Donovan's Seventh Birthday! Star Wars!

Donovan chose Star Wars and his two favorite bad guys, Boba Fett and Darth Vader for his birthday! He’s such a sweet boy, it’s kind of funny but he has always loved the dark side in Star Wars. He’s never watched any of the films, but he adores playing Destiny and Epic Duels with Daddy. Also, he calls them Darth Vadey and Bobie so it’s pretty adorable too.

When he chose Star Wars as his theme, I kept suggesting ideas for Jedi training which he was not that excited about, until I realized he really meant he wanted a Dark Side party. After that, we shifted things over to Bounty Hunter Training and Sith Saber Practice. He had a blast! And I think everyone else did too =) For decorations I set up a photo booth with my silver tablecloths and Christmas lights as a backdrop, and a Tie Fighter made out of cardboard. I had also ordered a blow up Millenium Falcon, so there were space wars with balloons in the living room. So fun! Upstairs Eric hung balloons from the ceiling, and I made pool noodle sabers using the ones Andrew had made for Evan’s party three years ago as a pattern. I made mine all red though, since we were all on the Dark Side. I even made one Kylo Ren style, with the cross pieces.

For food, we went with Donovan’s favorite donuts. One of Serenity’s favorite pieces of party décor was the sign, “Come to the Dark Side. We Have Donuts.” Too funny. Our favorite donut shop made us Storm Troopers and spelled Donovan’s name out in red letters outlined in black. Donovan was thrilled when he saw it and asked if he got to eat all the letters in his name. =) He went for the Stormtroopers instead though. We also had Ewoks (teddy grahams) Lightsaber Popsicles, Dark Side Chips (star wars themed Cheez-its) and Rice Krispie and Cocoa Krispie treats. Eric was insulted at the thought of using Cocoa Krispies for treats, even if they did look suitable for the dark side. But they got eaten just fine =)

Outside we had a great obstacle course set up! We started with Bounty Hunter Blaster training. I printed Star Wars targets and hung them from a crazy fort construction. The kids loved that and have had a blast with their nerf guns with it. The next game was originally escape from the death star, and was supposed to be a can toss with stormtroopers and darth vader. We adjusted it when we realized that was the wrong side and changed it to Yoda and Clone Troopers. =)

Then, it was the Mustafar Agility Run. Streams of lava and rocks to leap across. Next they practiced their Thermal Detonator skills with water balloons and more targets. Eric made an epic “Avoid Blaster Fire” maze using an entire skein of red yarn. The kids LOVED that!

I repainted our cornhole toss with the death star, and the kids destroyed it over and over before heading over to duel Darth Vader. The Darth Vader piñata had been hanging out on our kitchen table ever since Eric’s Destiny Worlds send off party. Eric kept talking to it, thinking it was me sitting at the table. It was too funny. So as we were setting up the party, I put on our darth vader mask and tossed some black fabric over my shoulders and sat until he came back down from upstairs. He nearly fell over laughing and all the kids who were supposed to be sleeping started asking what was so funny =) All the kids got to hit Darth Vader once around the obstacle course, and then they all took turns until all the fruit snacks fell out. Then they kept going and Donovan separated his head from his neck. Then they kept going until he fell off the rope entirely =) So we definitely got our money’s worth out of the random piñata from Target purchase.

Then the final organized piece of fun, the Wrist Cable! That was a last minute inspiration but so much fun! Wrist Cables are one of Boba Fett’s best cards in Epic Duels, and so we recreated it in silly string!