May the Four-ce Be With You Birthday

In a galaxy, not so far away…

My little Jedi

We celebrated Eden’s 4^th birthday with a “May the Four-ce Be With You” (see what I did there?).  I am not going to lie, we’ve had this in mind for some time now, plus he has a serious fandom.  I have to say it was the most fun birthday to plan… all while having a sinus infection (its flu and cold season in Australia).  We were so lucky with the weather.  The 2 weeks prior we were suffering through an Arctic Blast that brought snow in strange places around Australia and it basically rained the whole week leading up.  The forecast was 70% rain but it was blue skies for us on the day!  Thank you, Mother Nature!  (If you are wondering, yes I had back up plans)

The Invitation

I made Eden’s Jedi robe, packed his official Disneyland Jedi Training Academy lightsaber and on a lovely winter’s day in the Hunter Valley, I made Mr H stop the car so we could stage a small photo shoot at Hope Estate.  (Photoshopped: you know, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

Here is the final invitation:

The invitees were mostly all his little buddies (there were very few girls outside of family!) from pre-school and swimming so it was going to be a very active party.  Eek!

Dressing the Part

We love a good dress-up/ cosplay!  Eden’s Anakin Skywalker costume was purchased from eBay (and I did a quick fitting for him).

Eloise’s Padme Amidala cosplay was easy and inexpensive: white turtle neck $3, 1m of off-white fabric at 40% off came in at $5, and her boots were the most expensive at $15.  We already had white leggings and re-used her white taekwondo belt to complete the look.

Mr H wore his subtle Star Wars tee (Millennium Falcon) and his Vans x Star Wars Planet Hoth shoes (not pictured).  I also went subtle (inspired by my primary school turned amazing designer/ blogger The Stylish Geek) with Han’s white tunic ($10 at Kmart) and black vest ($8 at Kmart) paired with my own jeans and black boots.  I had our Chewbacca backpack (Disneyland purchase) on my back but it got a bit too hot to carry him.

The Young Padawans were also given robes to wear.  Again, I bought 10 metres for the fabric at 40% so it was only $20.  For once I was glad cricket had started, as I set Mr H to work while he watched.  We estimated half a metre for each robe and then cut neck holes based on one of Eloise’s shirts.  I bought $2 brown yarn to tie them on but on the day, we didn’t bother.

Complete your training you must!

The Jedi Training Centre

The training centre was a combination of store bought decorations and a bit of old fashion printing and cutting.  Thanks to Disney purchasing Star Wars, there is so much merchandise available in the stores!  This was so handy when it came to goodie bags, see below. 

The ‘you-are-in-the-right-place’ front door welcome was made using a $2 black plastic tablecloth (cut to size) and the Star Jedi font. 

A silver lantern was our “Death Star”, and I printed a Darth Vader and Stormtrooper mask to spruce up the dollar store black and white fan medallions.

We also put out a few of the Star Wars Lego sets that Mr H built (and recently re-built), but NO TOUCHING!

Little Jedi room
(I used a free vector pack!)

What to Feed Jedi’s-in-Training?

The menu was pun-tastic with snacks like Princess Lays (although in Australia, they are called Thins.  Insert eye roll here) and Wookie Cookies (Tiny Teddies – Jedi Eden’s favourite!).  For lunch we served Jar Jar Links, Hutt Dogs in a Blanket, Hans- wiches and Vader Taters (Costco 5kg of waffle fries) and Obi-Wan Kabob-ies (fruit skewers).

Star Wars birthday cake and Padawan Popcorn
(it is a movie after all!)

For dessert, other than cake we had Edible Ewoks (gummy bears) and Hans in Carbonite Jello.  I made these by printing and cutting little Hans Solo, then laminating so they were water Jello-tight and cutting again.  Then I just dropped them into the cool Jello before putting in the fridge. 

Jedi Training

Special Guest: Anakin Skywalker

For this party, I hired an entertainer.  I knew I would not be able to hold the attention of 20-odd 4 year olds for too long so I found a Star Wars entertainer in Sydney.  This was probably the best money I spent!  The hardest part was getting the Young Padawan's fed before we started!  (For the record, Jedi Eden took a breather on one of the games so he could stuff 2 Hans- wiches in his mouth. Ha ha!) 

Mr H raised the rebel alliance’s spirits as Anakin made his surprise appearance.  I then enjoyed the rest of the party stress-free!  He played Hide and Seek with them as Jedi’s need to be good at hiding from Stormtroopers, and Musical Statues to practice agility in battle.  The parents were called into action too.

Sprung!

Musical Statues

Obstacle Course

Jedi’s need to be able to get through any obstacle so as the final step of training, we created a small obstacle course.  They stepped through my sports ladder (horrible thing that I used when I tried Insanity Asylum – in and out abs is a killer on a sports ladder!), posed like a Jedi, zigzagged through $3 cones (Kmart again),  clucked like a chicken (ha-ha) and punched Darth Vader (existing toy).  When they finished, they were a full-fledged Jedi complete with an inflatable lightsaber.

Bubble Wars

With a large group of 4 year olds, and a few of the older siblings too, we opted to not have them “fight” Mr H with their lightsabers.  I picked up a couple of $1 bubble wands (guess where I got these?  Yes, Kmart!) and recruited a few of the parents to blow the bubbles for the Jedi’s to “defeat”.  That was so fun!

Team Rebels, on 3... bubbles!

Bubble wars!

Galactic Photobooth

The backdrop was 2m of Star Wars fabric that I bought at 40% off and will turn into pyjamas now that the party is done and dusted.  The masks were purchased for on Etsy for $3 (download and print).  I created the thought bubbles on MS Word and again, used the Star Jedi font. 

Thanks, Anakin!

Each guest had to take a photo here to complete their training.  I used their photos for the thank you cards. 

Eden's "Crew"

Come to the Darkside.  We have cake.

I am so proud of my cake.  I loved it.  I’ve always struggled working with fondant (mostly because I lack patience) but it worked this time! 

The ‘Darkside’ is Darth Vader and chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache.  The ‘Lightside’ is Chewbacca and vanilla mud cake with white chocolate ganache.  To get the silver detailed, I painted it with edible silver glitter (leftover from my Iron Throne cake).  The toppers were hunted down on eBay.  The lightsabers actually lit up if you kept holding the back (ain’t nobody got time to hold these down). 

I also made these gluten-free and vegan cupcakes.  I don’t love how they turned out, a bit oily but I will work on the recipe.  I loved the little planet Hoth cupcake toppers (hmm, when I can I use them again?)  The printable was free!  Find it here.

Graduates

In addition to their inflatable lightsabers, our Jedi’s received an official certificate and a goodie bag.  The goodie bags looked pricey but I lucked out and much of the items were on clearance at Big W!

I made this certificate using the templates from MS WORD

Star Wars colored pencil tin $1.50 each at Big W

Star Wars erasers (4 per pack) $2.50 at Big W

Star Wars stickers (6 sheets per pack) $2.50 at Big W*

Star Wars tattoos (8 tattoo squares per pack) $2.00 at Big W

Star Wars cookies $3 for 10 packs at The Reject Shop

*We ended up cutting these in half because they wouldn’t fit in the treat bags.

Postscript:

Sabi didn’t want to miss out either and got into the garbage to gobble up the chocolate scraps.  Good thing she is a Labrador and has an iron stomach!  She’s eaten far worse things, just not toxic.  So this is a visit to the vet and $256 for blood work later… and she now has the taste for chocolate. 

Follow up: She ate her bandage off by the time we got home from work/ school.  The blood screen showed she is a healthy Labrador (woof!)