Star Wars Movie Party

This past Saturday our family got decked out in our Star Wars regalia to attend Micah's 12th birthday party! We had rented an old, 1924, beautifully refurbished theater about 20 minutes away. The Grand Theater was the perfect spot to have a gathering of many Jedi, Sith, Padme, Clones, Darth Vader, Captain Rex, Han Solo, Princess Leahs and even an ear muff coiffed MomMom!
With light saber in hand Micah greeted his guests dressed in his tan Snuggie, which should of won an Oscar for its portrayal of a Jedi robe. I must say he looked the part and lived up to his Star Wars Jedi name, Moomi. One of the other mothers thought her son had spelled Mooney wrong when he corrected her by informing his mom that Moomi was Micah's Jedi name!

Goes to show ya that this was the perfect year to pull off a party like this. I was skeptical that 11, 12 and 13 year old boys would be interested in coming in costume, but they proved me wrong as they paraded around the theater, some in full costume and face paint!

The theater was quite accommodating to a party of nutty Star Wars fans, a frazzled mom and baby Clara who refused to nap because she was so intent on watching the movie! If you live in the area I would highly recommend such an event. We hardly filled a few rows, so it would be a great venue for a fundraiser or bigger showing. Check out The Grand Theater for your next party! The prices are so much nicer than the huge complexes. When's the last time you paid $2.75 for a reasonably sized bucket of popcorn?! Their regular showings, which are usually a bit behind the complexes, run $3 for matinees and $5 for the evening shows! I do believe we will be returning in the future:)

As many of you may know, every year I attempt some sort of themed birthday cake. Last year we had a Star Wars: The Clone Wars game party, so I combined two of Micah's loves for the cake: Star Wars & Monopoly. I made a cake that looked like a pair of dice and set it in the middle of our Star Wars Monopoly game board.

This year, Micah requested the Millennium Falcon. Uh, I don't think so! I knew that, with the baby, my fingers and back would not hold up to that task. When I mentioned that the Millennium Falcon might be out of my league this year, Micah readily offered his next idea: crossed light sabers. Now we're talkin' - that I could do! Apparently, so could he as you can see Micah's handiwork on the birthday cupcakes below.

Naturally, things couldn't go that easily! When big sis heard that I was only making cupcakes, she was shocked that I wasn't making a cake for her brother's 12th birthday. Feeling slightly guilty for not living up to traditional birthday expectations, I attempted to determine where Micah stood on the issue. He tried to make me feel okay with the cupcake decision (what a sweet boy!), but I could tell he would have rather had a more special dessert.

Having purchased everything I needed to do the cupcakes and running out of time before the event to come up with a replacement cake, I decided to be a little adventurous with what I had. Micah helped create the light sabers, while I worked on R2-D2!

This little guy was worth the effort when Micah gave me a huge hug and exclaimed how cool R2 looked. He was so excited about the outcome, that I was thrilled I had taken a little more time to make something for which he was so proud and thankful. Hey, I'm no Cake Boss, and given more time and the correct supplies, I could have done a much better job, but I sure felt like I had created the ultimate masterpiece for Micah!

Micah was so excited about R2 that he wanted to save him for a special treat after the party. He was quite downhearted when I had to break the news to him that R2-D2 had survived many battles in Star Wars, but he had not survived the trek home from the party.

Poor R2

Micah was a good sport and enjoyed eating R2 just the same!

(What a good actor - he really looks sad!)

Although the loss of R2-D2 was hard to . . . swallow, this ranks as one of our family's favorite birthday events!

Go Phillies!

My latest creation for a friend - for her son's 9th birthday!

Thought it was apropos with the Phillies in the playoffs!

Happy B-Day To My Lil' Buddy!

Today is a milestone day for me and my littlest cub: his 10th birthday (sniff. . . sniff. . .when did my baby boy get to be so big?!) He is very excited to have entered into double digits whilst I, on the other hand, continue to be traumatized!

True to form, we had a celebratory weekend culminating with a special birthday dinner today. Buddy's birthday party was held at Chuck E. Cheese's. The kids had a blast! The only draw back to throwing a party there for older kids, is that they run through their tokens in the first ten minutes with all the arcade games. (Gone are the days of climbing and sliding contentment!) We managed to keep them active by rationing out our stash of extra tokens.

Lil' Buddy (who's not so little anymore. . .sniff. . .sniff. . .) wanted to do a race car theme for his birthday this year. (Yes, you are correct, this implies that every year the cubs have themed birthdays. It's a bit of an obsession on my part, but I do love planning parties. Remember Darlin's?!)

To round out the race car theme we provided Disney/Pixar's CARS plates, napkins and candle. The party favors were CARS stadium cups filled with candy, a Hot Wheels car and a CARS pencil. The pièce de résistance was the race car cake!

Top View

Side/Back View

Side/Front View

Pretty cool, huh? Buddy Bear loved it and so did all his buddies. Of course, the birthday boy had to have the piece with his name on it, which was basically the whole side of the car - still cute!

Despite the difficulty I had in getting a decent yellow and red color that would suit a race car, it was one of the easier cakes to decorate. The pan is a 3-D car pan from Wilton, so I didn't have to brave sculpting some semblance of a vehicle.

All in all it was one of the smoothest parties we've thrown. The most work I had was baking and decorating - which took some planning and foresight on my part as it was quite a busy week aside from party prep. The favors were soooo easy and once at Chuck E. Cheese's everything was a breeze.

Wonder how to top this for his 11th?! Sniff. . .sniff. . .sniff. . .

Mall Mania

Today, my Darlin' Gal turned 12! Where does the time go?! It seems as if she was born only a few years ago, not more than an entire decade! This year we seem to have crossed the bridge from toys to tween items. She received more "girl stuff" (clothes, polish, jewelry, bath & body items!) than I think she'll ever be able to use.

We celebrated her birthday at the mall this year, it was quite an event. I decorated her cake to look like a purse - I was pretty pleased with my attempt, so I thought I'd share a picture of the cake with you. We also gave out little bags of lip glosses for party favors!

Birthdays seem to be a national event in our household. I'd like to place the blame elsewhere, but - being the extrovert - it is entirely my fault! Instead of inviting a few girls to a simple party, we had a weekend entirely devoted to Darlin'!

To begin with, she brought in her favorite cookies to school to share (Cocoa Kiss Cookies), followed by a sleep over with 3 friends. That's enough you say (well, that's what my Mom said!) Nope, apparently not enough for me & my Darlin'!

To top that off, we planned a Mall Mania party. 15 girls arrived eagerly anticipating the scavenger hunt. We had 3 groups of girls scouring the mall to find certain things at various stores. Some things were easy, like counting the puppies in the pet store. Others were a bit harder, like "Where is Winter's End?" (Can you guess? Check the bottom of this post for the answer!)

The girls (and Moms) all seemed to have a blast scurrying through the mall for an hour trying to find all the answers, as well as the best deals for under one dollar. We gave each girl $1.00 with the mission of finding something they thought Darlin' would like best. The winner got a $5 gift certificate to Claire's (typical girly store) and the rest got to keep their finds. It was a great way of giving all the girls a little something extra as a party favor, too! Look at all the cute stuff they found at the mall for under $1.00. Awesome sales!

Today, being her actual birthday, we took her out to a yummy lunch after church at the Olive Garden. She also got to bring in a treat of munchkins to celebrate with the Jr. High Youth Group in the evening. The party never ends and it sure makes life memorable!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DARLIN'!

In case you were wondering, the Winter's End sale can be found at Land's End in Sears!