Star Wars Birthday Party

We threw a Star Wars birthday party for Sam yesterday. His birthday isn't until next week and we'll be in Taos so we decided to have a party for him before we left on our trip. Of course he chose Star Wars as his theme. The child is obsessed. He brings drawing after drawing of lightsabers home from school. He thinks about Star Wars all the time- even when I think it's off topic. For example, last week he asked me if I had a penis. I told him no and that I had a vagina. He then asked me I peed out of my bottom. I told him no, I peed out of my vagina. I waited for the next question with some trepidation. He then asked me how old Luke was when he got the force. See what I mean?
So a Star Wars birthday party it was! Michael was thrilled with the selection and really joined in helping me plan the party. We let Sam invite five friends and their siblings. We crafted an evite inviting his friends to join him in some jedi training. I bought snacks (pretzel rods- they look like light sabers!, yodamole and chips, and strawberries and almonds), and some silver, black and white decorations. I ordered a Star Wars cake from Penningtons in chocolate at Sam's request and looked up some party games.
Two days before the party I got really sick and Michael took over. I was so grateful for him and he really enjoyed it. The party was from 2-4 on a Sunday afternoon and went like this.
We put a Star Wars Jedi Training sign on the front door and had Star Wars music playing throughout the whole party. We had the cake set out surrounded my star wars figures and the bowls containing the snacks. I had beer, wine and iced tea on the island and a cooler full of flavored and non flavored Horizon milk boxes. Davis wore his clone costume and Sam wore his Luke Skywalker costume. I dressed in silver and black as their training leader.
A few minutes before the start of the party, Sam's grandparents arrived from Sugar Land just for the party! The boys were thrilled and quickly showed off the party set-up and gifted their grandfather with his birthday presents since they wouldn't see him again before his birthday.
When the kids arrived (many in costume!) they were each given a three foot long tube of insulation piping that we bought at Lowes. Michael had found lots of colored duct tape and the kids used this to decorate the "Light Sabers". When they finished decorating, we divided them up into partners and gave them their first training activity. We gave them green balloons and told them to use their lightsabers to keep the balloons from hitting the floor. They seemed to really enjoy this game, though there was a lot of chaos. I probably should have given them more time to decorate their lightsabers while serving the grown ups beverages, but i was feeling rushed since I didn't know how long the activities we had planned would take.
After they demonstrated their skills with the balloons, we took them outside to the back patio where Michael had set up an obstacle course. The kids had to crawl through a tunnel, run across hot lava (a red towel with some boards across it) and then use their lightsabers to whack at some weighted balloons sitting on orange cones. This was fun to watch and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
When they seemed to tire of the obstacle course, Michael taught the kids some jedi stances. Kade helped out with this one and I got some really great pictures. Then Michael led the kids around to the driveway where he had drawn two huge deathstars side by side with chalk and filled two big buckets with photon torpedoes (water balloons). We lined the kids up at the end of driveway with the buckets and let them destroy the deathstars with the bombs. This was big fun for the kids.
When the last water balloon was exploded and the deathstars were a watery memory, we took the kids back to the patio and let them destroy another death star in the form of a piñata. We had struggled to find a death star piñata and had finally bought a soccer ball piñata and spray painted it silver. I had then stuffed it with the gift bags filled with Star Wars stickers, tattoos, bouncy balls and a few pieces of candy. There was one for each child in the hopes of eliminating the terrible fighting and scrabbling that we have often had with pinatas.
The kids whacked at the piñata with their own light sabers and then we handed them a plastic light saber to try. They ended up knocking the piñata loose from it's rope and so I asked the kids to use the force while i broke it open with my hands and dumped the gift bags out on the floor.
Michael had snuck out at this point with our friend Chris. Chris cued up some music that Michael had put together. We had the speakers inside the door where the children were hitting the piñata, so the kids heard some voices and loud space ship noises from right inside the door! They soon realized that it was Darth Vader! We heard his voice and then battle sounds. The kids were both thrilled and terrified. Slowly the door opened and Darth Vader (Michael) appeared. A couple of kids cried, but the costume wasn't very convincing and the big kids quickly realized the fun to be had and attacked Darth Vader with their light sabers. They beat him back and were very proud of themselves.
Then we let them run around a play on the swing set and the grownups got a chance to chat and snack.
We called the kids in about 20 minutes later and cut the cake. Pennington's had done a great job with the cake and Sam was both pleased and embarrassed to be the center of attention during the birthday song and blowing out of the candle. I cut the cake and dispersed it and most people took it outside to eat.
With fifteen minutes left in the party we all went in to the lounge to open presents which all had a star wars theme, much to Sam's delight. He opened presents with more grace than I could expect for an almost-five year old. He let Davis help him open. He said loudly that he LOVED each and every present as he opened them. And he thanked everyone for the gifts without much prompting.
The party was over and we said our goodbyes and began to put away the party. It was pretty easy clean-up and our friends Anne and Jeff helped. I immediately collapsed on the couch since my cold had turned into a sinus infection and I was pretty exhausted. We chatted with Anne and Jeff and let the kids play as we all wound down. Soon it was bedtime and we said goodbye to our friends, served the kids some "chicken" nuggets and put them to bed. I wasn't far behind. Sam said it was the best birthday party ever and that he loved every part of it. We did too.