Indiana Jones Birthday!

A few weeks ago, Patrick celebrated his 8th birthday Indiana Jones style. Since we live in a high rise tower here in Japan, our space is somewhat limited with no yard, so it is not ideal to have a birthday party of about 15 eight year old boys in our apartment. On the first floor of each tower, there is a party room that can be used for special events like birthday parties. It is completely free to use on a first come first serve basis.

Patrick wanted an Indiana Jones theme, so that is what we did. It would have worked a lot better in our backyard in Chesapeake, VA, but we have to make do with what we have here. We had 16 boys and one girl at the party. Upon their arrival, the Indiana Jones theme song was playing, and the kids jumped in "The Temple of Doom." We played Archaeology Bingo, which was a huge hit with all of them. They also got to wrap each other up as mummies, which turned into 12 rolls of toilet paper all over the room (as the pictures show). This was the highlight of the party, and toilet paper is harmless, right?? We also had a magnifying glass pinata that everyone took a swing at opening. Some of the adults finally got it to break.

I must say that the 100 yen stores in Japan (much like the dollar stores in US, but so much better and a higher quality) had everything I needed to fill the goody bags. They got khaki drawstring bags filled with a flashlight, compass, magnifying glass, and gold candy (treasure). I also added a little Lego Indiana Jones keychain to each bag. At the end of the party, Brian brought in the treasure box (a styrofoam cooler that I spray painted gold) which was filled with the bags. Each kid got to help dig (through beans because sand would have been way too messy inside) through the box to find their bag.

Patrick had a great time, and the party was a huge success!