A Star Wars Party

Yesterday we celebrated our son's 6th birthday with a Star Wars themed party. He only recently discovered Star Wars, but being the sci-fi fan that he is it was love at first sight. As always, the party was done on a budget with lots of home made elements.

The invitations were designed by Benny's Uncle and printed at a local print and copy shop. Ben absolutely loved them.

I made each young Jedi a costume which sounds arduous but I made it easy on myself by deliberately choosing a non-fray fabric so I didn't have to sew much. The brown robes were a basic rectangle with a v neck hole cut for the head. I then sewed on a rectangle of calico for the names and made a calico tie for each robe. All up the costumes were around $20 for 10.

As well as a Jedi robe each guest chose an inflatable light saber. I found them on eBay for $1 each.

The party was an afternoon tea so it was mainly just finger food. Everything was gluten and egg free so the birthday boy could eat to his heart's content. We had Ewok Food chips, Jabba the Hummus, R2D2 water bottles, grape light sabers, padawan mini pizzas, Wookie cookies and Han Solo jelly.

The activity of the day was the Jedi training course which was run by my husband the "Jedi Master". The kids practiced with their light sabers, jumped over some rocks in our backyard, balanced along a bench seat, defeated the storm trooper balloons and tackled the crepe paper laser beams. Throughout the day we had 4 tracks from the Star Wars movies playing which really helped make the day exciting for the kids. I downloaded them from itunes for $1.60 per track.

At the end of the training was the final test. Could the Jedis defeat Darth Vader himself? The Jedi Master did a quick costume change and there was much excitement as he snuck around the corner of the house.  

After eating we had Pass the Parcel and then the Pinata. We made the Death Star Pinata by covering a beach ball in paper mache. My husband painted all of the detail on and even though it was a bit thin (I blame GF flour) it lasted through all of the kids before it broke open and the treats spilled out.

The goodie bags were brown paper bags I bought for .40c each at a packaging store with a print out I made stuck on the front. Inside were some space stickers ($1 a sheet - I bought two then cut them into 10 portions), some Star Wars colouring in pages, a bubble wand light saber, their Jedi Training Certificate and their costumes and inflatable light sabers from the party.

Ben had a vision for his cake right from the start and he couldn't be talked out of it. He wanted Darth Vader's severed hand in a black glove, with wires hanging out the back. As you know, he's gluten and egg free - so making any kind of cake is a challenge let alone a hand! My amazing sister pulled it off though. The hand is melted chocolate and lollies which was set inside a food friendly latex glove and then covered in home made fondant. Just before the party she brushed over some more black food colouring to give it a shiny leather glove look. The cake it's sitting on is a GF packet chocolate cake with buttercream icing made with DF margarine.

As well as the Jedi costumes I made a C3PO costume and a Princess Leia dress and belt (using a sheet and a nightgown pattern). The party was so much fun, the kids had a ball.

Resources

Jedi Certificate and food labels were downloadable PDFs from Etsy

R2D2 labels were adapted from these cup labels 

The light sabers were bought on eBay for $1 each

The goodie bags and silver plates were from a bulk packaging shop

The tablecloth, plates and napkins were from a party shop

The key to creating a cool Star Wars party on a budget is start early! I started around 3 months ago by looking on eBay and Etsy now and again for things I thought I could use. By starting early I had time to have things like the light sabers sent from overseas and I could pace myself with the costumes. If I'd left it to the last minute I probably would have bought some branded Star Wars party stuff, which is hideously expensive. Lots and lots of time to ease into it is the way to go - it allows you to enjoy the party planning process without the panic.

This party was around the $100 mark for 12 kids, including the food. 

She's Nine.

Well hello there. It's been quite a while hasn't it. Life became that little bit crazier in February when I started a part time job from home. Then we had another very unexpected and rushed move in March and a trip home to NZ in April. Busy busy busy. I'm loving the fullness of my days though, even if it is a balancing act sometimes!

