We're about a month away from Jack's 9th birthday, June 1st, and we still haven't decided on a theme. It may be hard to top the fun we had last year. It was his first birthday in the new house, so I wanted to take full advantage of having an empty basement to work with. Seriously - where else are you gonna entertain 14 eight year old boys?
Jack wanted a Lego themed party, but after scouring the internet for Lego cake ideas (none of which I was ambitious enough to try) and being told by multiple store bakeries that they didn't have a Lego theme, I tried to talk him into an Indiana Jones theme. He LOVES Indy! They have cakes for that! But no. He held firm. So... I masterminded a plan to combine the two and have a Lego Indiana Jones party. It was a total hit!
For the invitation - I copied the Indiana Jones mini-figure photo from the Lego website and dropped Jack's face in using Photoshop. I love designing photo invitations! I used the Indiana Jones font SF Fedora, along with the Lego System font, which is the dingbat font for all of the little figures. (Beware the x-rated letter "x" in this font!)
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For the party - I set up a little obstacle course in the basement, and split the boys into two race lines. The course went something like this:
We dumped all the mini-figures in a bowl of spaghetti noodles. The boys had to use chopsticks to fish out their mini-figure 'racer'. Where do you find this many figures? The guys at the Lego outlet pointed
me towards the Community Workers set, which had more than enough figures, hats and basic vehicles. I only used the figures for this game, as there weren't enough vehicles to go around. But the winners of the race got first dibs on picking out the hats/helmets/hair for their mini-figures.
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STEP 2: Launch
I made these marshmallow catapults I found on the FamilyFun website. Unfortunately, the minifigures wouldn't stay in the holder, so I made a little paper 'catapult cup' for them. The boys were launching their racer into a long rubbermaid container full of water, so we turned the tissue box on its end for greater height and distance.
STEP 3: Boat
Once the minifigures landed in the water, the boys fished them out and dropped them into a little plastic boat, which they then blew across the length of the container to the other end. The boats proved
to be a little more wobbly (and time consuming) than expected. A wooden style with a sail might have been easier to steer/blow.
to be a little more wobbly (and time consuming) than expected. A wooden style with a sail might have been easier to steer/blow.
STEP 4: Shake
For this step, I just took a simple juice carton with a circular pour spout and cut a small hole in the bottom. The boys had to drop their mini-figures into the pour spout, then shake the carton until the racer fell out. This was more challenging than we thought!
STEP 5: The Drop
For the drop, I just rinsed out a big plastic gatorade container and the boys had to stand directly over it and drop their mini-figure inside. This one also was very tricky! (I used orange duct-tape all along the course to mark the spots and point which direction to go.)
STEP 6: AIM
This was another easy popsicle stick catapult I made. You can find the directions for this one at stormthecastle.net, along with lots of other creative catapults. Unfortunately, it didn't stay in place very well. So I took one of my 5 pound leg weights from 1986 and rested it on the bottom triangle, which was perfect. They just had to launch their mini-figure into the green basket (by bouncing it off the wall and into the basket).
STEP 7: Zip line!
It's a little hard to see what's going in with my zip line. Basically, I used a lamp pole and tied fishing line from it to the card table just beyond it, creating a little zip line. The boys loved it! There is a little red chair-looking lego piece you can buy, and that was attached to a flat black piece with a loop on it which held it onto the fishing line. So the boys snapped their mini-figure in (upside down) and let them zip down to the table.
It's a little hard to see what's going in with my zip line. Basically, I used a lamp pole and tied fishing line from it to the card table just beyond it, creating a little zip line. The boys loved it! There is a little red chair-looking lego piece you can buy, and that was attached to a flat black piece with a loop on it which held it onto the fishing line. So the boys snapped their mini-figure in (upside down) and let them zip down to the table.
STEP 8: Build a race car
In this step, the boys grabbed a baggy full of Lego pieces (each bag had the exact same items) and had to dump it out on the table and build a race car with it. For this, I just went to the Lego outlet, where the very nice guys working there helped me find all of the little parts I needed to make 14 race cars - they even had tiny steering wheels and dashboards! I just got a $7 cup and filled it to the top with all of the pieces I needed. Pretty inexpensive, considering this was basically their party favor.
STEP 9: Race to the finish!
And finally, the boys snapped their minis into the race car, let it roll down a simple ramp, and when it crossed the finish line, the next boy went.
The boys had a great time. We had the standard Indiana Jones cake from Target. There are a LOT more creative ways to make an Indiana Jones Lego cake out there, but I just did not have the energy to make the cake this year. Jack loved pushing the button that released the rolling ball!
After cake & presents most of the boys went back down to the basement to race their minis through the obstacle course. So much fun! One of the boys said it was the "most awesome party ever" which may have been my proudest moment. I'm not sure what we're going to do this year, but I'm sure I'll be posting inspirational ideas soon. If you use any of these ideas for your own party, please let me know! I would love to see how you put your own twist on the obstacle course.
Party On!
Jen
