Star Wars Party

Saturday was party day. Justin worked to prep the yard. He was tasked with clean up and setting up an obstacle course. I put finishing touches on food and made sure the house was cleaned up. Justin hung up balloons, two hoops, made a lava field, and made sure the table was ready. The kids enjoyed pestering Justin with balloons and requests to play with the party stuff. Amelia, playing Princess Leia, welcomed the guests and helped them don tunics and belts. Darth Justin sent the kids through a padawan training course to earn their light sabers and a final duel with the dark lord himself. Once all the kids arrived he had them crawl through a tunnel, slide down a slide, fly their star fighters through a large hoop (level 1), than a smaller hoop (level 2). Some of the kids were really good at throwing their planes! The kids got to practice with a real light saber and fight off balloons to hone their saber skills. The final obstacle was hopping through a lava field. Darth Vader was waiting at the end to duel each child who passed Padawan training. Phillip had a little sad moment when his plane would not fly straight. He pouted until his friends piled around him and invited him to try again. He bounced back with style!

It was hot and muggy outside...the kids slurped down two gallons of yoda soda (watermelon juice with sprite). It tasted like nectar. For snacks the kids enjoyed pretzel light sabers, oreo tie fighters, cheeto asteroids, and gummy Ewoks. Of course the cake came soon after snacks. Dog Vader enjoyed all the leftovers in the grass. Phillip loved his cake, half good, half bad, decorated with Star Wars figures. His favorite gift by far was a remote control car from his buddy Noah Dean. He also loved the "Book with no Pictures," two Legos, a TMNT, and some Hot Wheel cars. The kids were outside playing with the remote control car the rest of the afternoon and evening. Phillip is learning how to steer...mostly.

My photographer friend Candice talked me into mentoring her with a newborn at 2:30. The mom did not follow my newborn session preparation guide. The baby was awake, hungry, and won the award for the poopiest baby ever. She soiled three shirts, and smeared poo on several fabrics, our hands, and 30 wipes. After she finished her business she was out like a light and slept for a little while. I loved "playing" with Candice. After the short session I was wiped out. I actually napped at 5:00 pm. We all spent a lovely evening in the side yard with the kids.

In church today we had the Stake Family History specialists give a wonderful presentation on how Family History is changing. I am so excited over all the opportunities our youth have to be involved. A video clip said that genealogy is about dates, family history is about the dash between dates. We have a fun chance to flesh out our family trees with photos, stories, and personal letters! It's so easy to access mountains of information these days. We tasked our youth to bring a name to our temple trip coming up in a couple weeks. I love watching the fire some of the kids have to achieve this goal.