Star Wars
My six year old daughter, Lisa, really loved the "The Phantom Menace" movie when it came out and as a result she really wanted a "Star Wars" theme for her birthday.
We made and sent out our own invitations. I found a whole variety of space pictures of colourful galaxies, nebulas and constellations on the internet. I made a collage of the images and stuck them to pieces of white card. Inside the invitations I wrote, 'In the year 3015, on a distant planet, in a far away galaxy, a baby girl was born. Climb into your space ship and come celebrate her 6th birthday on the planet Zongar'.
Even though we bought party decorations of Darth Maul to decorate most of the house, we also wanted do something creative. We bought a few styrofoam globes and painted them like Tattoine, the Death Star and Naboo with acrylic paint. I hung red, blue and black streamers all around the house .The ceiling was full of helium filled black balloons to create the outer space effect. I also hung stars and planets on lengths of fishing wire.
The guests were two boys and five girls, but a few of the mums stayed to help out. They helped supervise the children while they picked out a classic "Star Wars" costume to wear from the assortment I rented from the costume shop. Lisa's older sister, Julie, did the make-up. We had bounty hunters, princesses, fighter pilots and, of course, Jedi knights.
After everyone was dressed I took pictures and Lisa talked with videographer I'd hired about making a "Star Wars" movie of our own. Lisa wanted to be the director and of course she wanted to be the star as well. The kids got together and discussed what parts they wanted to play. She and her neighbourhood friends put on plays all the time in the garden. This was even better though, because of the make-up, costumes and larger cast.
It was so funny. We did everything in five scenes, which they rehearsed a couple of times before they were recorded. The story was about Princess Lisa trying to escape a group of bounty hunters with the help of a couple of Jedi knights and fighter pilots. There were a few great fight scenes using Lisa's toy light saber and laser gun.
Everyone worked up an appetite making the movie, so I served lunch in the dining room. I used blue food colouring in lemonade to simulate the drinks served at Mos Eisley Spaceport. I also sprinkled food colouring on top of the chips to give them an 'other worldly' appearance. The kids mostly ate barbecued burgers and hot dogs. Duncan, Lisa's dad, grilled on the barbecue.
After lunch I brought out the cake. It was decorated with a "Star Wars" theme and "Happy Star Wars Birthday Lisa" was written in white icing. The vanilla ice-cream went perfectly with the chocolate mousse filling.
After dessert, the kids had fun acting out scenes from the film until Duncan called all of them into the garden. It was now dark outside and Duncan had set up a firework display. It was a surprise for Lisa and a perfect finale to a great party. The kids loved it – who doesn't enjoy fireworks ?
As the kids were leaving they were leaving, as an extra special gift. Each child was given a custom made chocolate bar. It had a picture of Lisa's face and "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" written in the font from the movie title behind her. What a great idea. All the kids loved it and Lisa thought it was so cool to have her picture on a chocolate bar.
A week later, Lisa and I got together with the videographer to edit her movie. We sent a copy to everyone that came.
It was so much fun and very easy to organise. How much better could a party be?
