Ben's Star Wars Birthday Party!

My kids always enjoy choosing the "kind" of party they want to have - when we started this themed party thing, I don't know...but it's still fun!

This year, Ben chose Star Wars as his theme. Boy, did we have fun with it!

The fun started with the invitations. I downloaded a free Star Wars font (do an internet search for "free fonts", and you'll find more than you know what to do with!), and wrote the invitations with it. Add a little Star-Wars-ese...and you have a simple homemade invitation:

"In a galaxy not so afar away, a baby

boy was born. From the beginning his

energy drew the attention of the jedi

council, who named him Ben. They knew

he was the chosen one. In the 8 years that

followed his birth, young ben has been

learning the powers of the force.

Recently though, the Jedi knights have

felt a strong disturbance in the force.

many jedi knights have been lost. The

very future of the jedi order is now in

jeopardy.

The jedi council has called upon young

Ben to seek out future jedi. Your young

padawan’s presence is requested to complete

jedi training on december 13, 2009.

The trials will begin promptly at 2 pm

at the Fouch system of the galaxy.

Please advise the jedi council as soon as

possible at 381-0478 as to whether your

young padawan will accept the challenge

of the trials. May the force be with you!

I'm a total dork. I know this. No need to comment about it ;-) Ben LOVED this invitation though...he especially got a kick out of the fact that I wrote the details "in normal language" on the back of the invite "for you grown ups who just don't get it". Oi. ( BTW...I can't take 100% credit for the language. I searched the web for invitation ideas, and then pieced a couple of other ideas together. Sigh...I'm not alone...there are fellow dorks out there!)

Coming up with Star Wars games was lots of fun too. Of course, we whacked a pinata, as always. But this time, we converted a store-bought soccer ball pinata into a "Death Star" by wrapping it in aluminum foil.

We even turned the pinata whacking stick into a light saber with some black and blue tape:

At the beginning of the party, I had all the kids sit in a circle. I explained to them that we all needed Star Wars names, and how to come up with them. I had figured all the names out before, and had written their new names on name tags. I invited each child to come up, I announced their new name, and said "May the force be with you" as I affixed their name tags (can you see my hubby's eyes rolling?)

To figure out a Star Wars name:

1st name: First 3 letters of first name + First 2 letters of last name

last name: First 2 letters of mom's maiden name + First 3 letters of city of birth (I got info from parents as they dropped their kids off)

Ben was "Benfo Faboi"

We also played

1. "Escape the Death Star" - wrap a small ball in foil to be the death star, then play "hot potato" with it. It's fun if you have Star Wars music to use :-)

2. "Capture the Battle Droid" - print a picture of a battle droid on a small piece of paper. Fold it an insert into a balloon. Fold blank pieces of paper and insert into other balloons. Under-inflate the balloons (by quite a bit) to make it difficult to pop the balloon. The kids use their bodies to pop the balloons, and whoever has the battle droid gets a prize.

3. "Light Saber Training" - the kids battle two at a time. They use ONLY a light saber to keep a balloon in the air (they each have their own balloon). They're "out" when their balloon falls to the ground or they touch the balloon. Keep rotating until you have winners against winners, and one final winner is found.

And of course...the CAKE. It's all about the cake! I made a 9x13" cake (grease and flour very well!), and cut it into varying sized of rectangles. To figure out how I wanted to cut the cake, I took some paper, and taped it together to make one 9x13" piece. Then I sketched the cuts, cut them out, and used them as templates when it came time to cut the cake.

According to Ben, this was "the best cake you ever made, Mom!" :-)

I used frosting from the baking isle. I used chocolate for the handle, and cream cheese frosting mixed with blue food coloring for the other part (two containers of cream cheese frosting....it took quite a bit to make it look smooth). Chocolate chips and a red candy (gum ball in this case) worked well for handle details.

For a little something extra, we printed small Star Wars related images off the web (google "Star Wars images" to find them). Print two of each image, cut them out, and glue them back to back with a toothpick sandwiched in between.

One of the most challenging parts of this cake was that it was 3 feet long! I didn't have a tray that big! Hubby cut a piece of wood to the right size, and I covered it in foil.

See that little face of my 2 year old? I now know that that's his "I'm gonna blow those candles out" face. He promptly blew all but one candle out before Ben could even inhale!

Ben was a good sport...but he DID nearly twist Thomas' head off!

We re-lit the candles so Ben could blow them out:

Happy Birthday, to my favorite Jedi-in-training: Mr. Benfo Faboi! I love you!!