Jedi Training Academy (aka 5th Birthday Party)

Brady's birthday party was a success! I spent many hours planning and preparing for this so it was very satisfying for it all to come together so nicely! Brady was ecstatic and all of his friends seemed to have a really fun time too! I borrowed many of the ideas off of various sites on the iternet and made up many of my own!

A few weeks prior to the party Brady and I personally handed these invitations out to his friends. I thought that it was a very clever way of inviting kids to the party and getting the excited!

We started the party by welcoming the kids to the Jedi Training Academy and giving everyone a Jedi Training Badge. They were each given a new Jedi name (their name spelled backwards) and tasks that they had to complete in order to become a certified Jedi Knight!


Task #1 Lightsaber Training: We played "lightsaber limbo," and hitting an "asteroid ball" (a ball of tinfoil) with the lightsaber. The kids loved this and took turns doing each of these tasks. I was amazed at how well-behaved they were! (Chris made these cute lightsabers out of pool noodles that my awesome friend Charlotte "donated" for the cause...since there were no pool noodles to be found in any stores yet!)


Task #2 Learn to use the force: "R2D2 has fallen off of the spaceship and is floating in space! We must save him by using our force to float the life-saving ring over R2D2's head and bring him back to safety!" (R2D2 is our shop-vac and the life-saving ring is a hula-hoop!) The kids loved throwing the hula-hoop over "R2D2." I was really impressed that 90% of them got it on their first try!

Task #3 Sharpening your listening skills: This game was "Yoda/Vader" and would have been a lot cooler if I had a red and a green lightsaber to use as I had planned. I also had planned for Chris to be dressed up as Darth Vader and Livy to be Yoda but that fell through...the kids were a little confused by this game (played like red light/green light so I think it would be better for an older age group)...

Task #4 Save Princess Leia! "Princess Leia has been taken by the Storm Troopers and buried in one of the orbiting planets. We must destroy each planet to see if she is trapped within!" I had a ton of balloons and each of them had a piece of paper inside, only one of them with a Princess Leia picture. They had to sit on the balloons and "pop" them (as I cam efrom behind them and popped them with a needle) and see who could find Princess Leia first! They LOVED this game!

Task #5 Destroy the Death Star: "Darth Vader plans on using the planet Death Star to detroy the good planets in the galaxy! We must hit the "x" and destroy the Death Star before Vader has a chance to use it against us! (The kids threw a tinfoil ball at the target)

Task #6 Clean up the Galaxy! We have detsroyed the Death Star which has caused thousands of pieces of the planet to float freely through our Galaxy as asteroids. We must recover all the dangerous asteroids to keep our Galaxy safe and clean!

For this game Chris wrapped up a bunch of mini "Milky Way" candy bars in aluminum foil and we hit them all over the living room. The kids thought this was pretty cool!


They got to take home their candy, their training badges (with stickers from each completed task), a glow in the dark bracelet that I made for each of them and their lightsabers.

After we completed training we went out side for a while and had some fun jumping in a bounce house that my friend Melissa so kindly let us borrow! The kids acted like crazy Jedi Knights and attacked each other with their noodle light sabers! They had a blast!

Erik- Brady's other TRUE STAR WARS FAN friend.

Erik is actually the one who got Brady hooked on Star Wars when he had a

Star Wars party last spring! It's all Brady could talk about ever since!

Brady's friend, Joshua

After that we cam eback inside and had PADAWAN PIZZA (english muffin pizzas), Princess Punch (Hawaiian Punch), Yoda Soda (green fruit punch with sprite) and wookie cookies (no-bake cookies). The kids all seemed to enjoy their lunch a lot and then we had GIFTS:

Brady LOVES his new STORM TROOPER costume!!! and wore it for THREE days after his party!

His big gifts from us were a TON of Star Wars action figures (Thanks EBAY!!!) and a new bike!!!

CUPCAKES: I made lightsaber cupcakes (mini pretzels dipped in colored white chocolate) and Princess Leia cupcakes (using Oreos as the hair) These were so much cuter in person and a cinch to make...I had to say I was quite proud of myself!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

...And MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!!!