It's a Star wars birthday Party

At the beginning of the month, we had the joy of celebrating our boys' fourth birthday with friends and family. Nick and Joe have been obsessed with Star Wars since they were 40 inches tall. That’s right -- it has to do with their height.  At forty inches tall they were able to ride on Star Tours at Disneyland, and it has been a constant topic in our house ever since (of course Mr. Train has nothing to do with fostering this love of Star Wars). So when I asked them what kind of a birthday party they wanted, I was not at all surprised to hear Star Wars.  I thought maybe it would change as we got closer to their birthday, but they held true.  Star Wars it would be.  On the day of they were so excited for the Jedi Training Academy birthday party they could hardly contain themselves.


These kids were ready to party!


The week before the party I made each of the kids a Star Wars shirt for the party.  They each got to pick a character or space ship to put on their shirt.  We made a Darth Vader, a Yoda, a TIE fighter and R2D2.  The kids were so excited about their shirts.  Even Lilly learned how to say R2D2 just for the occasion.  In addition to their shirts, my mom decided to make each of the boys a new Jedi robe.  They have a set of capes that we use for dress up, but she wanted them to feel like real Jedi.  The twins picked brown robes but James loves Darth Vader so he wanted a black one.  Lilly was going to have one too, but I don't think she wanted to cover up her R2D2 shirt so she never wore it.  Our family has worn Star Wars costumes for past Halloweens, so we had plenty of grown up costumes to help with the theme.  I think the kids had a great time seeing all the characters from the movies.


Once he realized his cousin was in there he was willing to smile with Jabba the Hut


Everyone got into the Jedi Spirit for the day including my Mom and Aunt.

F O O D

Since I knew it had the potential to be very hot in August, I planned the party for 10:00am in the morning. Because our start time was right at most kids' snack time, I decided to put a few snacks and dips out besides just our lunch. I bought most of our food from Costco, and we had sourdough crisps with artichoke and spinach dip, chips and salsa, pretzel chips, and snack mix.
I did attempt one Star Wars inspired food -- light saber pretzel sticks. I was able to make the green ones with no problems, but when I attempted the red ones I overcooked the candy melts and wasn't able to dip the pretzels (twice) and then gave up. Then the night before the party, Mr. Train dropped the container and broke a bunch of them. They really were a pain from the very beginning and it was supposed to be so easy. So in the end I had just a few green light saber pretzels on our table, but they were still a hit.
I had two drink dispensers.  One had a green punch (Hawaiian Punch, Sprite and lime sherbet) that we called Yoda Soda.  After looking at many different websites trying to find out what Yoda Soda truly is, I figured out it is any green drink served at a Star Wars Party.  I also had a dispenser of Princess Leia Lemon Water.  We had a variety of sodas and juice boxes in some coolers as well.  It’s nice to have easy to find beverages, especially water, so everyone can just help themselves and I don’t have to go through a ton of water bottles.

D E C O R

I bought a few Star Wars party decorations from Party City, but the rest I just went with blue and green for most of the decorations.  I am usually pretty minimal with decorations.  We had a Happy Birthday sign and some blue and green streamers.  That was about it.  The kids spent most of the time playing in our front yard, so I didn't worry too much about the inside  Outside I had a wall decoration on our garage from Party City.  My dad also got some helium balloons the morning of the party to put on our fence.  I love all the fancy decorations or backdrops that I see on Pinterest, but I never seem to get them done. My kids don’t seem to mind since all they want to do is run and play with their friends, so I try to not let it get to me too much that my decorations are lacking. I even completely forgot to take pictures of the food and the inside of the house.
When everyone started arriving, we had a set of Jedi “tunics” for each kid at the party.  It was part of their party favors to go home with their costume.  They were pretty basic.  My mom and I just cut rectangles of fabric.  In the center of each one we cut a circle for a head hole then tied them around the waist with a little yarn.  I know it wasn't too fancy, but the kids seemed to enjoy dressing the part for Jedi training academy.

G A M E S

Nick and Joe really wanted to fight Darth Vader like the Jedi Training Academy at Disneyland.  I wanted to make that happen so we built off of that for the rest of the party.  Even their invitations invited their friends and family to come to Jedi Training and learn the ways of the force.  We had four steps to their Jedi Training.
Light Sabers and Balloons -  While we were waiting for people to arrive before we started the actual Jedi training, we let the kids play with some balloons.  They had to use their pool noodle light sabers (also a part of their party favors) to keep the balloons from falling to the ground.  It was good to have some entertainment for the kids while we were waiting for more guests to arrive.  Plus it is incredibly difficult to tell a bunch of boys not to play with light sabers that are right their within their reach. Even some of the grown ups showed off their light saber balloon balancing skills.


I think my dad won this one for best balance.

