First things first: Today is my sister-in-law Chloe’s birthday. Happy birthday Chloe!
Secondly: Today is also Pete’s 5th birthday party. He wanted a Star Wars party, so that’s what he got. I had big plans to make a Death Star cake or something extravagant like that, but I ended up ordering a cake from the grocery store instead. And guess who doesn’t make Star Wars cakes? The grocery store. So I ordered a pretty plain cake and added some of Pete’s “Star Wars guys” to it.
My (slacker) plan for the day was to let the kids play in the backyard and then eat some cake. Pete somehow remembered that I’d mentioned doing a Jedi Training Academy party some six months ago, though, so instead of being total slackers this morning, Rockford and I made about 20 storm trooper balloons for our Imperial Guard. Here’s what the kids had to do to earn their honorary Jedi status:
The Jedi Training Academy obstacle course
- Five jumping jacks.
- Run through the Dagobah swamp.
- Leap out of the swamp.
- Do a somersault. (Not, as Poppy feared, in midair.)
- Climb the tower of the Imperial Palace.
- Secure a light saber.
- Leave the tower via escape pod.
The young padawans’ light saber training
Rockford led the trainees through a series of very impressive moves with the light saber in our Jedi training grounds. I had no idea he had such skills.
Elude the Imperial Guard
This is where our storm trooper balloons came into the game. We strung them from the monkey bars on the playset — only two of them popped before the party guests arrived — and the kids had to “battle” through them with their light sabers in order to get to their final task.
Defeat Darth Vader
I printed out a couple of Vader heads and taped them to the tether ball. And then we set the little Jedis loose on it.
The kids had quite a lot of fun battling the Imperial Guard and putting a major hurt on Darth Vader before and after cake.