Star Wars Party

For Jedi's 6th birthday we threw him a Star Wars party. My husband and older son  jumped right in and were excited to help plan the games, make the sabers, etc. I definitely could not have do it without their help (as my insanity level would have reached an all-time high, while my sanity level plummeted to it's lowest)

Here is the skinny on the party. I'll go into details on things that will help you if you too are planning a Star Wars party. Or perhaps it will convince you that it is far too much work, and a movie party at the local theater sounds PERFECT! :)

I got most of my inspiration from reading this post.

Preparations.

My most ambitious task was making an R2D2 cake. Not having much experience with fondant, and wanting it to be 3D, didn't help me much.

I started with a board and dowel at an angle hoping to make it like the Sharper Image R2 that we have. I decided to make the body out of Rice Krispie treats, and the top part out of cake.

Here are my shattered dreams:

So then we switched to just having him sit on the board, and ended up with this:

Not too shabby. I'm showing you my grand plans for a stand up R2, so those of you with more talent than I can use my mistakes as a jumping block. I'd love to see you link up to my post if you've successfully accomplished it!!

Light Sabers were made with 1/2 inch PVC pipe cut in 2 1/2 foot sections. Then we cut pool noodles in half and put them over the PVC. It was a nice snug fit. Then electrical tap was added at the handles in different color combinations so the kids were know which was theirs.

Death Star Pinata!!

Okay this was also a bit more ambitious than it should have been. Mostly because I over estimated the strength of the kids that would be at the party. We didn't use light sabers to break the pinata. We decided to use a PVC pipe with silver duct tape covering it. The foam from the noodles would break if it was used for the pinata.

I used a round ball from Target- the big colorful balls that you find in those large cage-bins. Then I got started using homemade paper mache glue.  I alternated between newspaper and cardstock. Ten layers. Let me just say this was overkill. You'll see why. I would recommend 5 layers.

I put the candy in it, then sealed it up with a bowl shape I also made from paper mache. I used a bowl that seem like the right shape for the death star dip, then put 5-6 layers on it. I cut the hole out of the ball, removed the real ball, and placed the candy in. Then I hot glued the paper mache bowl in, and added more paper mache layers to make it blend in with the rest of the ball.

Then I painted the whole thing with silver spray paint. Next I used tape to make all the lines on the ball. I stared pretty precise, but it somehow got off track and no one would ever notice. (if you do, you're looking too hard. Its a pinata for pity's sake)

 I found some granite finish paint on clearance at Michael's and used that to paint over the silver. I fished it by hand painting the circle with silver and black craft paint and painted the black line around it with paint that has glitter in it. This is how it turned out!

This is post beating. My 14 year old son beat it a dozen times and the bowl finally popped out allowing the candy to be dumped out. Definitely too many layers. :)

I also made tunics for all the kids. I used earth tone colors and muslin. 1.5 yards of 44 inch fabric cut in half length-wise. Then I cut out a line across the center for their heads, and a line down from the very center of that slit down about 4 inches toward the chest. I folded the fabric back and sewed it. Now there is a v-neck. I also folded the outside edges toward the right side of the fabric and sewed them to keep the fabric from fraying. The front and back edges were sewn under. When put on the kids, the edges were folded to the center front to look like there was another layer of clothing. The belts were made with fleece cut in 2 inch strips.

I made the girls tunics out of white satin to look like Jedi Princesses, but the fabric kept slipping. I suggest against using satin if you make them in the same fashion that I did. It would work fine if you sewed the fabric over, or pinned it.

Food:

We started with a grand buffet of force-fortified foods.  We used blue and green food for the light side, red and orange for the dark side. They also all had  Padawan pizza.

Yoda....eating a mini lightsaber made with Pirouline cookies dipped in blue Wilton's candy coating, then in blue sprinkles. I also made dark side sabers in red.

We  made Yoda Soda- green Hawaiian punch with lemon lime soda.

.

And of course we had the R2D2 cake. I didn't want to put candles on R2 so as a last minute decision, I stuck them in large marshmallows. :)

Party.

Each step of the party had them learn a new skill and there was usually a new tool to go with it.

Training began with some team building activities. The Padawans carried this atomic ball across the room without dropping it. (My husband cut a piece of particle board in a circle with a circle in the middle. He painted it and put holes in it for the ropes. The 'atomic ball' is a hamster ball with cotton batting and a flashing light from a toy.

They had to lift together keeping it steady or the ball would fall off.

Then they did problem solving to cross Yoda's swamp on some space rocks. We simply used construction paper cut in rock-like shapes. They had one more rock than people, so they had to pass the last rock up to the front of the line, then step forward, then repeat. They did this all the way across the room.

They used the force to lift these meteorites. Foil covered newspaper with fishing line hooked to them. At first they didn't see the fishing line, and really thought they were lifting it!!

Jedi has had a bit of practice.

Now the fun tools.

They learned how to use thermal detonators. They LOVED them. These were nubby balls with flashing lights I picked up from Party City. They threw them at a chalkboard with a target on it.

Blasters training came next.We picked up an off brand Nerf-like gun for each child. They came in a three pack at Target.

