On Saturday we celebrated Jonathan's 7th birthday with a special Star Wars themed party.  I love throwing themed parties.  {See his Dinosaur Party here}  I love creating games, decorations and finding inspiration online.

The DECORATIONS

I kept it simple this year.  I used a black table cloth and silver stars to create a galaxy look.  I purchased silver balloons, plates, cups and napkins and a Star Wars banner.  We also used a Darth Vader halloween bucket for the forks.
Total cost: $10  (I already had the halloween bucket)

The FOOD
One of my favorite parts of party planning...creating the food tags.  So cheesy, but so fun.  Most of these I came up with myself (with the help of my hubby to explain what a Padawan was), but I also found a few online.
We had:  Vader Veggies, Sith Spinach Dip, Padawan Pizza Bites, Chips & Droid Dip, Jar Jar Drinks, Jedi Juice, and Boba Fruit.

The best part was explaining this concept to Jonathan and him laughing...then saying, "I don't get it".  :)

I used these fonts to create the tags and printed them on cardstock.  Totally free.

The GAMES
Whenever you invite 13 children into your home, you better have some activities to keep them occupied or you will have a mutiny on your hands.  

First up, Pin the Light Saber on Yoda.
I followed this tutorial on printing an enlarged picture.  I googled a picture of Yoda that would work best and used Microsoft Paint to erase the lightsaber out of his hands.  I printed it out & glued it onto a poster board. Then, I cut out strips of neon paper to be the "light sabers".  
Total cost: $2
Prep time: 1 hour 

We played a little carnival style Can Toss with these cans that I painted.  I just collected 10 cans, spray painted them white and drew on Storm Trooper faces.  
We stacked them up and used 3 tennis balls to knock them down.  
I wanted the tennis balls to be black, like asteroids, but it just didn't go down that way.  Oh well, the kids didn't mind.
Overall price for this was $0 since I had everything on hand.
Prep time: 2 hours (mostly spent waiting for the paint to dry.

The Piñata. Oh, the piñata.  I scoured this town trying to find a piñata I was happy with.  I originally planned on getting a soccer piñata and painting it black to look like the Death Star.  Well, the only one I could find was a pumpkin that cost $20 and that just seemed outrageous for something the kids would immediately destroy.  So I decided to make the piñata.  Ha. Ha.

Really, it wasn't hard, just very, very time consuming.  You have to do multiple layers to make it strong enough, and it takes over 12 hours to dry each layer.  I was standing in my bathroom Friday night with the blow dryer trying to get this damn thing done.  It dried enough by Saturday morning so I painted it and attempted to make it look like the Death Star with some silver duct tape.  It did not look at all like the Death Star so we just called it a space ship.  My husband helped me figure out a way to hang it with a Ritz Bitz box and some yarn.  It received two good wacks before the yarn broke and it fell to the ground.  Then we let the kids beat it open on the ground which looked more like a gang initiation than a birthday party.  In the end, I'm glad I made it.  It was fun and good for a laugh.  It probably would have stood up longer if we hadn't chosen to use yarn to hang it.
Total cost: $5 for the candy
Prep time: 3 days

If you notice, I used wrapping paper and silver duct tape to make the broom stick look like a light saber.  It was a nice touch.



 Not pictured: Hot Asteroid (Hot Potato)  We pretended a silver balloon was an asteroid and I used the Star Wars theme music to play some Hot Potato.  The kids really loved this game and it was easy to set up and play.  And free, of course.

The CUPCAKES

This was the only picture I got of the cupcakes.
But really, you're not missing much.  I chose to save about $30 and make cupcakes myself.  I put them in silver cupcake liners and used NEON food color to make them resemble light sabers.
Total cost: $8.00 including NEON food coloring and liners

The FAVORS
These little bags can be found at Walmart or Michaels, and I think they're 3 for a dollar.  I used a silver Sharpie to write on them.  I filled them with Star Wars themed party blowers, silly straws, glow sticks, candy and mini slinkies.
Total cost: $15
Prep Time: 1 hour

All in all, I think the party was a success.  I've seen many, many elaborate Star Wars parties online (thanks Pinterest), but I think ours was fun and creative without being over the top.  The kids had fun which is probably all that matters.  Well, that and hearing my son say "Awesome party, Mom!" If that's not worth being up to my ears in paper mache, I don't know what is.
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