I must confess, I LOVED the new Star Wars movie! Now, not as much as my friend who has seen it 6 times, but enough that I decided I have to finally get my oldest son’s 8th birthday party up on the blog! Because, you guessed it, my 8 year old went with a Lego Star Wars Birthday Party!
Now, we did it as mainly a Lego Star Wars Birthday Party, but we most everything can be adapted to be just Star Wars Birthday if you wish. The star of the party was definitely the games and the DIY Sarlacc Sand Pit I made for the kids to swing over like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. In fact, several years later, my kids are still playing with it! Want more details? Keep reading through the post until you get to the games and activities section (the most important part in my opinion) or read a separate post dedicated to this easy project. Check it out here. But on to the details of the party for my son’s 8th birthday:
Theme: Lego Star Wars Birthday
Number of Guests: 12 boys, ages 7-9
Location: Our Home (inside and outside)
Decor: Star Wars Lego Sets, Star Wars Party Cut Outs, Red/Blue/Black Streamers and Balloons
Menu: Star Wars Themed Food
There are so many great ideas on Pinterest for Star Wars party food. Check out my board here. We also got a lot of ideas from this book: The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes
Cake: Lego Hoth Cake
The cake was pretty easy this time. We started with a sheet cake and a cake that we cooked in a small glass bowl. When the bowl cake was done and cooled, we simply scooped out one side, so that it had an opening like a cave. We turned the bowl cake upside down on top of the sheet cake and frosted both with white frosting. Then we took legos and decorated the outside edges with flat lego pieces. In the cave, we put a Luke Skywalker mini-figure upside and a light saber near by. We also put a few other Lego figures outside the cave (like Han and a tauntaun) to replicate the scene on Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. Last, we added writing and candles. The pictures didn’t come out all that well, but I hope you get the general idea!
Games: Swing over the Sarlacc Sand Pit, Light Saber Battles on the Balance Beam, Lego Ship Building, Death Star Pinata, Movie and More
We started out the party as we always do, with an activity. I believe that kids need something to get engaged with right away to help ease the awkwardness. I set up a spot at a table for each guest with a name tag and bins of Legos in the center of the table. The kids were instructed to build a Lego ship while we waited for everyone else to arrive.
The next activity was a twist on light saber battles. We had built a very simple balance beam out of wood.
We began by lining up all the boys and then pairing up the first 2 and giving them each a light saber. They had to battle each other while staying balanced on the beam (and only hitting the light sabers, not each other!) The winner would challenge the next boy in line and so on, until we had a winner. We even added sound effects to this one of light sabers in the background. The winner of the game received a prize and the boys had a blast!
The next game was definitely the biggest hit. We have a tree in our front yard that we use with a rope swing (if you don’t have this option, simply alter the game to involve jumping instead of swinging) so I thought of replicating the scene in Return of the Jedi where Luke Skywalker swings over the Sarlaac Pit (the sand pit/sand monster thing) to avoid being pushed in. I decided to create a Sarlacc pit to swing over. I don’t sew or anything, so I had to do it simply as possible. I bought brown and white felt and cut out the big oval shape and white triangles. I also cut out light brown tentacles and hot glued the whole thing together. (Want more details on how to make your own? Check out this post).
We put the Sarlacc Pit on the ground and hooked up a rope swing. We used a step stool to help the boys get a good swing. We also made it a competition by marking who could swing and land the farthest. And of course, the winner got a prize!
Other party activities that aren’t pictured involved watching a Lego Movie that had the kids cracking up: Star Wars Lego: The Empire Strikes Out
Favors: Goody Bags and Star Wars Cookies
We made Lego goody bags by using a circle punch and making the bags look like Legos. I also printed out gift tags using mini-figure images I found on-line. In the goody bags, I always try to put something of substance, not just throw away junk. I included a Star Wars Cookie, a mini inflatable light-up light saber, Lego Star Wars stickers, and every guest got a Lego Star Wars mini-figure key chain. Plus all the candy from the pinata!
Gifts: Group Gift
I wanted to make a quick note on something we did differently at this birthday party. Not only do I always let my kids open presents at their own parties (it’s a great practice opportunity as discussed in this post), but a fellow Mom and I got together and came up with a unique way to do gifts. My friend and I were discussing how many gifts the kids get at parties that they just don’t need and how we want our kids to appreciate what they have. We also talked about how our kids never were going to get a larger Lego sets from us because they were out of our price range.
So we took turns (I did it for her son’s party the next month and she did it for my son’s party that month) contacting all of the fellow guests and offered the option of going into together and buying one or two big Lego sets as a group gift. (If we had thought of it sooner, we thought we would have loved the idea of collecting money and purchasing one group gift and donating the rest to a charity of the child’s choice. In fact, we wanted someone to start a website that does that exact thing! Anyway, it was a big hit and such a special gift that my son will treasure forever! He was able to get the Millennium Falcon Lego Set which is a $150 Lego set. You can check it out below, along with a few other fun Lego Star Wars sets.
So, what do you think? Would your Star Wars lover (or Lego Star Wars Lover) enjoy this party? Have you ever done something similar? Have any ideas to add or share? Can’t wait to hear!
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