Graham asked for a Star Wars Birthday party this year - sounds easy, right? Not even close - every Star Wars thing I could find was super expensive! So I had to get creative with this one!
My first stop was to my friend, Natalie, who has a business called
Natty Sue Designs. She made the invitation for me and I was thrilled with how it turned out (and so was Graham!) So easy to just email the order to CostCo and then have Dan pick them up later that night on his way home from work.
I looked everywhere for a cake I could buy but ended up making it. Here's a tip for the novice cake maker (like me.) If writing on a cake scares you, just print out the wording in a cool font, print it out on paper and then stick it to a popsicle stick and stick it in the cake. I did something similar for his
pirate cake last year.
I placed four figurines around the cake, piped a few white stars on it and he seemed pretty pleased with it. I served the cake with "Yoda Soda" or lime sherbet and 7-Up.
As soon as all the kids arrived I outfitted them in Jedi robes (a $4 Wal-Mart brown flat sheet folded lengthwise and then cut into sections. I was able to get 5 robes from each sheet and then I cut a small triangle for the neck.) We used rope to tie them on. The kids seemed to love this. Graham and Greg had nicer robes that Grandma and I whipped up the night before.
After Jedi Training with their light sabers (Dan found some cool LED ones on-line for less than the pool noodle version I had started to shop for) Darth Vader came! Suddenly, there were 10 kids on the attack!
Next was a game where they had to cross Mustafar (the lava planet) using "stones" (paperbags) to step on only. The had to work as a team to cross.
Next up was Detonator Training. They had to pass a detonator (flashing light ball) until the light went out.
I made a "Pin the Mask on Annakin" game from a Wal-Mart poster and I printed out Darth Vader masks from the computer. Greg won this but he totally cheated.
Then we had Blaster Training. Dan printed out pictures of characters from the Dark Side and taped them to the window. With a Nerf gun they all took turns shooting the bad guys.
A soccer ball pinata in its past life, I spray painted it black and with silver paint turned it into the Death Star. This was the final challenge as the kids had to choose what side they would want to commit to. (The GOOD SIDE of course!)
Final step? They became official Jedi Knights!
Dan had the cool Star Wars music playing and each child was brought up and given their certificate that I made for them.
I have a copy of this for sale for anyone who would like it, you can purchase the pdf file on my side bar and I will email it to you asap!
Young Master Jedi, Graham.
It's Official!
Fun party! We went later to Red Robin for dinner - the boys were SO tired by this point (and so were mom and dad!) but it was a great day!
Love you Grahamie! Happy 7th!
We started the morning with doughnuts, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. The kids played outside most of the day while Dan and I started the 2009 Great Toy Purge in the garage. We do this every year before Christmas.
After a yummy dinner with some neighbors we hurried home to get dressed. Here is Pocahontas waiting for her brothers.
Couldn't get the boys to crack a smile - taking a picture of three kids at once is a nightmare sometimes.
Cowboy Greg is ready to yippe-i-a-ky-ooo!
Cowboy Graham says "Giddyap!"
Pocohontas saying "Let's get moving and get some candy!"
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