Time to play catch up! Back in June we celebrated Landon's
5th birthday! He is all about Star Wars (playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii to be exact) so he wanted a Star Wars party. It was lots of fun planning this party but now I know why I don't do this every year! :)
Landon was super excited to deliver his invitations...
At first Landon wanted to dress up as his namesake, Lando Calrissian. I bought the blue and gold fabric and was about to make the costume when Landon informed me that Lando doesn't wear that. Apparently he was picturing this Lando (the Skiff Guard)...
and not this Lando...
So we settled on Obi Wan (since I was already making a brown robe and I found some scraps of tan felt in my box of fabric and brown pants from his Robin Hood costume...which were a little small considering that was
Halloween 2008!). Don't worry, Uncle Dave. We still have the fabric and now I have a little more time to perfect the Lando costume...hopefully to be worn this Halloween.
My friend let me borrow these cool posters since she had just done a Star Wars party for her son.
Basically the idea for the party was for the kids to go through Jedi Training. When the party guests arrived, they got to choose a green, red or blue lightsaber (made from half a pool noodle and 2 inch pvc pipe and coupler that I spray painted silver). Get ready for Jedi cheesiness at its best (most ideas came from
here and
here)...
The first activity was "Which Star Wars Character Am I?" I printed out cards with the pictures (because most of the kids couldn't read!) and names of some Star Wars characters and as the kids came, I pinned a card on their back. They had to ask the other kids questions like "Am I a Jedi," "Am I a droid," "What color is my light saber," etc. to guess what character was on their back. It was probably a little too hard for kids this age to think of questions to ask so there was lots of hinting from adults :)
The next activity was using their Jedi mind powers to "Pin the Lightsaber on Yoda." Obviously some had a little bit more of the Force with them than others...
Next, they honed their lightsaber skills by keeping a balloon afloat using their lightsabers...
Next up was the obstacle course. I was worried this one wouldn't happen since 15 minutes before party time, the weather decided to turn ugly and we had a downpour for about 10 minutes. Luckily it didn't last long and cleared up by the time we needed to go outside. That meant I wasn't able to set up like I wanted to but oh well, it worked! They had to jump through the Black Hole (hula hoop covered in black plastic), use their lightsaber to blast through the asteroid shower (bubbles), make their way across the plank over the Sarlacc Pit, and finally defeat Darth Vader in a duel (had I not procrastinated, Darth Vader would have been life size, but we had to make do with a pint-sized, 2 inch action figure).
After they completed that, they were presented with a Jedi robe. My original idea was to make everyone their own robe, but I couldn't ever find enough cheap fabric. Walmart had this brown fabric for $1/yard but only had 7 yards. Each robe takes 2 yards so I just ended up making 2 different sizes for the kids to take their Jedi picture in (which will be edited and made into thank-you cards, hopefully to be done SOON!).
The final task was to "Destroy the Death Star." Making this
piñata was the biggest pain of the whole party planning. We did the first layer of paper maché one night and then I added a second layer the next day. I hung it on the basketball hoop outside to dry which was a mistake. It was in the sun and evidently the balloon expanded and ripped through the paper while it was still wet. Of course I didn't find it until it was hardened in its ripped apart state so I immediately began blowing up another punch ball balloon and started the process again. I was scrambling the next day after it dried (the day of the party, of course) to finish the decorating part of it so it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but it was still pretty cool.
Even the littlest Jedi took a swing at the Death Star...
The destroyed Death Star...
We finished off the party with presents (lots of Star Wars lego sets and no duplicates!), cupcakes and Yoda soda.
Here's the beginning of the wall...
Making progress...
My dad wouldn't let us work in our reunion shirts so on the day we wore our shirts, we took some work crew pictures...
The civil engineer. If the wall isn't level, it's all this guy's fault...
Another civil engineer. I fired him, but quickly gave him back his job and I went back to using the "S" tool to make the mortar smooth...
My dad and sister, Amy, finished the rest of the wall after we all had to leave. Here's the *almost* finished product (still some decorative brick to put on top)...
I couldn't end this post without a tribute to my wonderful dad. My dad is the hardest worker I know. It may not have been a quality I enjoyed as a child always having to work in the garden or whatever it was that he had us do but now as an adult, I really appreciate that characteristic and hope that I can pass that on to my children as well. It was a privilege to work by his side. I love you, dad!
