough notice they custom make anything you want, any size you want. We always get a 3 to 4 foot pinata. I sent the pinata shop a picture of the Indiana Jones Lego I wanted and as you can see, they did an awesome job of making a replica of it. I'm not big on candy so I filled the pinata with a lot of plastic bugs, snakes, skull rings, and some chocolate gold coins... all items that fit into our theme. I purchased most of my pinata filler items from US Toys in Garden Grove, CA a huge warehouse type teacher supply/party supply store.
Party Activities: We had one more activity at the party. Each guest got to "dig" for Lego treasure. I bought a black dishwashing tub at the dollar store and filled it with play sand from our sand box. For the treasure hunt I bought mini Lego treasure chests off ebay. I wanted to fill the chests with Lego treasure so I went to my local Lego store and filled a container from the Pick a Brick Wall. It's $8 to fill a container and I got little gold 1x1 round Lego pieces that looked like "gold" and other fun little Lego pieces to fill the chests. I put each filled chest into a tiny ziplock bag so the chest would not get filled with sand. Each guest got to dig up one treasure box. If you don't have a Lego store near you, ebay does sell lots of bulk lots of treasure type Legos.
Table Decor: For the color scheme we chose brown, black, and gold. The table covers were black. I used gold dinner plate rounds that I already had and filled them with smores Goldfish. I found Indiana Jones playing deck cards at the dollar store and tossed those out randomly on the tables. They had scenes from all 4 movies, very cool. I also tossed chocolate gold coins here and there on the tables. I also had some play dress up necklaces here and there that added to the "treasure" feel. Then I set Crystal Skull Alien Head rings at each seat. You can order these fun rings for the kids to wear on e bay.
Party Room/Wall Decor I used a black butcher paper roll that I picked up at US Toy, my favorite teacher supply store. I put two pieces of masking tape on one to make an "X marks the spot", a couple of the invite posters, and a pirate type map that I picked up at the dollar store last Halloween. I also had a few clusters of brown and black balloons. The party store was quite curious what kind of party I was having with this color scheme of balloons. On the birthday cake table I set out an Indiana Jones Mr Potato Head that we already had and an Indiana Jones flask that we had sent away for on the back of a cereal box. We also threw some bugs on the table for that extra touch. Finally I used black and brown streamers. I love streamers and feel that no party is complete without them!
Party Favors: For party favors each guest was given a deck of Indiana Jones playing cards that I purchased at the dollar store, a Crystal Skull Alien Head ring, one Lego treasure chest from the "dig" and whatever they got from the pinata.
The Cake: My absolute favorite part of the party, the cake! My son helps me with every detail of the party planning but the part we both enjoy most is decorating the cake. I wanted this cake to look like a true adventure. I put two 9x12 cakes together, one on top of the other, for height. We frosted the sides brown and the top green. I added a darker shade of green piping around the top edges. The green was supposed to evoke a feeling of being in a wild jungle, think Raiders of the Lost Ark. We smashed up graham crackers for the "quicksand". I dyed blue frosting for the "river" then used a spatula to dab on blue decorating gel to give the river a wet look. I added the large boulder piece in the right corner. The boulder rolled with a lever in the back. I bought this off ebay. Then I added a Lego spider web and spider, a Lego treasure chest filled with Lego treasure, a Lego palm tree, a plastic rock from my son's army play set, and of course an Indiana Jones Lego figure running through the quicksand. We decided to have him hold a Lego Alien Crystal Skull Head in one hand and his Lego whip in the other. Also we added sugar molded bugs, skulls, and spider webs on the cake and around the sides of the cake. I purchased the sugar molded items at my favorite party store, Orange Novelty Cake Supplies in Santa Ana, CA. (They also carry the cool rings I had at the party). To top it all off my son wore his Indiana Jones hat that he already had while we sung happy birthday to him.
We had a blast planning this party!