I thought I'd write a quick post today to share something special that happened in our house a couple of weeks ago. Our big girl Jemima turned 9. Now if you have read any other party posts of mine, you'll know that we tend to do big themed parties in this family. Jemima has inherited the party planning gene and with characteristic intensity she was sorting out themes 11 months in advance. I was bracing myself for something huge and complicated, and quietly wondering how I was going to pull that off while working 25 hours a week and trying to keep up with all of the other mum jobs I have to do.

Blessedly, she came up with the idea of an 'Instant Restaurant" and wanted to invite just her closest family friends. This girl of ours is a cooking reality show addict and she could think of nothing better than being a chef for a night. Menus were planned, ingredients carefully written out and decorations organised well in advance. She wanted a winter theme and she was set on doing the entire thing herself.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the newest and greatest restaurant the Blue Mountains has ever seen... Dancing Ice.

Ben's UFO Party

About ten months ago (yes, ten!) Ben announced that he would like aliens, slime, and UFO's for his party in October. I was unsure. How could I make that cool and retro and well, awesome? I had those Toy Story aliens in my head and I couldn't figure out what direction to take with it.

After a bit of thinking an image from the movie E.T popped into my head. You know that part where they take poor old E.T and stick him that research lab and it's all quarantined? Believe it or not, that was my starting point. I decided to go for the science/research side of aliens and away we went.

My idea was to have an early evening party with a fog machine and glow sticks, and to try and recreate a UFO lab in our room downstairs. That was until Ben gently told me that he didn't want a big party, and he didn't want lots of people there. In his four year old way of course. I think his exact words were "You know Jemima's circus party and rainbow party? NOT like that." Gotcha.

So today we had an alien themed BBQ in the park with some close family friends and two kids from Preschool. It was relaxed and fun, and totally stress free. The kid is on to something.

So here we go, my UFO party on a budget....

The invitations were home made on the computer and the envelopes were cheapies bought at the local art shop.

At this party you had to work for your party bag. We set up a scavenger hunt for 'Alien Specimens' all over the park.

Alien gems.. these glass beads were .99c a bag (I bought two) the kids loved them. Ben and I made patterns with them all over the rocks at the park for the kids to discover.

Pieces of UFO spaceship.. my husband found a big silver coated piece of polystyrene on the side of the road and picked it up knowing that an alien party was in the works. He cut out shapes and drew designs on them and then I hid them in the trees and under bark.

One of Ben's alien patterns of gems.

Alien eyeball lollies, we're lucky that Halloween is almost here, there were lots of spooky sweets in the shops.

Alien Goop - lime shower gel in some craft storage canisters from a junk shop with some alien writing on the outside.

Decorations were cheap - we bought this yellow and black hazard tape from a hardware shop for $5.50 and some green and black balloons. A few days before the party I saw these alien head balloons for .39c each so I grabbed a few.

I wanted some kind of specimen looking thing on the science table so I made these out of some Fowler jars, a piece of yellow polypropylene, and the alien head balloons squashed inside.

 I picked up these specimen jars from a pharmacy for $1 each and added the stickers onto the lids. These were the containers for the slime that they would be making.

We copied an Area 51 security pass and made our own ones specific to the park and the party. We handed them out to each child before they set off on their scavenger hunt.

I think the science was the best part of the day, the kids were amazed when fake snow appeared from nowhere, and they were so excited to see slime forming in their cups. Then we went over to the grass and set off some rockets made from water and effervescent tablets. I loved seeing their faces when we were doing these experiments!  All of the supplies were from the Prof Bunson online store.

I don't have many shots of the table to show you, and to be honest it wasn't that flash. The sausages were ready and the kids were charging, and we missed our photo op. Here you can just about see the ice cream alien brain cake I made. The table cloths were lime green plastic, the plates were silver and we had green cups from IKEA. I made some alien head chocolate lollipops using a mold I bought online and I stuck them into a round piece of the silver polystyrene around the edge. It was all pretty simple really, which is just how my boy wanted it.

And then there was the alien pinata that we made out of a balloon and some paper mache. It took a long time but it was worth the effort to see them having fun bashing it up and scrambling for the treats inside.

It was a really fun afternoon and definitely one of the best parties we've done.

Happy Birthday Benny!