I have written before about how my little Bean is a tad obsessed with David Bowie at the moment and so when I quizzed him on what he’d like to do for his birthday, I wasn’t totally surprised when he said a ‘David Bowie’ party! A few sleepless nights ensued as I wondered what on earth I would do with a bunch of 5 year olds at a David Bowie themed party, I mean aside of painting their faces! So I was quite relieved that the more Pinterest-able theme of a ‘Star Wars’ party was eventually picked. ‘Star Wars’ is obviously not an unusual theme for a boy’s party but it is unusual for Bean, given he has not actually watched the film yet!
It was however, a super fun theme to plan things around- I do love a theme! For the food we had the standard party food fare although I did make Ham Solo sandwiches and grape and strawberry light sabers (fruit kebabs to you and me). Be warned though, that kebab sticks are particularly lethal around 5 year olds! The minute the fruit was eaten, my clever mum remembered to collect them all up and bin them for fear of eyes being poked out.
My mum also made the masterpiece of a cake. We don’t have an oven at the moment and so my mum kindly offered to make the cake, which was a relief, I’m not sure a microwave or slow cooker cake would have hit the spot!
For the games and activities as they arrived, we made R2D2 robots and decorated light sabers. The intention was to use the decorated sabers for a later game of ‘Pin the Light Saber on the Yoda’ but their 5 year old obsession with the glitter glue meant they didn’t dry properly so we had to make some more. We went for the standard musical chairs and pass the parcel and added in a couple of adapted Star Wars games where the children had to run to a Star Wars character when the music stops and the group standing by one of the chosen characters (selected by parents), wins a sweet.
In all honesty, I found this party the most stressful from all the parties we’ve had before. I don’t know if it’s just the combination of boisterous 5 year old boys or whether the fact that I didn’t know many of the children impacted on this but they just didn’t quite settle. They spent quite a lot of time play fighting, it took a while to encourage them all to play the games and their attention spans were zilch!!
I was just so thankful that I had a lot of help from family and my super amazing teacher friend- Fran, who initiated some of the games and kept them in order! We had a Jedi assault course where they all had to complete a challenge to receive their Jedi Certificate but knocked the head on the light saber fighting for fear it would become carnage!
After the pin the light saber on Yoda (at which they all cheated!), we attacked the Darth Vader piñata. This was probably their favourite part of the party, some of them had a lot of aggression!
All in all, Bean and his friends had the best time and went happily on their way with their space themed party bags. I was quite impressed with the little space trinkets I found for the party bags- they were something a little bit different. They had a Star Wars Kinder Egg, a 3D puzzle spaceship, a finger space rocket, build their own droid and a Blast Fact Space Card to learn about different planets. All were EBay finds!
I think though, Mr M and I will think a little differently next year and perhaps go for a more activity heavy party! Maybe something outside, like football to keep the high spirited boys occupied!As ever, I’m always disappointed with how few photos I remember to take at birthday parties! For more ‘Star Wars’ inspiration and images of some of the ideas we incorporated, please see my
Pinterest Page.
But a happy day for our little Bean ended with him snuggling down to watch his birthday present of the Star Wars film.
