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Egyptologist Party -8yr- Egyption Name

December 2007

Heidi in Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Honorable Mention

I found an internet translator that could spell out English words in Hieroglyphics.  Using paper that looked like parchment, and using an Egyptian-looking font, I invited each young esteemed Egyptologist" to search for the lost treasure of Simenhotep I (my son's name is Simon) and gave the date time place. I signed it as the curator of the Egyptology Museum in the neighborhood where we live.  I wrapped each one as a scroll and put a label on the outside of each that said both the invitee's name in Hieroglyphics and the child's name...he passed these out in person.  When each child arrived he/she was given a child's safari hat and a nametag of his/her name in Heiroglyphics and an "Egyptologist kit" consisting of a small totebag with his/her name in Hieroglyphics a Note pad and pen a plastic magnifying glass.   

Each child was then given a sheet with the Hieroglyphic alphabet on it and a word to decode (words having to do with birthday parties ie Balloons Candles etc.).  When all children had decoded their word they received their first instruction (in a scroll and in fancy lettering one scroll for everyone) directing them to go to the back deck to disable the booby-traps within the pyramid.  This consisted of dropping water balloons into a bucket several feet below.  When each child had disabled the booby traps at least once they received the second scroll. 

The second scroll (different and separate for each child) contained pictures of the Egyptian gods with their names and symbols and what they were gods of.  Then each child was given a card with a god's symbol on it and there was a certain room of the house where we'd labelled objects with the different symbols.  We warned the children not to disturb the objects with other gods' symbols on them.  (When that invariably happened an adult came in dressed as an angry Mummy made noise left toward the kitchen when I told him hey YOU can't be the Mummy I'M Simon's Mummy...why don't you go have some cake downstairs.  The kids all howled at this.)

When each child found their corresponding object he/she had to look under or around that item for their next clue (separate scrolls but with the same information inside).  The third scroll (same for everyone) warned them that now they've seen the Mummy and need to break the Mummy's curse...therefore everyone was directed back to the deck where people were split into teams of 2 and played a game where each team tried to beat the others by wrapping their partner up in toilet paper as a Mummy the fastest. 

Once that game was over I gave my son the one fourth and last scroll which everyone at the party had to help decipher as a group.  It told them in Hieroglyphics to travel to a certain room of the house if they dared to find the treasure.  When they got to that room they found a plaster case on the table (the Mummy of Simenhotep I) which I had to help my son cut open with a knife to get the "treasure" (candy and small toys for everyone).  The plaster case had been made a week earlier and was an actual plaster cast of my son's face which we then embellished with papier-mache and painted in gold model-paint to look like an Egyptian pharaoh's mummy-case. 

After that it was time for food.  We returned to the Dining Room and instead of a traditional party hat my son and I had made a paper version of a large long Pharaoh hat which we placed on his head.  Lunch consisted of chicken shish-kebabs dates and yogurt (food people actually eat in Egypt).  After lunch we brought in a pyramid-shaped birthday cake (I baked 3 layers then cut them up funny and toothpicked them together in a pyramid shape used light brown chocolate frosting).  Then presents and voila everyone went home happy!  The favors are then the Egyptologist kits the hats and whatever amount of the treasure each child put in his or her tote bag.  (Most of this stuff was ordered inexpensively through Oriental Trading Company.)"

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