Action-Packed Video Game Party: *Star Wars vs Superheroes*

What do you do when your baby turns eight, and he wants to have a party that encompasses all his favourite things? He loves Star Wars, he loves Super Heroes, he loves Video Games - and he just can't decide what kind of party he wants.
Well, if you're me (and you're slightly mad) you find a way to to mix all three themes together. You and the birthday boy  put your heads together and dream up an action packed "Video Game Battle Party: Star Wars vs. Superheroes". It's like having three party themes in one, really. But you reckon you can pull it off because you've done Star Wars before (and already have loads of stuff), you've always wanted to do a Super Hero party and the video game thing can tie the other two themes he loves together.

So here we go - a crazy, action packed, Video Game Battle Birthday (which did  not involve much actual video gaming) but was LOADS of fun for all.

[ CONTINUE READING.......]

A Star Wars Party *Just Because*

I must be mad, I know, let's just admit it right now. These "parties for no reason" are getting out of hand, with TWO these last school holidays.

I was kind of hoping Scrag would forget my mumbled agreement to have a Star Wars "party" for him and a few Jedi pals, but on the last Wednesday of the hols, he came up to me as I sat at the computer pinning things and asked so sweetly: "Mum, shouldn't we be getting ready for the Star Wars party already? Shall I get my notebook so we can start making plans?"

In my defence, I am rather powerless against the heartfelt pleas of my young Jedi when he asks so nicely (and hugs me so much). The Force is strong with this one. What could I do but start searching for Star Wars ideas?

The first thing I found were these cool Styrofoam R2D2 cups. So I pinned them. Downloaded the free printable and printed off two sheets. Scrag and I made the cups together, improvising the lids (since we couldn't find any cups with lids in the shops)...

1. Trim and stick the R2D2 body onto the styrofoam cup using a glue stick. Trace circles on the back of silver card to form a lid. Carefully cut out the circles.
2. Cut a small cross with a craft knife in the middle of the circle to poke the straw through. Cut out the round lid printable. 
3. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the centre circle of the lid printable (or carefully cut a small circle). Staple the lid printable to the silver circle, letting the staples line up with the edges of the blue printed shapes.
4. Poke a straw through and Voila! An R2D2 cup perfect for your impromptu Star Wars Party!

Download the free R2D2 Cup printable

 I've made these Light Saber Napkin Holders before (and had been collecting toilet rolls for weeks). They are easy to make, by covering cardboard toilet rolls with silver duct tape and adding black electrical tape details. (Or you can paint the toilet rolls black and add the duct tape as detail).

We have been mad keen Star Wars enthusiasts since forever. We've had a Star Wars Birthday Party (for Dash), a Star Wars Theme dinner and a May The Fourth (be with you) Star Wars night for a bunch of eight and nine year olds.
In our dressup box lurks a Darth Vader talking helmet and a Princess Leia wig, so pulling off a Star Wars party with two days notice was really a doddle, especially with the most enthusiastic six-year old Jedi helper EVER.

We made enough light saber handles from toilet rolls to make balloon light sabers as well. Such a pity that the $2 shop balloon pump broke after we just blew up these two balloons. I guess you get what you pay for aye? (You can bet we protected these two beauties from all comers until it was time to do battle).

I was a bit bummed but my young padawan told me, "Mum don't be worried because look at all the OTHER amazing things you've made! Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate is the path to the dark side..." Someone's been listening to Yoda.

I found a roll of leftover black building paper in the garage, which I stapled to the back wall under the carport, and Scrag and I drew a chalk galaxy...

This is such a simple idea, cost NOTHING and was so effective. Building paper, staples, chalk. Easy!

Of course our trusty lemonade stand was put to use again, and this time our drink dispenser was filled with delicious sugar-free Yoda Soda...

Sugar Free Yoda Soda Recipe (Apple & Green Tea punch)

PUNCH BASE:
1 litre of boiling water
4 green tea bags
2-3 tablespoons of liquid honey
Juice and zest of one lemon
One green apple, grated

Leave to steep and chill overnight. In the morning, strain the liquid into your drink dispenser or punch bowl and add:

• one litre of clear apple juice
• two litres of sparkling soda water
• 2-3 drops of green food colouring

Our young Jedi trainees guzzled this down like they didn't know it was good for them. Yummy!

Last week of the school holidays, not many of his buddies were in town, so just three young Jedi were due to turn up to play. Really, this was a themed afternoon tea, with light saber battles thrown in. But Scrag loved it and appreciated all the little touches (he kept hugging me and saying, "Thankyou mummy, I love you" "Mummy you're the best mum ever!" It made it all worth it).

