May the FOURce be with you

Jimmy had a birthday party today in celebration of him turning 4 this past week.
On Monday we had sent out Jedi Training invitations:

We made props for the training all through out the week:

Jedi Training badges

I found these little business card holder pages for planners on clearance at Officemax and I cut them up to make the individual badges. We requested pictures of the kids from their parents via email and printed off a little "shpill" to get the padawans excited for the Jedi training. I made a little trivia on the back for the parents to enjoy.

Homemade light sabers for the kids to decorateWe made these out of foam tube pipe insulation (they are even softer/better than pool noodles!). They cost about 60 cents each at Home depot. They were the cheapest, yet coolest light sabers. The kids can go at it in a light saber duel, and yet the material is actually really soft so no one gets hurt! The kids would later decorate them with different colors of neon duct dape, and get to bring them home as a party favor. Jimmy and Daddy had to "test them out" the day before:

Pin the light saber on Yoda game

Dad made a really cool Death Star pinata (with crater and all!)He was so proud of this. Too bad it had to be destroyed!!! He got a big round (punch balloon) from the dollar store (sold in pack of 3) and blew it up and then just coated it with a paper mache recipe he found online. He let it dry overnight and then spray painted it grey. Once the paint dried, he cut a circle out of it (making the balloon pop inside), removed the balloon, inserted candy and duct taped the circle piece back on, but inverted, so that it made a crater instead. Then he re-spraypainted where the duct taped circle was and let that dry. Lastly, he decorated it a bit with some "Death Star" things like lines and such. It was snowy outside, so we just tacked it up to our ceiling and hit it in the living room.

And lots of Jedi fuel (including a couple Star Wars birthday cakes):

Fuel included: Yoda Soda, Vader Juice, Organa Oranges, Jedi Jello, Wookie Cookies, Droid dip, Yoda cake, and a "Light and Dark Side" cake (which Jimmy helped decorate).This cake was real fun to make. I made half of it with vanilla cake mix and vanilla frosting to represent the "light side" and the other half was dark chocolate cake mix and frosting to represent the "dark side". Then, Jimmy helped me place some of his figurines on top. The bad guys of course on the "dark side", and the good guys on the "light side".Then we had the party- 14 Padawans showed up! (not all pictured)

And it was a galactic blast!

The Padawans had to complete 3 trials:

Trial 1: Construct Light Saber

They wrapped their light sabers in different colors of tape. Then they were required to master the force by keeping a balloon in the air with a partner only using their light sabers!

Trial 2: Navigate Asteroid Field
For this one we wrapped up little rubber worms in tin foil and hid them around the house and the kids had to hunt them down.

Trial 3: Destroy Death Star

This was my favorite part. Here James is hanging up his beloved death star pinata. The kids loved this- they bashed it in with a "hard" light saber (I thought it was quite funny- there was a little girl dressed liked Darth Vader that refused to play the pinata game. So fitting- as Darth was the one that created the death star in the movies. Why would he ever want to destroy it?)The kids loved taking swings at it and finally James finished it off when we ran out of time (and patience).

After they completed the trials, they were given 3 stars on their badges. Look at these brave Princess Leia's!:

We ended with a good ol' singing of "Happy Birthday to Jimmy" and he blew out his candles. He told me before this was the most exciting thing about a birthday party- having people sing happy birthday then getting to blow out the candles. What a cutie.

(I love this little girl's face behind Jimmy)

Jimmy had a ball. And I think most of the kids had a pretty good time too! Now he is an official Jedi (he has the four-ce!). And he's been a great "sharer of toys" with his Padawan baby brother Johnny.

"Boys" with their toys.