Egyptian Birthday Party

 Egypt is a fascinating country and makes a unique theme for a birthday party.  I perused a printing  website and was able to create a unique birthday invitation for my son; with a picture similar to the one I have shown here.  It said to "Walk like an Egyptian" to a unique birthday party.  My son was thrilled with the way it looked.  You can even soak the envelopes in tea and crinkle them, then dry, to make the invite look as if it is old and ancient.

My son wanted an ice cream cake and so I contacted Baskins and asked if they could make a cake that was square with a triangular shape on the top and they stated they could.  I asked to have it covered in chocolate icing and I finished decorating it with Hershey bars so it looked like there was an opening to the pyramid and a door frame around the door.  I also sprinkled some crumbled graham cracker crumbs at the base and around the cake, after letting it sit out 10 minutes, so the icing would soften and hold the crumbs.  This made the cake look "dusty" and "sandy".  Then, I placed it back in the freezer.

I filled a large bowl with sand and hid little crystals I had purchased at a toy store, along with pyrite (fool's gold), polished stones and geodes.  The children were blindfolded and given 2 minutes to "hunt" for treasure.  What ever they were able to find, they could keep.

I also gave each child a geode that I had purchased and we donned safety glasses and broke them open with a hammer on the sidewalk.  The kids were amazed at the crystal formations they found within their geodes.

I made blue punch for the Nile river and bought palm tree cups to hold their drinks.  Ice cubes had plastic bugs frozen in them. Food was served as if cooked over a fire; beans with hot dogs, ground hamburger with bread, cut up fruit and carrot sticks.  Burlap sacks (small ones) were given as the party bags, filled with a compass, little tool set (hammer, screw drivers, measuring tape), magnifying glass, flashlight and candy that went with the theme like rock candy, pop rocks, jawbreakers (etc.).  The kids were able to make their own mummies by forming with model magic a body shape and then wrapping cloth around their little person and securing with glue.

The pinata was a pull-string and filled with balls, parachute men, candy, whistles and suckers.  We had a treasure hunt as well in the house and the clues were on brown paper bags with both words and pictures to help them find their treasures.  Dinosaur toys, plastic cats, little jars with candy were the treasures found.

Children love to explore and feel like scientists.  Another twist to the party could be letting them look at items under a microscope if you have access to a couple.  Either way, this was a great party and the children enjoyed every aspect of it.