This past year Link has decided that Indiana Jones is way cool. So it was no surprise that he wanted an Indiana Jones theme for his 11th birthday. He had a big party with friends last year, so this year I was ready for a quieter celebration. “Quieter” doesn’t necessarily mean “simpler.” The celebration started when I handed Link an Indiana Jones lego set and told him to construct it. Once constructed, this set adorned Link’s cake. While Link was distracted with the construction, I set about hiding all of his presents. Each gift was hidden with a little scroll giving the clue for finding the next gift. I burned all the edges of the clues so that they looked extra cool. The hunt started with Link receiving an Indiana Jones style hat. We then told him that he was Indiana and the rest of us were his helpers. Then we romped through the house and the yard in search of the “rock cliff” the “farthest end of the land where the vines grow tangled” and the place that “blasts heat and rumbles, tumbling its victims in circles.” That last one had the kids stumped for quite a while. Probably because they never do laundry. Kiki finally figured it out. It was a fun family activity for us all. Later this evening Howard will be cooking dutch oven pizza and we’ll eat cake.
14 thoughts on “Indiana Jones and the Birthday Party”
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I don’t know if the 15-year-old you would think of it this way, but … COOLEST MOM EVER!!!!
🙂
That is so cool.
My friend just ran a puzzle-hunt for his wife’s birthday, too. Something kids and adults alike can enjoy…
We did something very similar with Sam’s birthday party a number of years back, except that we had an alien theme and the aliens had left the clues to follow.
Also, I didn’t realize until now that you were kind enough to have Link on my wedding anniversary.
Sounds like a perfect birthday party.
::hastily scribbles down notes to use at future birthdays::
what rollicking good fun!
hmmm… I wonder what next year’s Wheel of Time birthday party will look like…
Thanks. Now if I can just convince my kids of that. 😉
All the clues were attached to presents. I noticed that while Link was unwrapping, Howard would carefully read the clue and try to figure it out. Fun for everyone.
It wasn’t actually planned that way. Link was a week late.
Alas, the Wheel of Time birthday party is not to be. Last night Link brought me the book and told me that while it started out good, he’s not interested anymore.
Clearly the child needs to be reading about aliens, stage hypnotists, and buffalitos. If there’s anything to genetics, he’ll enjoy the farting!
Clearly. But he’ll have to wait until we manage to retrieve the books from the friends who borrowed them.
::gasp!::
you loaned them out? you’re supposed to do dramatic readings of the first page or so, hook the friends, and then send them to the SRM page to buy multiple copies.
c’mon, you’re a better marketeer than that.
We’re just whetting their appetite for the novel.
Yay!
I love that kind of gift-giving approach! My parents did it a few times for birthdays and even for once or twice for Easter – taking the Easter Egg hunt to the next level. 🙂
One of my most favorite clues ever was “Not another proposition, but another preposition.” The next clue was under the object instead of inside it. 🙂
We even turned the tables and made my dad hunt for his birthday present once. 🙂
Then at college (Caltech) we had Ditch Day, which is an 8-hour themed adventure as complex as a bunch of nerdy (but school-busy) college kids can make it. Awesome.
-Louis Thomas