Noah's (STAR WARS) 6th birthday party! 2/25/12

Not long after Noah's 5th birthday party (when he was obsessed with pirates) Noah discovered Star Wars.  He saw an episode of Clone Wars, loved it, and was hooked.  Then he wanted to see the old Star Wars movies, and wanted to read about all of the characters and their back stories.

Sticks which were formerly wielded as swords now became light sabers (as did any other object that Noah could use for this purpose).  It didn't take long before Noah passed up everything that Mark and I knew about Star Wars from growing up, and we had a feeling that his new found obsession would likely last longer than other things he'd previously been interested in (which has proven true).

When Noah's 6th birthday was still several months away, he asked if we could start planning a Star Wars themed party.  So, I began browsing blogs and websites...and making lots of lists.  One of the first things that had to be done was invitations.  I found a blog with a bunch of great ideas for the party including a tutorial for the awesome homemade light saber invitations that we made!

I found a free font download for a font I liked called RedFive, got my supplies and got to work printing, gluing, taping, and enjoying getting to incorporate some glitter into things, even though it was a boy party!  Here's how they turned out!...

First, a close up of the text on the invitation before it was wrapped around the light saber:

 And ta-da!...

 

The invitations took me longer to make than they probably should have, but that's par for the course for me.  The payoff was how much that Noah loved them though and it was so worth it!  We had  a lot of fun letting Noah dress up in his Darth Vader costume and deliver his invitations to his guests.  Here's one quick clip of him delivering an invite to his friend Isaac:

And Noah holding my mom's invitation before taking it in to her at work (at a school office):

 

What better place to hold a Star Wars party than somewhere that is about all things space?  We rented a room at the planetarium in Salt Lake and it was the perfect setting for our party.

Now, on to the party treats!  Williams Sonoma was having a rockin' sale on their cute Star Wars cookie cutters and cupcake stencil set at the time, so I snatched them up.  I'll show more about the stencils later, but here are a couple of pictures of Noah helping me make the cookies:

My mom and I dipped pretzel rods to make light sabers and sprinkled them with edible glitter (wahoo! more glitter!) from a site that I love and have used for several parties - Country Kitchen SweetArt.

Now back to those cupcake stencils.  Great idea, but on the stencils where I used powdered sugar it just dissolved right into the frosting.  I did a couple different types of cupcakes, like this:

So, they looked cute, right?...but notice below how the outlines of Darth Vader and Yoda (who was on the green cupcakes) are disappearing.  And this was only minutes after applying the stencils.  *sigh*

Oh!  I should mention that I planned on making my own cupcake wraps, but ran out of time and just ordered them from CupcakeSocial on Etsy.

On to something I was a bit happier with how it turned out.  The drink!  It was just white grape juice, Fresca, and ice...but it had submersible lights!  It turned out looking really neat!  I ended up getting the aquabrites led lights (in green!) because they were long lasting and I liked that you can have a solid or flashing light.  Plus they had an area on the light that we were able to string fishing line through so we could control the spacing between lights and the positioning in the drink (not all floating to the top).  I found them on another site that I like called Save on Crafts.  Here's what it looked like all set up at the party:

As you can see, we labeled the food and drinks at the party.  Some of the names I copied from other Star Wars parties that I'd seen, and some of them we came up with on our own.  I personally liked the Bantha Milk (to the right of our green glowing Yoda Soda above).  If you aren't a Star Wars junkie and don't know what Bantha are...they look like this:

What?...You don't want to chug down a glass of something that was milked from that beast?  C'mon.

 

And of course the cupcakes...

Ta-da!  

And I was really happy to be able to be able to re-use my star gossamer from Noah's 3rd birthday party (that was Buzz/space themed) to decorate this table.  I also just covered the wooden tiered dessert stand (from Linc's train party a couple years ago) with some Star Wars scrap-booking paper.  I ran out of time (and budget) on the banner too, so it's just a cheap plastic one from the party store.  Also, the two raised, black platters with cupcakes were just old stuff I found at the thrift store and spray painted and apoxied together.  They worked perfectly and I've been able to re-use them at Halloween and other parties (not with food directly on them of course).  All other serving pieces were things we already had on hand.