Jedi obstacle course - We set up a short obstacle course in our front yard.  We had a wide range of kids so I tried to make it easy enough for the little ones, but fun for the big kids.  They started by weaving in and out of the cones.  I also drew a line on the ground in sidewalk chalk to make it easier to follow.  Then they had to hop through a set of circles I had drawn on the ground.  I wanted to use hula hoops at first, but then I had nightmares of little kids tripping and falling while kicking all the hula hoops all over the place.  So a drawing on the ground was my compromise.  Then they had to run through our play house, come down the slide and step through a hula hoop.  They had a great time.  Some of the younger kids needed their mom's help, but everyone had a fun time.


Nick running the obstacle course.


His robes got in his way a bit but Jedi Joe didn't let it slow him down.

Nerf blaster target practice – Mr. Train found some cheap Star Wars Posters of Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper.  We hung them on the garage and set up two stations with Star Wars Nerf guns (that were already a part of our toy collection).  We let the kids shoot three darts each, then they had to rotate turns.  They really liked being able to shoot the dart guns, but it was a little tricky to get them to leave them in our little shooting range instead of running around our yards shooting each other.


Target practice!


It takes serious concentration to master the Nerf gun, he got the storm troop right in the forehead.

Light saber training and fighting Darth Vader -  I knew I had to take the lead on light saber training.  Mr. Train is not a huge fan being the center of attention, so it became my job to be Jedi Master.  I did however convince him to play Darth Vader.  I started off by gathering the kids around and having them all pick a light saber.  We spread out in the front yard to make sure that there was enough room for all the kids to swing their sabers around.  I showed them a few moves that they would be able to use on Darth Vader.  We practiced blocking, cutting to the legs and shoulders and ducking down. Of course my cousin was there to take embarrassing pictures of me fighting with a light saber.


I felt a little silly teaching them Jedi moves, but it made my kids happy so that's what matters.

Once they had learned all of their moves, Mr. Train came out dressed as Darth Vader.  It wasn't a fancy costume.  He had on a pair of black shorts with a Darth Vader t-shirt.  My mom did make him a black cape for the party.  It was kind of our Southern California Summer Darth Vader costume.  He also wore our kids' Darth Vader mask which he said was pretty hot.  I made each kid go one at a time for two rounds, then I just let them have at him.


Using his new Jedi training to fight Darth Vader

While the kids were attacking Darth Vader my dad came out of his house and surprised me.  I had no idea he was planning it, so I turned around and all of a sudden Darth Maul was behind me. After jumping and squeaking a little, the kids and I turned our attention to Darth Maul.


He even scared me a bit.

They had a fabulous time taking turns attacking both of the Star Wars bad guys.  We ended it after a short time because the black outfits and masks are pretty hot to be running around outside in August.  The kids went back to hitting the balloons and shooting the Nerf guns while I ran in to serve lunch.  I ordered sandwich platters from Albertsons, cut fruit, potato salad and pasta salad.  Even though our food was pretty basic, I think everyone enjoyed it.



After lunch it was time for cake!  Recently the twins have figured out a little bit about Pinterest.  So when they decided that they wanted a Star Wars birthday party, they immediately wanted to look at cakes on line.  They picked some of the craziest fancy cakes that are completely impossible for me.  We did finally decide on a death star cake.  I am not a trained baker or cake decorator, but I remember my Grandma telling me that making a cake is a way to show someone how much you care about them on their birthday. I was pretty nervous about making it but after several mini panic attacks, I managed to pull it together. I was originally going to cover it in fondant before decorating it.  The night before I completely screwed it up and had to throw all of our fondant away and start over. I ended up covering the whole thing in buttercream frosting.  I had to have Mr. Train help me with the Death Star lines.  I was having a very hard time translating the pictures from Star Wars into cake and frosting.  Luckily he was able to guide me through it and tell me what lines to draw.


It was made with love!

It was a little lopsided and completely imperfect, but my boys loved it.  It was a labor of love, that's for sure.  But when I saw how excited they were when we brought it out, it was all worth it.  Some people have said that they make two separate cakes for each twin so they can each feel special, but so far mine have agreed on the style of cake, so I just make sure I have two sets of candles.  They love having people sing to them and then getting to blow out the candles.  It really is fun to watch them enjoy the excitement of their birthday.


I love watching them enjoy their day!

As people were leaving I made sure they knew they could take home their Jedi costumes, pool noodle light sabers and a small goody bag.  I didn't want to add a ton of sweets so I decided that a simple pencil set would be better.  Each kid got a bag with a pencil, pencil sharpener and a small Star Wars notepad.  Many of the kids would be starting preschool or kindergarten in a few weeks so I thought it would be a useful favor rather than just junk.

Overall I think the party went great.  I think all the guests had a good time and I know my boys did.  They have been playing with their pool noodle light sabers ever since.  It was a lot of work on my part since I had to lead our little Jedi academy, but it was great fun.  Now my oldest James is ready to start planning his superhero party in November.