Star Wars Extravaganza!

Six year old Birthday parties at home are not for the faint hearted. We had 12 children to entertain (including our own) and with only two parents staying (the rest wisely making a ‘drop and run’) we had our hands full! Preparations started a couple of days before, with decorations to put up, loot bags to fill, and cup cakes to make. Saturday morning arrived and I sent Dan and the girls out so I could get seriously busy. The party started at 2.30pm and I only just made it out of my p-jays and in the shower before the first guests arrived. The lounge was transformed (with a lot of furniture rearranging!) and the party games prepared. Charli dressed up as Clone Commander Rex and Sophie as Anakin. I had no costume prepared, so quickly threw on a white shirt and yoga pants, with a scarf tied round my waist, hoping to look vaguely like Padme. Dan hired a Darth Vadar costume and did an awesome job of surprising the children – but after the initial heavy breathing he modified his voice to more of a Father Christmas tone, ‘Well children, lets play…’

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I had got some great party game ideas and the plan of attack for our brave Jedi Padawans was as follows:-

Musical Jedi Bumps (when the music stopped they had to sit down, crossed legged, and say ‘OM’ in a Yoda style yoga pose)
Musical Star Wars Statues (freezing in their best Jedi pose)
Destroy the Death Star (Charli had earlier drawn a chalk Death Star on the drive way – which they then obliterated with water bombs)
Crossing the lava field (battling against another Padawan they had to cross the lounge with nothing more than two pieces of A4, and not touch the carpet – lava!)
Light Saber Training (teams of two had to keep a balloon in the air for as long as possible using their light saber)
Using the Force (blindfolded with a Princess Leia mask they had to pin the light saber on Darth Vadar)

Then there was the sit down party food (Dan and I being the waiters), a pause for present opening (this was the first year Charli could really read her cards and she absolutely delighted in all the messages and so many fabulous, cards from her friends) and then the cake!

The afternoon finished up with all the children (and Dan) squeezing into Charli’s dark bedroom with a load of glow sticks and thrashing them around in a victorious finale!

A resounding success and thankfully no rain meant some of the seriously high energy children could bounce on the trampoline and run around the garden! Next year, I think will be a little tamer… perhaps go out to the rec centre or the swimming pool!

Here’s a slide-show of photos (thanks so much to Logan’s Mum, Merri-ann, for staying and taking them… as we had very little time!):