Indiana Jones and the Legend of the 9th Birthday

This was the "theme" for my oldest son's most recent birthday. Can someone tell me when this started happening? You have to come up with a theme for the kids and each year it has to be bigger and better. I remember my 9th birthday, I think, I received a Nerf football and when my friends came over to the party my Mom said go outside. Not go outside and do this or do that, just go outside. We could have been playing with fireworks or shooting guns as long as we were outside, no themes.

Fortunately and unfortunately I married the most creative person I know. My wife comes up with great ideas and insists that we can make it happen. We have to build things and bake things not sold in stores. I figure if you can't buy it in a store then it must not be that great an idea. Wrong, it can be done in our basement, garage, or kitchen.

This year I was informed that I needed to come up with a treasure hunt that included the Staff of Ra, Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail, and the Well of Souls from the Indy movies. What!? My wife informed me that that part was up to me because she was busy finishing up the 10 fake Grails and touching up the Ark of the Covenant. (We tag teamed building the Staff of Ra.) This all probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you if you haven't seen all the Indy movies at least 30 times as we have in this house. Finding out I was on my own I quickly phoned my sister, (creative also), for some help. She came up with some beauties that were used in the hunt.

All party invitees show up and it's time to hunt. There are six participants all together so not crazy but enough. The first clue requires them to take the 'Leap of Faith' from the first movie so they climb hay bales to get onto the fence and jump into the backyard where they find the next clue floating in a bottle in our water feature. They follow this clue to the 'Map Room' also from the first movie, which is in our basement. Here they find the Staff of Ra and a clue leading them into the garage where they find the Sankara Stones and another clue. This takes them upstairs to a small treasure chest filled with 'jewels' and the final clue. They hurriedly come downstairs and piece together the clues that reveal the location of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is hidden in the back of my pick-up, we have taken a picture of it, printed it onto an old piece of paper and cut it up so they can piece it together. It actually stumps them for a few minutes, then they realize what they are looking for and sprint out the door to the truck where they find the Ark filled with candy and toys, not a Nerf football.

We take a break from the action at this point to open presents and eat cupcakes. One of the guests decided to bring a homemade card but no gift. Really? My son doesn't even notice being filled with the joy of finding the Ark of the Covenant. The boys all go downstairs to play some video games for awhile, I am not invited and hurt but try not to show it. My wife decides it's time to get dinner ready and I find out that we are all ordering our own 10" pizza. We start to take orders and a couple of the guests say that aren't that hungry. Are you kidding me, your own pizza and you aren't that hungry? What other party do you get to do this at? We make them order so in case they get hungry later they will have something. I go pick up the pizzas and when I get back, sure enough, everyone is hungry. Root Beer and pizza for everyone! I'm starting to get into this.

After pizza and an Indy movie, I am invited downstairs to join in the pillow fight. Now we are talking, they come looking for me like the neighborhood kids all banding together to take out the bully on the block. Be careful what you wish for kids. It is an all out brawl and my wife comes downstairs to watch and encourage the kids, probably to make sure I don't get carried away and knock someone out also. The battle rages and they keep coming in waves but I am like a man among boys, wait, bad analogy. I mow them down like wheat in front of the blade. They are a game bunch, there is always one dragging another injured friend out of the fray while the others keep me engaged. Finally, as we all knew it would, we break a light fixture and glass goes every where. The boys love it and my wife isn't mad so it all ends well in a shower of sparks and glass.

They watch another Indy movie and get their camp set up in the living room for the night. I go to bed at midnight, and they are still awake. Two o'clock rolls around and one of the guests has to call his mother to come get him. The others say he doesn't have a great track record at sleep overs but is getting better. They are up at six thirty and watching more Indy. I am required to make pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and bacon. I'm OK with this, what a great breakfast. The boys hork down everything in front of them and go back to Indy. I take this lull in the action to jump in the shower. When I get back downstairs my wife informs me that one of the guests has thrown up on the kitchen floor, thank God for being in the shower.
She tells me the guest informed her he wasn't used to that kind of bacon, they usually get a better kind of bacon so when his body got rid of the bad food he felt better. This is also the no gift guest, strike two buddy.

I have condensed this version but am left wondering is this how everyone else does it too? I hope I find out soon, my other two sons have birthdays in April and I'm sure we are on the hook for something magical. Stay tuned.