I set up a beam for them to have light saber battled on, a plank of wood supported by two sawhorses. Underneath was a homemade fall-mat. A tarp, spread with flat cushions/squabs, with our large woven mat spread on top. Nobody seemed to mind falling.

Of course if this were a "real party" I would have planned all kinds of fun star wars games and activities. But this was a glorified group playdate on a theme with a special afternoon tea, so I left them to come up with their own fun.

The Darth Vader helmet was a hit. Darth even came for afternoon tea...

For a bit of easy (healthy) food theming, I put cheese, salami, celery and carrot sticks on toothpicks and wrapped their bottoms with a strip of tin foil. I labelled the tomato sauce "lava", put popcorn in silver boxes and called it "asteroids" and for the piece de resistance, Scrag and I made some Star Wars cookies. I found some cookie cutters online and used our favourite basic cookie recipe...

The cookie cutters come in a pack of four, C3PO, Yoda, Chewbacca and Darth Vader. I found mine on TradeMe, but you can find them all over the internet and they are cheap as chips ($6.95 for the set).
We divided the dough into quarters and added colour for each shape.

1. C3PO: Just cut out the dough, as is. No colouring required.
2. Yoda: Add a splash of green food colouring to Yoda's quarter of the dough.
3. Chewbacca: Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to Chewie's dough to make him nice and brown.
4. Darth Vader: Add cocoa powder PLUS black food colouring to make Darth dark, as he should be.

While not as much fun FOR ME as the fairy party (cos all the mums dropped their boys and fled the scene) Scrag loved it and I was super-glad I pulled it off for him. Plus it means that now he's not asking for a Star Wars Party for his next birthday any more (we've already DONE that one), now he wants a couple of friends to go to Rainbows End....

Oh dear. Are we coming to the end of our birthday party years? NOOOooooo!!! See why I have to squeeze in these parties for no reason while I can?

Other Star Wars Fun...

• Star Wars Birthday Party (with me as Princess Leia)
• Star Wars Theme Night
• How to Make an EASY Darth Vader Pinata
• How to Make Wookie Cookies & Lightsaber Napkin Holders

Star Wars: Wookie Cookies & Lightsaber Napkin Rings

It's utter madness to invite eighteen tweens back to your house for supper after they've been slogging each other out at laser strike for an hour. And then to offer them more sugar in the form of Yoda Sodas and Wookie Cookies and expect them to quietly watch a movie...
Really, what were we thinking...???!

Ahhhh well, we survived popcorn fights, lightsaber battles and spilled yoda sodas, but the kids had a great time and that's what counts, right? We are suckers for punishment.

Never again, Mr G said to me as he mopped up the lime soda and icecream sloshed all over the carpet.
Never again, I agreed.

Next time we go to a gym. Or indoor rockclimbing. Or to Big Ups where they can put on Sumo suits and bash each other's head in without leaving a mess for us to clean up. Hehehe.

However, you might be planning a more sedate Star Wars event, a daytime party or family movie night.
So here for your benefit, is my very Chewie Wookie Cookie recipe, and my supa-dupa easy lightsaber napkin rings made out of toilet rolls.

My pain, your gain!

INGREDIENTS:

125g of butter, softened

1/4 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons condensed milk

a splash of vanilla essence

1 and a half cups of plain flour*
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

METHOD:

• Cream the butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla together until light and fluffy.
• Sift Flour, cocoa and baking powder together and combine with choc chips into the creamed mixture.
• Place smallish spoonfuls onto an oven tray lined with baking paper, leaving space in between to allow for spreading.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C, or until golden.
Allow to cool and harden before decorating.
(Makes a lovely "chewy" cookie... perfect for turning into hairy Wookies)

*To make these cookies gluten free, use all-purpose gluten free baking mix instead of plain flour.

1. This mixture tends to spread and runs together, so trim off unwanted corners
2. Use Squeezable tubes of dark and white chocolate fudge, silver and pink glitter icing to create the facial features (available in most supermarkets; Baking aisle)
3. Use the dark silver to apply eyes, nose and mouth (each face can be different if you like; I made my noses roughly triangular)
4. Use white chocolate to add teeth and whites of eyes

Then finish off with dark fudge squiggles for hair and a line of glitter pink (or red) to finish off a gummy smile. Isn't he cute??

(NOTE: Alternatively you can just use dark and white chocolate, using dark choc in place of silver for facial features and omitting pink gums)

These are so easy when made out of collected cardboard toilet rolls... and cost almost nothing to make!

