May the Force be with You

Today was Amanda's 11th birthday party. She wanted a Star Wars theme last year, but since there was so many Harry Potter things going on last summer, we did Harry Potter last year and saved Star Wars for this year. As a huge fan of Star Wars (my brothers and I can probaby recite the entire original Star Wars movie by heart!) I was excited to do this party for her and had some great ideas for fun stuff to do at the party!

The invitations we sent out looked like a light saber handle and then when you pulled out the "blade" it had this printed on it: "In a galaxy far, far away, on the morning of 28 July, a baby girl was born. The Jedi Council named her Amanda and they knew she was the chosen one. In the 11 years that followed her birth, young Amanda has been learning the powers of the Force. Meanwhile, the Republic discovered a new enemy. The Jedi Knights felt a strong disturbance in the Force. Fear, pain and suffering have opened the path to the Dark side. Many Jedi Knights have been lost. The very future of the Jedi Order is in jeopardy. Young Padawan Amanda has been called by the Council to seek out future Jedi. Master Yoda is urging the younglings to complete their training and take part in the upcoming trials.

Each Padawan’s presence is requested to complete their Jedi training and prepare for the trials on 26 July 2008. Transport to the Jedi Temple, on Coruscant, will be departing promptly at 10:00am from the Nehring docking bay. Please advise the Jedi Council as soon as possible as to whether each Padawan will accept the challenge of the trials.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Please note that due to new security protocols in the Republic, no weapons will be allowed on all transport vessels. Rest assured that the Jedi Council has secured enough equipment for the Padawans to complete their training."

The guests arrived at 10:00am. We had a sign on the front door that said Welcome to the Jedi Training Academy. We had Padawan tunics for each of the trainees to wear. The house was decorated with black and silver foil stars, Star Wars figurines and the dining room table had a black tablecloth, napkins, forks and cups and a large black plate with a smaller red, green or blue plate on top of it. There was also some Star Wars confetti sprinkled all over the middle of the table.

First we made lightsabers (foam pipe insulation wrapped with electrical tape) and they got to choose which color of light saber they wanted - red, green, blue or purple. Then the Jedi trainees went outside into the desert wasteland of Tatooine (our unfinished backyard) and had light saber agility training. They each got a red balloon and tried to keep it up in the air with their lightsabers.

Then it was time to break the Death Star pinata. Amanda helped me to make the pinata and I painted it and drew all the details on it. Then we took a wooden dowel and wrapped it in electrical tape so that it looked like a lightsaber and the trainees used that to break the pinata.

When they came back inside, we took photos of them with lightsabers. The photos turned out really cool! It really looks like they are holding lightsabers! We told them to make their best Jedi faces, and we got some good ones!

The trainees then took a break for lunch, and they had Saber Dogs, Tatooine Tortillas, Millenium Melon and Jedi Juice. (That's hot dogs, blue tortilla chips, watermelon chunks and green kool-aid with purple kool-aid ice cubes.) For dessert they had Force Floats (blue kool-aid and Sprite mixed together with vanilla ice cream).


After lunch they made pretzel lightsabers. They dipped pretzel sticks into red, green, blue or purple candy melts. Then they watched the movie, Star Wars, Episode I. (As her parents, we kept trying to convince her to watch the REAL first episode, but it was her party after all, so we let her choose.)

While the trainees were watching the movie, I put together a certificate that congratulated them on completing their Jedi Training that had their photo on it. After the movie ended and they were ready to head home, they each got a goodie bag that had coloring pages, some scratch magic stars, a package of pop rocks and a light stick in it.

The trainees had a great time and were ready to go out into the galaxy and fight the forces of evil!

-Lora

See all the Star Wars party pics HERE.