Here's a quick video clip of the party room before guests arrived

We snapped some pictures as guests were arriving.  And, conveniently, right outside our party room was an interactive Mars and Moon exhibit.

We got lucky and Uncle David (Mark's brother) happened to be in town visiting from Korea during Noah's birthday, so we got to have him there...

Cutest little Yoda ever (Max 8 months):

Max's awesome knit yoda hat was purchased on etsy from KnitandCrochet2009.  It is not only cute, but super soft and comfy...he'll actually wear it!  The lightsaber rattle (in green for Yoda of course) was also purchased on etsy, but from HandmadeMonster. 

 Mack, Dylan, and Noah.

I love that Audrey dressed up even though she's not "in to" Star Wars!  Here she is with me and Noah (Obi Wan).

Noah loved all of the themed food.

This pose was all Noah's idea.  I love it.

Jango Fett (Isaac) shooting some Jedi...

 
Noah and Rachel.

Grandma Jana.

Noah absolutely LOVED having so many of the people he cares about there getting into what he loves.  He relished being able to walk around in character and literally eat, breathe and speak all things Star Wars on his special day.

Uncle Matt and Katie.  This is how behind I am on this blog...they weren't engaged yet at this party, but now Katie has been Noah's aunt for about 5 months! :)

Grandpa Rob and Uncle Josh.

And Mark/Daddy, who does a ton to make these parties happen too!

As party guest arrived they were directed to the crafting tables where supplies were laid out to make masks of various Star Wars characters.  I found a blog with free DIY Star Wars masks so we printed those out and used them.  Adults were also welcome to make a mask if they wanted to.

Each child was also given their own jar of homemade playdough (to also keep as a party favor).  I made it blue glitter playdough to give it that stars in space look (and scented to make it a little more special)!  I put each child's playdough in an old baby food jar (I saved and washed a bunch of Max's) and then glued circles of glitter paper (leftover from what I used to make the lightsaber invitations) to the lid.

Once the kids were all done making their masks and playing with their playdough we moved on to organized games.  The first game we played I called "Let the force guide you".  I (er...uh...Princess Leia) explained that "thermal detonators" (metallic colored plastic eggs with a bouncy ball inside) were hidden around the room before the guests arrived.

Then, once everyone found a "detonator", the kids lined up and we did "clanker bowling".  I got the idea for this from this site and we just modified how to make them.  The kids lined up and each one took a few turns knocking down the droids.

 

Watching the clanker bowling...Grandma Mary and Max, Ava and Uncle Matt, Uncle David, Grandpa Mont and Spencer.

Since we needed to burn a little bit of time before the main event of the party, we did an impromptu game of speed play dough molding.  We made it a race for each of the kids to make anything they wanted from Star Wars before the time ran out...

Now on to the main event of the party!  A little background:  It was a shot in the dark on my part.  One day while Noah and I were watching bonus features on his new Star Wars blu-ray set (that he won at a Star Wars event held at Pottery Barn Kids) we saw a segment about a dad that had an amazing Darth Vader costume and was part of an organization that in addition to their hobby used their costumes to appear at events, primarily charity related.  It's called the 501st legion.  They have a chapters all over the world, including one here in Utah (the Alpine Garrison), so I contacted them asking about the possibility of a character coming to Noah's party.

I was very clear to let them know that this was my child's birthday party and in no way a charity event.  They responded and said that they would love to come and asked what characters he would be most interested in.  I said Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper...and they said that would be no problem and that there would likely be a couple additional characters as well!  I was elated!  I knew that Noah would really love this, more than anything else we could do or give him for his birthday.

The other thing that I was told was that they are a volunteer group and they ask that in lieu of any payment that we give a donation to a local charity in their name.  I loved that.  I wouldn't have hesitated to pay them for their time, and for them to defer that payment to a charity was really awesome.

So!  Let's get to those characters!  It was hard to keep things all a surprise for the guests and still get good pictures and video, but here is what we have.  I had the Imperial March cued up (since Darth Vader was supposed to be leading the entourage) and just started to music as they entered...

