Jonathan's birthday celebrations

A week long celebration

Jonathan turned 7 last Wednesday. Tuesday night we celebrated as a family by going out to eat at Applebees. Jonathan specifically chose Applebees because he remembered the servers singing to someone last time he was there. That same day, Jonathan got a present in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa Ashdown. They sent him a puzzle map of the US and Canada. Each US state is it's own puzzle piece in the shape of the state. Jonathan put this puzzle together all by himself without any help from me or Russ.

On his actualy birthday, we let Jonathan open his presents from mom and dad. We got him Wii Fit, Mario Bros. Monopoly and the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.

Episode VII - A Jedi birthday.
Saturday was the big day, the Jedi Training birthday party. This party was a lot of work, but it turned out so fun for the kids. I got all my ideas from various online resources, all people who had thrown similar parties for their own kids. As the kids arrived, we dressed them in Jedi tunics, issued lightsabers and gave them each a name tag, which would also serve as a sort of score card.

The lightsabers were made of pvc pipe and Fun Noodles (you know, the kind you take swimming). Finding those noodles in the middle of winter was not easy! I think I went to Walmart every day for a month. I knew they were getting close because they had out just about every other swim toy you could think of. I had two noodles at home that I cut up, but it wasn't enough for everyone. I had planned to make the remaining lightsabers out of pipe insulation, but it wasn't as cute and brightly colored. Then, the day of the party I went to get soda and decided to take one last spin around the toy department and there they were. Yay! No fighting over who has to take the ugly black lightsabers. Since I hadn't made them yet, I could return the insulation to Home Depot.

We led the kids through games to test their Jedi skills; such as lightsaber skills, balance, mind control, blaster shooting (nerf dart guns) and teamwork. The final exam was Star Wars bingo, which I put together from images I found online. Their last test was defeating the Darth Vader pinata. The pinata was a plain round one and we glued a picture of Darth Vader to it.

To celebrate Vader's defeat we ate cake and ice cream.

Poor Luke is sinking into the cake.

As the friends left for home we handed out treat boxes (I forgot to get a picture of these) and Jedi training certificates. And now, I am birthday partied out for at least a year.

I have to thank Christina, Kathleen and Colleen for coming down to help with the party. If they hadn't been there I think the kids might have taken over. Having help makes a huge difference in the outcome of the party. For Jonathan's 5th bday it was just Russ and me and we were very overwhelmed.