May The Force Be With You...May it be with all of us!

I almost don’t even want to write this post because I am still so disappointed in how it all turned out, and I think that is revealing about my own heart on several different levels.  As I told my mom, “Kindergarten boys ruined my party!”  But it wasn’t really my party, and a birthday party must be documented, so here we go.  

Sam requested a Star Wars 6^th birthday party several months ago and dutifully and excited began pinning ideas on Pinterest.  No shortage of options to be had.  I picked a day and a time, and then in early April I sat down at my computer and drew up a plan: an agenda, a menu, a shopping list and a to-do list.  This party was going to be epic.

And it really would have been, if I just hadn’t invited so many 6 year old boys.  Honestly, there are even that many pictures because Chris and I were both so busy running crowd control and interference for the entire 1 hour 45 minute event.

They did love the “decorate your light saber and attack the balloon stormtrooper” activity, but my mistake was using the “decorate your light saber” as an activity to be done while friends were arriving.  It was mayhem from the beginning, Sam in tears because someone took HIS before he got to put his name on it, over-excited boys attacking each other rather than balloons.

Believe it or not, the crafts was the best part of the party.  I am truly grateful for this, as it was also the most time-consuming to prepare.  So. Many. pieces to cut.  They focused beyond what I expected and were intent to make their trash can R2DTs look as much like the example as possible.  But then they started to finish…

And I proactively attempted to line them up for the next activity: Pin the Explosion on the Death Star.  Not only was there constant pushing in line and jockeying for position (as if the poster would disappear if they didn’t get their turn soon enough?!), once they had their turns they instantly ran off to do who knows what in random corners of my house, even opening the front door and running out to swing.  Seriously, they had the attention span of kindergartners.  So I wrapped that up as quickly as I could…

And moved on to: Target Practice.  The dart guns were part of their party favors, but by this point in the “party” I was wise enough to only hand them a gun when it was their turn and to immediately collect the darts when their turn was up.  Again, and great deal of trouble in the taking turns department.  Cut to me trying to run the game and monitor the lunch in the oven at the same time.  Awesome.

Then we served lunch, where I imagined the kids would sit for at least 7 minutes while consuming food.  I think I got about 5.  My light saber hot dogs were cute, but the kids mostly didn’t want the crescent roll handles (I actually expected that but made them anyway).  They were entertained by the Darth Vader-shaped fruit, but my kids ate more of that than anyone else.  A few ate the “misc. droid parts” aka chex mix, but they ALL ate their Star Wars fruit snacks.  And a few kids took a few bites and quickly got down to turn to the dark side.  Ugh.

Pinata time.  This thing had been in various rooms in our house for over a month.  He was taller than Annabelle and he did in fact scare her.  She constantly asked me to move him, and then she’d admonish him that they were going to shoot him at the party.  And when I went to stuff him with candy the week of the party, I found that he was not only still packed solid with newspaper, but also well supported by a thick wire frame.  I had to make a sizable incision in the leg to pull enough out to be able to stuff it.  When Sam spotted the patched wound on party day he instinctively blamed a certain guest for breaking it, and cried again.  Ugh.  I will admit that they stayed in line better for the piñata than for the other games, but they were aware of the reward ahead.  They managed to do well with the legs, but eventually Chris had to help them break it open with a metal bat.  He literally dented it and smashed up the hard candies inside before the thing finally broke open.  And no children were wounded in this activity, which truly shocked me.

Back to the table for cake.  Cookie cake, to be exact, in the shape of R2D2.  This thing represented about 5 hours of my Thursday, and the accompanying Millennium Falcon “cake-ies” were an all-day-Tuesday affair, as my mold could only cook 2 at a time.  Sam loved it (he told me so on Thursday, he really does appreciate the time I put into my decorated baked goods), and I think the other kids noticed it, but they were again up quickly trying to track down their confiscated light sabers and guns to "battle the empire."

I rallied for one more activity: Use-The-Force-Relay.  This was to be a quick, easy, magnet-related race.  Everyone collects a piece that they use build a structure as a team.  It was Mayweather vs. Pacquiao on Team one (if you paid $100 for the fight, you should have been there.  I must say we were not left wishing for more drama after our event).  Team two (predominantly girls) continued through the commotion and built a structure (next year I have more knowledge for our guest list).  I pretty much through up my hands at that point, put one kid in time out, comforted another, Chris took some out to the basketball hoop and then people started to leave.

I wish I could adequately describe the volume, commotion, pushing and wildness that took place.  It frustrated all of us, including Sam who understandably couldn’t hold it together.  But he assures me that he had a good time, and I believe that with time that is in fact what he will remember.  As I apologized to two of the calmest kids’ moms on the way out, they encouraged me that I cannot parent other people’s children and that I really did a nice job with the party.  Its nice to have polite people in your life!  In my head it was going to be amazing and my kiddo would have the time of his life.  And I think I’ve learned my lesson when it comes to birthday parties – next year my bar might be just a bit lower.