There was quite a variety of responses from the kids as they looked up from their play dough to see the characters...smiles, nervous blank expressions, and I think a bit of disbelief on Noah's part:

 

Unfortunately Darth Vader had to cancel at the last minute, but we still had the storm trooper and these other awesome characters that came!  And their costumes were really fantastic!  Since Anakin (as any Star Wars fan knows) turns into Darth Vader, we went ahead and let him lead our planned game of "Vader says" with the kids.

I absolutely LOVE the expression on Noah's face here...

And Linc was surprisingly focused on following instructions during the game...

Audrey was a great sport participating in the party even though it wasn't a theme of something that she's "in to", but once the characters arrived, it was a bit too much for her...

Next we went on to do "agility training".  In this game kids were each given an inflatable, light-up light saber.  They were to bounce a balloon down the length of the room on their light saber, and then participate in a "test of bravery" which was standing next to the characters to be photographed.

The birthday boy...

Lincoln...

Mack...

Dylan...

Isaac...

Ezra...

Ez wanted Lincoln to stand with him for his picture...

Ava...

 

Rachel...

Max and Me...

Uncle David...

Dave got Spencer to come get in a picture with him...

Jake...

 

Mont watching Max eat his light saber...

Last chance for anyone that wants a picture.  Grandma Mary with all 4 of my boys...and Mack :)

Anakin decided to let the birthday boy hold his "real light saber"...

And I decided that I needed a photo with just my boys...

And my brother Chris processed the photo in a way that looks super cool and space-like:

How awesome is that?!...Wait, did I just geek out about Star Wars?  Yup.  I did.  Noah's enthusiasm about things has a way of rubbing off on people.  I am around him an awful lot you know.

Time for cake (cupcakes in our case)!...

And presents! (I love this picture):

And a video clip of Noah opening the above light saber (from Matt and Katie):

Opening Uncle David's gifts:

For some reason, having these guys sitting amongst the other party guests (as if it's just perfectly normal and every day) simply cracked me up.

 Here's a quick video clip showing the same thing:

This picture cracks me up (I'm easily amused) because of how the Anakin mask on Dave's head is staring at us while he is looking down...

Now, here's a clip of Noah opening the above present.  I have to explain the hampered enthusiasm...I know he wanted to be polite, but he had already opened another gift that was the same mask and he wasn't sure exactly what to say.  I think he handled it quite well though...and he was SO excited about the card that came with the gift too (which is pretty cute)...

Noah was so sweet and gracious opening his gifts, saying thank you to each person...one happy/sad sign to mama that he's growing up.

For our last video clip I had to include this playful jab of Dave's at our storm trooper:

A few last photo opportunities before the party wrapped up:

And these last 3 photos we have enlarged on the wall in Noah's room!...

So this party was a lot of planning, time, and work...but most of all it was so rewarding to see how much that Noah loved it.  It was a lot of fun!  I don't know that every 6 year old would really appreciate all the details, but Noah really did.  He also loved being a part of as much of the planning and preparation as he could...right down to sketching out where things would go in the party room to laying out all of the serving dishes and measuring to see if it would all fit.

A huge thanks to my brother Chris for taking (and even editing) a ton of pictures for us!  It means a lot to us and to Noah to have these pictures!  Thanks to my bestie Allison for loaning me her awesome Leia costume.  A big thanks to grandparents who took care of our boys while we did party set up...and it was fun to have them (especially Noah) be able to just show up and see it all put together!  Also a huge thanks to those that helped with various prep work and clean up after the party...and of course to the awesome Star Wars characters from the 501st Legion who really made the party!

The biggest thanks of all goes to Noah for being who he is.  We love his vivacious imagination and the way that he embraces things he is interested in without abandon.  Right now that passion is focused on Star Wars...and for however long that lasts, I'm sure that I'll love it too.  But more than that I will simply love watching the way that he experiences and loves things, and I hope that he will always hold on to that thirst to love and know more about whatever he is enthusiastic about at any given time in his life.

We are so blessed to be your parents, Noah and we love you so much!