Bailey's Egyptian Adventure

We had this party earlier than we normally would, as not only we were having an Egyptian adventure party, but we were getting ready for another adventure- moving to California from Kansas. So we had our daughter's birthday party over a month earlier than usual. It was chaotic planning a party, working, moving, and doing it alone while my husband was on the west coast already for work. And then our daughter became really sick, in fact, she was sick at the party. She had pneumonia and some bizarre infection. We warned parents and the doctor told us to go ahead with the party since she knew our circumstances and didn't believe our daughter to be contagious. She just warned us to keep the fever down, so I limited some of the activities I had planned. No one knew which activities I had watered down, and I was never going to tell them.

As for the actual party, I sent out invitations that looked like vintage plane tickets. I made them simply and mailed them out in the air-style envelopes I purchased on Amazon. I knew I wouldn't have time to sew satchels as originally intended, so I bought some Indiana Jones ones off of a costume site online for less than $6 a piece. For me, the cost was worth it, as my time was invaluable. And this was the last birthday party her Kansan friends would be able to attend of hers, so I wanted them to have the best time possible. I put composition books and pencils and whatever else in the satchels and stuck a name tag on each one. I cut down foam cowboy hats from the Dollar Tree into fedoras. I also labeled each hat as the kids arrived, as no one needed to share hats. Yeah, you can guess why. Shudder.

Our activities included going to a tomb. On the way, we had to dodge the snakes. Why, oh, why must there always be snakes???! We discovered a mummy in the tomb surrounded with canopic jars. We stuck a set of eyeballs into a canopic jar and put those in our satchels. Then when we went to leave, the door was locked and we realized there was a curse in Hieroglyphics. Only mummies could be in the tomb, so we had to turn ourselves into mummies using toilet paper before we could be released. We did this to the song, "Walk Like an Egyptian."

Once we escaped, and ran back through the snakes, we discovered a narrow path between crocodiles. We barely scraped past those. Then we made it to a special tomb where we adorned golden Egyptian cuffs with jewels and figure. Past there, we jumped over some dangerous spikes, and had to move boulders (brown balloons) blocking a den. Once all of those boulders were crushed (popped), we found geodes. Busting these open proved to be more difficult than intended, especially with our time restraints, so we tucked those safely into our satchels too. Then we crawled through a spidery cave and made it to another tomb where there was a treasure chest waiting just for us. It also had a warning, that if we opened it, we had to make sure we shared and only took what we needed. (The treasure chest had snakes, scorpions, an assortment of candies, gummy spiders, rings, etc.)

We returned later to all of these locations. The kids "helped" me "clean" up the snakes by everyone putting one in their satchel. They gathered "bones" (erasers) surrounding the crocodiles, took home a skull of jewels and foam Egyptian stickers, and grabbed some spiders.

We had grapes, Oreo truffle Mummies, cookie pop Mummies, cake pop Mummies, and an assortment of drinks including Nile Water (chocolate milk), bottled water that had burlap wrapped around it, (root) Beer, barrel jugs, and apple juice bottles turned into Mummies. The kids enjoyed the food and afterwards, I sent home leftovers with everyone who would take them, including the drinks, as we were moving across country and this wasn't a feasible option.

We quickly opened packages and kept watching the clock as we had special guests arriving. Not only was our daughter's sitter coming at a certain time, but she was meeting some guests she arranged, a Harry Potter parody band that our daughter adored, the only music she listened to. She couldn't have been more excited and they were super sports! They played for thirty minutes for her and her entourage and were thrilled I had hats and satchels for them too.

It took me almost two years to share this party, but it was definitely a memorable one. And the start of quite an adventure for our family.

• What People Ate

  Grapes, Cake Pop Mummies, Oreo Mummy Pops, and Oreo Truffle Mummies. It was actually the least amount of food I've ever offered at a party and still more than necessary.

• What People Drank

  Nile Water (chocolate milk), Root Beer, Bottled Water, those plastic barrel drinks, and apple juice bottles decorated as mummies.

• Desserts

  Same as what people ate. :)

• Party Favors

  Their hats, satchels, everything they collected- canopic jars, squishy eyeballs, cuffs, gems, geodes, everything in the pinata, plastic spiders, plush snakes, etc.

• Activities / Games

  We dodged the snakes, visited a tomb and took canopic jars, avoided a curse by dressing up like a mummy, squeezed past the crocodiles, made Egyptian cuffs, stayed clear from danger, attempted to open geodes, climbed through a cave of spiders and spider webs, and busted open a treasure chest. We also had our own private concert of Harry Potter parody songs, even though it wasn't a Harry Potter party, the music was great. And what a memorable gift from her sitter!

• The 8th Horcrux

  Harry Potter Parody band/Wizard Wrock Stars

  They are so fabulous!