Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Help me Obi-wan Kenobi...


My oldest hooligan C had his 6th birthday a few days after Christmas. To celebrate the day, we went to see a movie & then had some family over for presents & ice cream (I know he is my child, but inexplicably, C does not like cake). We pushed his birthday party out a couple of weeks so that we could distance it a bit from Christmas & so I would have time to mentally prepare myself for the sheer wildness that results when you put a group of 6 year old boys together in an enclosed space.

Mr. Crackers & I tried, but we could not entice C to have his birthday at any place other than here at home (C has become quite the homebody lately. With the exception of school, we have to blast him out of the house kicking and screaming most days). So, now I find myself getting ready to host a Star Wars party for 9 six year old boys in my house this weekend (What's with that anyway? I invited 8 boys thinking that I'd probably be lucky to have 5 or 6 come. I even sent the invitations out really late, so people didn't even have a whole week's notice. But, so far everyone is coming. Darn it, I guess I should've sent them out even later).

Without thinking, I said that the party would last from 2-5. Holy Heck, that's 3 hours I now need to fill! I looked online for some help and found some good ideas on Birthdaypartyideas.com. I also discovered that some people have way too much time on their hands. One woman went into tremendous detail about how she painted her whole garage & used a black light to make a cool Star Wars set. Seriously, who has that kind of time? And just what do you do with the black light & all the paint once the party's over?

So now, I am hip deep in planning this shindig that is now less than 4 days away. Thankfully, Mr. Crackers is an idea man & he embraced the whole Star Wars theme with gusto. With his help we have some game ideas including, Star Wars bingo, a scavenger hunt, a puzzle relay race and a balloon popping extravaganza. There are also a few arts and crafts projects planned: alien shrinky dinks (remember shrinky dinks? I loved them as a kid), and some coloring pages.

In an attempt to add a little bit of zest to the party, I got some brown felt from the store & have made very simple Jedi ponchos for all the boys (Don't you remember how all the Jedi's wore ponchos? No? Hmmm... maybe that was episode 11 or something. Anyway, I can't sew so I had to make something that didn't require anything more that a few cuts with my trusty scissors. So, Jedi ponchos for everyone! Maybe this will start a new trend .) K will be joining the boys dressed in her very own white Princess Leah poncho. In addition to all the ponchos, I will be giving each of the children their very own inflatable light saber. I mean if you're going to have a bunch of sugared up 6 year old boys at your house, why not just go ahead and arm them to make the party extra fun!



I am thinking that the movie would've had a whole different vibe if everyone was dressed like this.

"We will use the force to defeat Darth Vader and his Imperial Armies so that we can preserve our right to wear ill fitting ponchos! "






Hopefully, we'll be able to get through the whole party relatively unscathed. I'll give you an update next week. We could really use a little bit of the force right now: dark side, light side - at this point I won't quibble! Help us Obi-wan Kenobi, you're our only hope!




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please tell me you'll be working up your hair into Princess Leia bun/braids???

Good luck!

Karen said...

Oh, I wish! (just kiddin') I just got my hair cut, so I'll have to go as Luke Skywalker instead.

P.S. Mr. Crackers will be wearing a poncho right along with the kids though. My first attempt at a poncho was so huge that it fell straight to the floor without even touching C's shoulders. Mr. Crackers will be the lucky recipient of that poncho!

Anonymous said...

I really need to put "We will use the force to defeat Darth Vader and his Imperial Armies so that we can preserve our right to wear ill fitting ponchos! " on some sort of T-shirt. I chuckle every time I read that....