YOU WILL NEED:

Toilet rolls (the cardboard "inner")

Black acrylic paint

silver duct tape

scissors

paper napkins in red, blue and or green

1. Paint your toilet rolls black and leave to dry
2. Cut a piece of duct tape slightly longer than the height of the toilet roll. Snip then rip off a piece approx 5mm wide. Fix onto toilet roll as shown.
3. Repeat until you have five thin stripes of duct tape on the roll, evenly spaced.
4. Apply two slightly wider pieces of duct tape around the top and bottom of your roll, and then cut a small rectangular piece to be the "switch" (needs to be narrower than the space between stripes)

Then simply roll up a few paper napkins and stuff them into your lightsaber handles... voila! Lightsaber napkin holders. Too easy, right?

{Don't be surprised if they are very popular as weapons with young Jedi}

If you have the patience you could make one for each guest... or for quick and effective table decor,
do what I did and put them in the centre of the table as bulk napkin holders.

I decorated the table with glow sticks - 15 in a pack for $2 from most dollar stores. 

For an extra Star Wars-y treat, enjoy some Yoda Sodas - but I recommend eating them AT THE TABLE. Don't serve them to your guests on a tray in the movie room... when the whole tray of them topples over and sloshes all over the carpet you'll see what I mean (but at least you'll be glad you never bothered re-carpeting... and even gladder it was your husband holding the tray...)

♥

More Star Wars Fun:

• Star Wars Birthday Party
• Star Wars Theme Dinner and Movie Night
• Make an Easy Darth Vader Pinata
• Star Wars Party *Just Because*

How to make an Easy Darth Vader Pinata

In honour of International Star Wars Day* I thought it was about time I posted this tutorial on how to make an easy peasy papier mache Darth Vader pinata.
(The photos have only been sitting there since November 2010).

This pinata was so easy; I kid you not.
I have made other pinatas before (PAINFUL) and it took three years before I was willing to try again.
I figured this out all on my own, and I hope you enjoy making your own Darth as much as I did mine...

*International Star Wars Day is May the Fourth (be with you) ...get it? 

What you need:

• A standard el cheapo, regular sized balloon, blown up
• A smallish bowl to prop your balloon up in
• Newspaper torn into large-ish bits (too small and it'll take too long - big is better)...

...and some Cornflour glue...



Now we start the papier mache...

1. Dip each piece of paper into the cornflour glue and then slap it on the balloon. Overlap the pieces and don't leave any gaps. 
2. Leave a hole at the top... draw a circle where you want your hole to be... this is where you will fill your pinata with goodies once it is done.
3. When the top half is covered, flip your balloon and cover the bottom half as before.

You will be relieved to know that you only need to do one layer! Phew. Papier mache-ing is so boring.
When it is completely dry you can *pop* the balloon and reinforce the hole. Punch through a couple of holes to thread string through, so you can hang Darth up when it's party time...

Now lets get on with the decorating...

What you need:

• Black craft paper: cut into one thinner, longer strip (for the front rim of Darth's helmet) and one wider shorter strip (for the bit at the back).
• Black acrylic paint
• Double sided tape (and/or your trusty hot glue gun)
• A print-out of Darth's Face... (right click image below to save to your computer, then print and use)

Attach the craft paper "helmet rim" using either double-sided tape or your trusty hot glue gun.

Make a "widow's peak" shaped crease in the front of the helmet rim to give it that "Darth Vader Helmet" shape (mine is more subtle than obvious, but it's there if you look)...

Time to slap some paint on...

The final touch is adding the printout of Darth's face... try printing out different sizes until you find the best fit... it's a bit of trial and error (black and white printing works fine - that's what mine was)

Now you can stuff Darth's head full of (wrapped) sweets and treats; crinkle up some tissue paper and squish in on top to plug the hole. 

Then string Darth up and bash his head in...

That will teach Anakin to turn to the Dark Side!

{P.S. For International Star Wars Day we're having a "May the Fourth...Be With You" kids night for the 8&9-year-olds from our church. Mr G and I have started doing something fun with Dash's agegroup once a month. Last month it was "Kids Go Wild" - with a bit of snail-eating thrown in. This month we're taking approximately fifteen kids to Laser Strike and then bringing them home to dress up in Star Wars gear, eat Wookie Cookies and slurp Yoda Sodas and munch popcorn while watching a Star Wars movie. It's gonna be fun. I cannot claim credit for the idea... it was Dash's brainwave when he realised May the Fourth fell on a Friday... that's my boy!}
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More Star Wars Party Stuff

• Star Wars Party
• Star Wars Theme Dinner (with Yoda Sodas and Han Burgers)
• Free Printable Star Wars Party Invitation
• Party Index Page

How Yoda sodas saved the day

{Artist's Impression of Team G in our Star Wars gear... if only things had turned out differently}

I felt we were due for a family Theme Night. Inspired by my creative friend Meg, I suggested a Star Wars night to the family and was met with great enthusiasm (imitation is the highest form of flattery).