Light sabers! They were each allowed to choose their saber. My husband gave them some safety rules for these and the guns.

I have not photographic evidence of the last part. They had a maze to go through and were able to use their blasters, detonators and sabers as they made their way toward a power core. It was made from a clear soda bottle with more cotton and flashing toys in it. I think it was a flashing wand...

They had to work in pairs to get to the power core and knock it down to destroy the death star.

After that, everyone went home!! So that's our party.

A Royal First Birthday

My Little Miss turned one this month and we threw her a Royal Ball!

Before you give me too much credit for creativity, you must know that most of my creative genius lies in my ability to scour the Internet for ideas, and put them together in a cohesive fashion.

I sent out Royal invitations asking all the little Lord's and Ladies to arrive in style. (and had fun using my wax seal) I couldn't find printed paper that I was in love with, so I used some pretty paper with crowns on it, and added vellum. I hand delivered the invitations.

I also included a note for the parents that was written from their child's "Fairy Godmother". It included more information on the party, including what they needed to bring, how they should dress, etc.

I borrowed an idea for a birthday banner from http://paperflowers1.blogspot.com/2009/01/homemade-birthday-banner.html. It reminded me of royal banners. I printed the letters on regular paper in the color I wanted and cut them out. I used 12x12 paper for the pink- cut into fourths. The green printed paper is also 12x12, and cut into an 8x12 size. I folded the top back about 1 1/2 inches and used double stick tape to attach it to a 1 inch ribbon. I didn't cut the ribbon to begin with. I attached it to a few chairs as I taped each piece onto it, then spread them out how I liked them and then adjusted the length of the ribbon. The banner pieces stayed in place just fine.

I wanted a personalized cake topper- and not just a candle. So I spend a few days making this cutie patootie topper. I borrowed ideas from here http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31584205 and here http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/all-partied-out.html. (I frequent Jill's site. Love her!)

The finishing touches!!

I absolutely loved these tissue paper pom poms....inspired of course by Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias. I made mine with 10 sheets of tissue paper to make them more full.

To add more whimsy...I thought paper pinwheels would be fun. We made these a few years back for an activity, and I immediately thought of them for our buffet table.

I borrowed two tables from our church nursery, along with little chairs for the little ones to sit at. There was enough room that mom's or dad's could sit with them. Each guest was also given a sippy cup with apple juice in it, which they took home.

That covers the decorations!

~On to the party~

Most baby's take a morning and afternoon nap, so I decided to have our party be a luncheon and held it at noon, a time when most baby's would normally be awake.
Because I would be hosting a lot of little ones that were under the age of two, as well as adults, I wanted to be sure there would be food that all ages and stages could eat. One way to guarantee that there would be something for everyone was to offer normal baby snacks, such as Cheerios.
I wanted a way to serve them that was fun and creative. I ran across this site http://theparteaplanner.blogspot.com/2007/10/isabelles-first-birthday-party.html and thought she had a great idea! This is my version of it.

I served fresh fruit, including bananas cut in half in their skin, all natural apple sauce, and Colby-jack cheese cut into little flower shapes a little bigger than Cherrios.


I also offered turkey and cheese sandwiches for the toddlers. We cut them out into flower shapes as well.

For the adults, we had a veggie tray, chicken salad sandwiches, and Chinese chicken salad served on mini croissants.



And M&M's. I bought the Valentine bags after Valentines day when they were clearanced, and had my boys separate all the red ones from the pinks and white.

Little Miss had her own cake. I used whipped cream frosting and strawberry cake- since I didn't want her to slip in to a chocolate coma with her first taste of REAL sugar.

I made banana bread mini muffins for the under one set, with a low-sugar cream cheese frosting.

I saw these on Bakerella's website and just couldn't resist!

http://www.bakerella.com/make-your-cupcakes-pop/



I hesitated at first with the idea of serving them to the rest of the guests, who would be adults. But they were a hit. I made 60 of them, and there were only about 26 adults there. Most of them had two each.

They are very time consuming to make, but I think they are well worth it. You can make them several days before your event, because the candy coating keeps the cake moist. I made mine the day before, but did a practice run a few weeks before the party- and a week went by before one of the cupcakes were eaten (weird..in MY household??) and it was really moist and fresh.

As the guests arrived, they were invited to play with toys in the family room. We set up our little tea party table and two chairs off in our morning room where we took individual pictures of each child with Krisha. Those will be included in the thank you cards.

We ate lunch about 15 minutes into the party- allowing a little time for guests to arrive. Little tummy's were growling already
The baby's all finished eating at different times (and some never left the table), so they went back to play for a while. Meanwhile, we finished up the pictures with Little Miss, and all the adults just visited with each other.

We then gathered back at the table to sing happy birthday and eat dessert! While everyone was busy eating cake, the family room was turned into a Ball Room!

We filled it with 18 inch balls from Target. Each guest took one home with them.
We did a group photo of all the little lords and ladies...which was a feat! There were eleven in all.
It turned out quite precious!
We don't open gifts at birthday parties at our house to avoid issues with sharing and reclaiming brought gifts. But Little Miss had a great time opening them later.


Happy Birthday Little Miss!