May The Force Be With You

I am old! Old I say! How do I know this? Taylor is turning 6! Six. I should just go out and dig my own grave right now. I remember thinking that it was okay to have a five-year-old but after that... all bets were off. Old. Old. Old. And here it is, Taylor's birthday party, and I'm yabbering on about myself.

Changing direction...

Yesterday Taylor had his 6-year-old birthday party! It was awesome. I was originally pretty freaked out to throw a party because it's not warm outside. I couldn't figure out what to do with 12 little boys in my house. Lucky for me, I have friends (stop laughing) and the internet. Neither of those things lead me astray. Ever. Always reliable. And so, we threw Taylor a very successful and very FUN Star Wars Birthday party!

We decided to serve lunch. We served pizza and yoda soda. Yoda soda is sprite with a scoop of lime sherbet in it. I made sure to give each boy a green straw. Kids love straws. They drive me crazy. But that's because I'm the mom and I have to clean up all the mess from all the bubbles they blow. But yes, this was a party and so straws were a-go!

After lunch I told the kids that an asteroid had exploded in our backyard and they were to go out and collect pieces of the asteroid. Me, Taylor, and Sara made the asteroids. I bought three different things- mini play-doh, army guys, and match box cars. We wadded up each gift in tin foil until they looked like asteroids and then put colored dots on them. Each boy was to go outside and find three asteroids, one with a red dot, a green dot, and a yellow dot. It was perfection! They loved coming in and opening up their gifts.

We then played "Rescue Princess Leia". I blew up 30ish balloons and put a picture of Princess Leia in one balloon and a picture of a Clone Trooper in all the rest. The kids stomped on all the balloons until they found Princess Leia. Once again, a hit!

I have to say though, the biggest hit of the party was the light sabers! We made light sabers from PVC pipe and this foam stuff that is used to insulate pipe. Dave cut a piece of PVC pipe for the handle. We shoved that into the foam and then duct taped the whole thing- regular grey duct tape for the handle and then colored duct tape for the glowing sword part. Don't you just love my Star Wars lingo? Sorry peeps- I am not a sci-fi-star wars junky. Anyhoo, they were a total hit! I had them play one little lame game with them (keep 4 balloons from hitting the ground) but really all they wanted to do was play Star Wars and have light saber fights- a slight hazard with only one incident involving a couple tears that only lasted for a minute. Whew. I guess that goes with the territory, you know, when you make weapons at birthday parties. Oh yeah, we know how to party.

I love love love this picture! These boys are absolutely hilarious. I told them that I was going to take a picture so they posed themselves. It was so funny. I didn't have to do a thing. They were so into it. Look at all the different poses and their fierce faces. Don't mess with the force.

All in all the party was a success. Things were a little rocky before the party started. At 11:40 (party started at 12:00) I still didn't have a birthday cake. And Dave had to go back to Lowe's because we were short on light saber parts. And someone had to go get the pizza. And my baby was asleep. Lucky for me our cute babysitter who lives around the corner was able to come last minute. She was awesome and stayed for the whole party, holding Spencer the entire time. Such a life saver! I tell you what, with parties you can never do enough planning. It's inevitable that everything will hit the fan right before the party starts.

Here is Taylor with his cake- the cake that I bought at 11:40 at Smith's. It had clowns and streamers on it. I came home, pulled them off, replaced them with Star Wars guys, and it was a hit. Yikes. Funny how things just work out sometimes. In my infinite wisdom (choke choke), I only put 5 candles on the cake. Dave was lighting them and noticed. I had to add another one. See, my subconscious is getting the best of me. Six years old. I tell ya, it's killing me.

I also convinced all the kids that Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream is Yoda Icecream. It brings me back to my younger days when I went to a sleepover where we watched Gremlins and ate Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream and were SO.FREAKED.OUT. Oh the drama.

Taylor is a lucky boy because he had his friend party the Saturday before his birthday. This of course means that this entire week will be jam packed with birthday festivities, the lucky dog.