Ethan's Star Wars Birthday Party

Ethan's 5th Birthday party was a huge success! I started thinking about his party before the baby arrived in October. After she arrived and the back-to-back holidays, my brain shut down until January.I ordered my invitations from PoshPaperGals, who let me edit her text a little bit. And began making jedi robes for each of the boys. This was the trickiest & most time consuming, trying to figure out sizes for our 14 guests. It was also the main expense. I used roughly 32 yards of fabric, but you can go to Joann's on a good day and find a great buy. Oh, yeah...the $40 matcha green tea powder - YIKES!Treat Bags? Um...no, that would be me making the custom Jedi Robe. But they did get a Green Tea Yoda Oreo, a light saber, and a Certificate of Jedi Completion.Fortunately, having a birthday right after Christmas was a great thing, because we had friends and family save wrapping paper rolls for light sabers (plus painters & electrical tape). If you had a summer birthday, you could make these out of pool noodles. We brought all our collapsable tunnels, huts, bikes & balls, to keep little boys occupied, along with some planned Star Wars themed activities. A tent and a big box were our "Imperial Empire Command Center" and "Rebel Alliance Command Center." The biggest hit of the party was Lance's pod racers, which he crafted out of a moving cart, a couple of boxes, dryer vents, flower pots & some spray paint. We had a short obstacle course (pod racing, bean bag toss with a cornhole set (asteroid toss), and taking a whack out of Darth Vader's pinata head. At that point, they were ready for to graduate and receive their light saber. Then, guess who arrived? DARTH VADER. They all took off running and pummeled him with their light sabers. So awesome. I decided to forgo some of the awesome food ideas on the internet, and opt for pizza & water (removing the label & replacing it with Star Wars wrapping paper - my new favorite trick). Oh yeah, that plus Carbonite Jello (Hans stuck in Carbonite). My sister-in-law, Libby makes amazing cakes (and also sells them!) and made the light saber cake. Never in a million years did I think I'd have such fun planning a Star Wars birthday party. But it was a blast. Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!!!

Check out my post here for how-to's on these & other great ideas from the fabulous internet.