As Meg borrowed our Star Wars costumes and light sabers for her theme night, we planned to reciprocate and make use of her Yoda face paint and Ewok hoodie.

Email from Simone to Meg: 
Hey can we borrow your Star Wars costumes for Saturday night? We want to use your cool-as theme dinner idea. 

Email from Meg to Simone:
If you want to do a theme dinner eat "Han burgers" and have "Yoda Soda" (green fizzy or icecream sodas).

Awww! Han burgers and Yoda sodas! What a cute idea, I thought.
Nice and easy too. 
Our family is pretty mad-keen on Star Wars. We have the entire DVD movie collection; from Dash's Star Wars birthday party we have a Darth Vader helmet, a Princess Leia wig; Dash has loads of Star Wars lego and figurines... we even have an old 1970's Star Wars pillowcase Grandma kept from Mr G's childhood.
This was going to be a fun family night, with another great "how to do a cool theme dinner" post for the blog, I was certain.

After the Weekend...
Email from Meg to Simone:

Did you have your Star Wars night yet?

Email from Simone to Meg:
Do I have a story for you...

After realising that Saturday night would be a wash-out with Dash at a friend's and Miss Fab at a birthday party, we decided to have it Friday night instead of Saturday. I grabbed some ice cream and lime fizzy drink for Yoda Sodas and then came and knocked on your door to borrow the costumes... but you were out.

Never mind. We headed home and me and Miss Fab had fun setting up a beautiful Star Wars table setting using lego figures, leftover party plates and Mr G's childhood Star Wars pillowcase, circa 1978.

My intention was to phone you and swing by and grab the stuff, when i got a minute.

We pulled out a pile of costumes in readiness for the fun dressing up...

Then Nan and Grandad turned up out of the blue... (my parents) and we said, JOIN US! So they said OK.

I defrosted the mince for the Han Burgers and made the patties.

Mr G came home, tired from a long week, and started talking bikes with Dad.

Then the screaming started.

Ear piercing "I am dying or really really hurt" screaming from the driveway.

Scrag had decided to have a go on Dash's MGP stunt scooter and had SOMEHOW jammed his finger... in the brake.

I have no idea why he thought of sticking his finger in there, but there it surely was.

And the screaming wouldn't stop.

Scrag's fingernail went instantly black, his finger swelled up and we thought it might even be broken. We tried cold packs, flannels, taping it (carefully) to the other finger, offering sweets, ice-blocks, cuddles... but nothing could make the screaming stop... and there was nowhere in the house to escape the sound.

It was hot, stuffy, the Han burgers were drying out and I was starting to melt down in the hot kitchen with the screaming going on and on, trying to remember what I was doing, what I should put in Han burgers, calculating gluten free vs non-gluten free buns...

All hope of a fun dress-up night had evaporated. 

Finally Scrag took himself sobbing to bed and before long fell into an exhausted sleep.

Meanwhile, Miss Fab had started weeping in disappointment over our spoiled plans and ran off to her room to cry over her wasted hard work; Nan and Grandad were wishing they hadn't accepted our invitation and Daddy was just counting the minutes til he could collapse on the couch.

We ate our dried-up Han burgers in sullen silence. No one was in the mood for dressing up.

But all was not completely lost. Things brightened up when we made the Yoda sodas. They were even yummy enough to lure Miss Fab out of her room. The Yoda Sodas saved the day.

Even though nobody felt like dressing up, we put on Return of the Jedi and watched it with Nan and Grandad, grateful the screaming had stopped...

On Saturday I COMPLETELY forgot to phone and tell you that we had already had our malfunctioned attempt at a Star Wars night, as I shuttled kids back and forth from Cricket to present shopping to play dates to parties... Until your box turned up so kindly on the doorstep. (THANKYOU!!!)

And that's the end of the story.

Ah well, that's family life aye???

Will return the box to you asap.

xxxx

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Editor's note: Actual email may differ slightly

So ends the tale of how a bottle of  fizzy lime mixed with ice cream salvaged an otherwise-ruined evening.

The moral of the story is clear...

(1) Never let a 3-year-old ride a stunt scooter - there's a reason they are for "Age 8+"

(2) Once the screaming starts, your best-laid plans are pretty much dead and buried

(3) Never mind, there'll be other theme nights

(4) An ice cream soda for dessert can fix just about any ruined dinner

(5) Even a disaster can be blogged about

If you want to see how it's REALLY done, visit Meg and see her cool photos from their awesome Star Wars Theme Night *sigh* 

Ah well, at least we tried, aye Yoda?

{P.S. For those of you who were concerned, Scrag's finger was not broken. He has a black nail and will almost certainly lose it. He woke up from his snooze feeling much better, just in time to watch the Emperor being defeated and the new Death Star destroyed. He is back to his usual happy self.}