June 9 – “A Star Wars spectacular”

OK.  Here’s the last of the Zak birthday party posts.  The party itself was a Star Wars themed affair.  Decorations abounded, conceived by Zak himself, and most ably carried to fruition by his Mom.  Pinterest fans, beware.  Greeting you at the door was a life sized cardboard cutout of one of the characters, and a Yoda-sized Yoda doll welcomed you from his perch inside a wreath as it hung on the door itself. 

The first order of business was for everyone to make a light saber from a pool noodle. Those I had seen before.  Duct tape and electrical tape around one end and maybe a few of those dot stickers for buttons and you are all set.  In fact Cailyn even encouraged me to “Make yourself a life saver DadDad.”  I settled for helping her make one.  It was most assuredly a girl light saber.  A cute ribbon bow, an abundance of stickers, and she even added some flowers on it.  To top it all off, we put streamers flowing from the business end.  And those light sabers were used in several of the games.  Tiny little death stars (bubbles) had to be knocked from the sky with the weapons.  In a droids versus Jedi competition, the droids tossed little plastic balls at the Jedi, who in turn did their best to deflect them with light sabers.  Jedi concentration was tested as they had to balance a balloon on the end of a light saber from one end of the yard to the other. 

Han Solo had to be freed from his carbonite prison, which meant pouring one cup of water at a time to free a tiny action figure from a block of ice.  And then there was the battle on that ice planet.  A hot June afternoon was not exactly the place for a snowball fight, but that’s exactly what happened.  An ice chest full of snowballs made from finely shaved ice was brought out and even the adults got in on that action.  Next came an adventure through the wilderness planet back behind their house where assorted hidden treasures (wrapped in aluminum foil) were to be found. And finally came the piñata.  It was in the shape of the Millennium Falcon.  Each child had to wear a Darth Vader mask as they took their swings.

The food was all themed as well.  Black cake with Star Wars printed on it, surrounded by individual cake balls (galactic detonators).

Ice pops with handles to look like light sabers.

Long rectangular pieces of watermelon with aluminum foil on one end decorated to look like (what else?) light sabers.  Have you ever tried to cut long rectangular pieces of watermelon?  That was my job.

Papa John’s pizza – the pizza of choice for all the best intergalactic parties.

And finally, to drink …Yoda Soda and Darth Malt.

Nice party, Zak.  Happy birthday.

James 5:13 says, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.”

Father, watch over Zak as he gets started on his next year of life.  Amen.