When I asked the Spencinator what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said, "play Lego Indiana Jones and eat pizza". So I planned his party around that. We would have pizza to eat, the Lego Indiana Jones Playstation game to play, and an Indiana Jones themed treasure hunt.
I put a lot of time and effort into planning this and making everything. I did it all for the Spencinator. I didn't care if he was the only kid at the party or if we had a dozen kids there. Besides family, we invited the four boys in our neighborhood and only one could make it. I'm not ready to invite all the boys in his class, and I don't think he is either. Spencer has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome and can get overwhelmed with a lot of people around. So keeping the numbers small works well for everyone.
After the guests arrived, I let them know that Indiana Jones couldn't come, but did send his satchel here for us to look after. While the boys played Sonic (the Spencinator decided he no longer wanted to play Lego Indiana Jones - go figure), I discretely took the Indiana Jones bag upstairs where I attached it to pole using packing tape. The idea is to hang it from off the railing and the kids can swing at it like a pinata.
After about 10 minutes of game time, I asked the boys if they had seen the satchel. I sounded frantic and said I couldn't find it. Then I noticed a clue and read it aloud:
Clue #1
The bad guys got scared in the MUMMY GALLERY. They dropped the clues and we have to find them. Take your team to the MUMMY GALLERY and wrap up one member with the entire roll of toilet paper. Inside you'll find your next clue.
The Mummy Gallery was in our living room. I had wrapped up one of Sweetie Pie's dolls in toilet paper.
This didn't take long, as no one wanted to be wrapped up. They ended up wrapping up a baby doll instead. Inside the roll of toilet paper was the second clue:
Clue #2
The bad guys just finished eating over at the PANKOT PALACE BANQUET. Search through the bowl to earn some extra lives. When you find 4 hearts, look under the plate for your next clue.
On to the kitchen where the kids found a bowl full of lucky charms minus the marshmallows, except for a few hearts hidden at the bottom. I had some spoons in the bowl, thinking they'd use the spoons to find the hearts, I should have known kids would use their hands.
Clue #3
The bad guys set up a trap, a boulder will roll down the hill unless you can build something to block it.
Over in the breakfast room was this little set up:
A toasted coconut marshmallow acting as the boulder would be rolled down the ramp into this unsuspecting Lego village. The kids had to use the additional Legos to build some sort of barricade.
We tested out their barricade several times, letting the kids eat the marshmallows we rolled. Luckily the barricade was a success and the Lego village was saved.
On to Clue #4:
Hang in there, you've almost found the treasure. The bad guys flew away but the satchel fell out of the airplane. It is hanging from a branch. Use the stick to get it open.
We experienced some technical difficulties in getting the satchel/pinata ready so I stalled by having the kids spell L-E-G-O out of pretzel sticks.
Once the pinata was in place, we headed back to the living room where the kids saw it 'hanging from a branch'. I know it would have been cooler to use a real branch but I didn't feel like ripping one off our tree, so I just worked with what I had on hand.
Instead of breaking open the bag, the bag fell off the pole. So I just opened it up and let everything fall out. The kids quickly scrambled to pick up all the toys and candy.
So that's it for the games. It didn't take very long for the kids to go through the different stations and find the satchel. Seriously, it only seemed to take about 5 minutes.
We also had pizza and cake. What kind of cake you ask....
A Lego cake because there was no way I could figure out how to make a cake that looked like Indiana Jones as the Spencinator requested.
I started off by making a pound cake and covered it with chocolate icing.
I cut four toasted coconut marshmallows in half and covered them with chocolate icing too.
What kinds of parties have you planned for your kids?
