Sam turned five (AAHH!! He's growing up) and chose a Star Wars theme for his first "friends" party (we've always just done family parties). He had been a Jedi for Halloween because he reveres his friend Brayden who let him borrow the costume, but he hadn't seen the movies. I guess a light saber is enough reason to want to have a Star Wars party, right? I tried to talk him into other party ideas, but Star Wars he wanted and Star Wars he got. He asked me as I was explaining some of the activities I had planned what Star Wars' younger brother's name was. Hmmmm.....I decided I'd better let him watch some of the movie, at least, so he would get the games. All of the activities were training to become a Patowan. I learned a lot of vocab as I did my homework to do this right. It's not like anyone knew what was going on, but it's the principal of it, you know? And I had a lot of fun with the details. Here's the sign that greeted them.
That's supposed to be Yoda in case you can't tell--I'm quite artistically challenged and almost had to draw a grid like in middle-school art class to get this right. Then there were the games. We did Pin the X-Wing Starfighter on the Death Star (blindfolded using only the power of the force), 
Yoda-Vader (red-saber, green saber), and of course an obstacle course involving a meteor shower (one mom throwing rice), ducking under a lava flow (cellophane), and avoiding the dark side (Chris and Lucy with a light saber). 
If they completed their training, they got a classy homemade light saber (pool noodles and dowels make for a very safe and inexpensive version of the original). Then, thanks to a friend in the ward andy my bro-in-law, there was a disturbance in the force and Darth arrived to take on the newly trained warriors. Only one kid cried when he showed up. Yeah, it was totally intense. When they got over their fear, they went a little postal on him, but luckily only one kid had a real plastic light saber. The rest were pretty soft. Jason was a good sport. The best line happened when he came out and invited each kid to fight him individually using their new moves (I ripped this off from Disneyland's Jedi Training show). He called his son Luke, Sam's cousin, up and said what he'd been trying to find the opportunity to say since he was born "Luke, I am your father!"
Yoda's green, I know, but I was going to do Darth and it was too hard (see the three Darths in the middle? It looks like a nun with a mouth guard). All of these ideas were online--what did mothers do before the internet?
A birthday tribute--Sam is so grown up. He loves preschool, his new friends there, and looks forward to getting homework in kindergarten (we'll see how long I can milk that one!). He likes fixing things, working on puzzles with Dad, and learning new things. He thinks he could drive if I let him try (thanks Grandpa!). He told me that one day he's going to marry Lucy and they'll have Ben as a baby and I said, "Yep--I can't wait!" I keep thinking I don't want him to grow up, but I love every step of the way. Happy birthday Sam! We love you so much!
