Star Wars Birthday Party: Family Style

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… our family had three male birthdays in the course of sixteen days and we decided to celebrate the occasions with a big FAMILY-SIZED Star Wars Party!

We kept the party family-only because of the special needs we have in our family. We didn’t want either Russ or Ezra to be too overwhelmed with all of the stimulation. We held the party at our in-laws house to give me ample time and space to decorate, and we invited my brother (and Russell’s best friend) to join us as well.

My first order of business was to order matching t-shirts for the boys, whose birthdays are four days apart. This year we were celebrating Ezra’s 6th birthday and Little Brother’s FIRST!

I bought the shirts on Amazon from two different sellers, due to needing both 2T and 6/7: Ezra’s shirt | Little Brother’s shirt

I tried to keep decorations simple, but I ended up going just a wee bit crazy. I bought Star Wars plates, cups, napkins, and table cloth. It was hard to find ORIGINAL Star Wars items, now that Star Wars VII is all the rage, but Amazon pulled through for me. On the table, I added Dollar Tree glow-stick swords for light sabers, and a centerpiece of our trusty Stormtrooper.

Each cup, place at the table, and all of the gifts were labelled with Star Wars gift tag / labels that I picked up at Dollar Tree. They were made by Trends International (no longer available). For the life of me, I cannot find the exact product anywhere else online, but it is very similar to these that you can purchase from grupoerik.com or you can purchase similar product on Amazon, or if you want to spend a little bit more, check Etsy!

For easy backdrop decorations, I got black tablecloths and covered them with gold and silver stars. I topped one with Stormtrooper pennant bunting:

For the other, I decorated it with Star Wars font pennant bunting with each of the boy’s names. I downloaded this printable alphabet from Busy Mom’s Helper.

This was an entirely last-minute project that ended up being one of my favorite choices. It made a stunning backdrop for photos!

For the “happy birthday” banner, I used this banner from Jonesing2Create.

Also included in that downloadable banner pack was several posters. I used this one on the front door:

In the living room where we would be opening gifts, I used our vintage Star Wars sheets and curtains that used to be Russell’s when he was a kid. (Kudos to my mother-in-law for saving these!)

For ambiance, I used the in-laws big-screen TV to stream YouTube Star Wars Soundtrack videos. This gave us background music as well as more “free” decor:

Russ wore the custom t-shirt he made for his viewing on release night of Star Wars VII. His t-shirt commemorates his attendance at the Return of the Jedi premiere (you can read more about that here: Why Star Wars VII Matters).

I thought about buying a Princess Leia costume, but instead, I went with a Star Wars mom shirt that I could wear any day of the week. I purchased this through ViralStyle (this is a slightly different design – they are no longer selling the one I bought). (There is a similar shirt in more colors here on Amazon.)

I was very frustrated with my attempts at Leia hair, until this YouTube video temporarily became my favorite thing on the internet. I learned that the key was to have a bun maker. As I did not have one lying around the house nor time to purchase on the night before the party, I cut the toes out of a pair of old knee socks and made my own!

Now, onto the actual STAR WARS PARTY!

When we got there, the food wasn’t quite ready. So Ezra got to play on his new swing:

When he got tired of that, I let him open ONE present, which was a set of Star Wars puzzles I had bought at Dollar Tree. (This 4-puzzle pack can also be bought here on Amazon.)

This was totally one of those I-really-shouldn’t-buy-any-more-presents-cuz-we-have-more-than-enough-and-my-kid-is-so-spoiled-but-it’s-only-a-dollar-so-what-the-heck purchases, but I am SO GLAD I bought this. It gave all of us something to do while waiting for dinner!

These two pictures are some of my favorites, ever!

Grandma also had some Star Wars play figures to keep Ezra occupied:

We ate dinner, and then got ready for presents. Almost all of our gifts for Ezra were Star Wars related. First up, Star Wars phonics books for our super reader!

Complemented with Star Wars Kindergarten Workbooks:

Little Brother got a set of personalized Star Wars wooden blocks.

Ezra also got more Star Wars Lego sets than I think are legal at one birthday party!

Russ got a Star Wars Soundtrack (which was a knock-off synthesized version, but Ezra loves to listen to it while working on his Legos). He also got another “favorite shirt.”

I’m sharing this photo because 1) my husband is a goofball and 2) STORM TROOPER WRAPPING PAPER:

Then it was time for Star Wars Cake.

Now, let me be very honest with you for a minute. The pictures you are about to see may make you ooh and ahh. However, you need to know the truth:

1) Making these cakes took AN ENTIRE DAY. 2) Because of all of the food coloring, they tasted HORRIBLE and ended up in the garbage. 3) It wasn’t worth it. At all. 

Now that we have that out of the way. Are you ready to be amazed?

Ezra’s Death Star Cake:

Daddy’s Star Wars Cake:

I used two sets of Darth Vader / Storm Trooper candles and Edible Glitter Stars.

Little Brother’s R2D2 Cake:

We all took only a few bites of the awful cakes, which resulted in funny faces and black tongues:

Then we all ate ice cream instead:

We ended the party by taking tons of cute pictures against our Star Wars backdrops:

 

Best Jedi poses:

Other than the cakes, I consider our Family Star Wars Party to be an epic success!!

*This post contains an unhealthy amount of Amazon Affiliate Links. You have been warned.*