Celebrating Half a Decade of Jedi Master Owen

Hard to believe but my boy is five years old today. Happy Birthday, Owen!

Karen and I are off to celebrate his "real" birthday this morning/afternoon (we took work off to hang with just Owen today) but I thought I'd post about his party with his friends before we get going with today's festivities.

In light of the ever busy schedules of Owen's friends, Karen was able to work with the parents and coordinate a birthday party everyone could attend for the afternoon of June 28. It was a Jedi themed party and Karen found tons of great ideas on Pinterest. Owen decided quite early on that he might be a Jedi sometimes but mainly, he was going to be a Sith Lord. Thus, Karen made sure that he had the only red light saber (she cut swim noodles in half and decorated them like light sabers so each kid had his/her own to fight with and take home - they were quite literally the hit of the party).

There was an intense downpour minutes before the party started but we knew it was coming and had already cleared out many rooms in the house for an "inside-the-house-party-extravaganza." Kids ran shrieking and dueling with foam swords from room to room in the house on and off over the hours the party lasted. Star Wars balloons floated throughout the house. Star Wars decorations lined walls, tables, and bannisters. Star Wars themed treats of all kinds, a Star Wars cake, delivered pizza, and (of course) the treats blasted out of the inside of a Death Star pinata filled the kids' bellies to full capacity. The bounce house was set up in the family room and there was a Star Wars bean bag toss available as another means of entertainment. As both moms and dads kept their kids in check, we (the Dads) sipped our locally brewed beers and accepted the foam sword pummeling that inevitably came our way as a pack of Jedi and Sith rolled through at regular intervals.

It was a very good time.

The chalk lasted only long enough to take this pre-party photo. An intense deluge washed it all away minutes after this was taken.

Some pics of the food, groups of friends enjoying the food, and the pinata smashing (Quinn's older brother Thomas did his part and took up the red taped bokken and put a hurtin' on the space station to free the candy and treats inside).

Light saber duels were a constant throughout the day. Even Princess Lucy put a smack down on anyone within her arm's reach. Owen was extremely pleased by his presents.