The Force Was With Us

Today we celebrated Ashton's 5th birthday with a very festive "Star Wars" themed party. His actual birthday is Sept 18th, but since we have a number of family members out of town next week, we decided to throw the bash a few days early. And believe me, it could not have come too soon. Ashton has been bugging me for months with "how many more days until my birthday?" This last week was really brutal...he claimed as he lay on the floor gasping for breath mid-death scene, that he would surely die if he had to wait any longer for his party.
But the day finally arrived and despite my usual frantic last minute preparations, the whole thing came off just fine. No matter how much I plan for things in advance, I always end up scrambling the day of, it's just expected I suppose. A big thanks to our family members who always show up a little early (at my invitation of course) to help me finish things up just in time.
Jamie is our designated streamer expert and I always count on her to help me with that. Thanks Jamie. By the way, here is a pic of her because as I mentioned she is doing the diet with me and she looks hot!






The invitation said to bring a light saber if you had one and the boys showed up ready for some serious Jedi action. They played in the yard while we waited for everyone to get there.

David played the bad guy and he took pleasure in doing a light saber scewere on Jaden here:

The boys retaliated with a big gang up manuever:

Then it was time to come in for games and even Yoda joined us:


We played a Star Wars version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, which I suppose would be called "Sticker the button thingy on Darth Vader's chest".

Teague won...(despite Jaden's cheating efforts)

Zander was not well pleased...

Not necessarily with Teague winning of course, he just seemed less than enthralled that all these people were at his house and the attention was not focused on him. Poor kid.

After that we had a rousing rendition of musical chairs set to the Star Wars theme where Ashton cried and announced he would no longer be playing once he was the first one out. I tried to calmly explain to him that he was right, he would no longer be playing because he was out, but that only illicited further wails so we hurridly finished up that game and moved on. By the way...Teague won again.





Zander was still not well pleased...

Time to bring out the piñata. Unfortunately, there were no Star Wars versions so we settled for a treasure chest because...well, we had no other options really since Dora and Halloween ghosts seemed way off base.



Even the little ones got a turn...

The floor plan of our house really comes in handy for piñatas as David (seen here) just stands over the railing with the makeshift contraption. Though I do believe by the end, his arms were killing him. Maybe that's why when the dang thing would not break open he pulled it up and dumped it all out over the children's heads...despite my screams of protest.
Cake was had, songs were sung and birthday wishes made.


BYU Football games watched...(we couldn't tear some of these boys away from this game)


And finally, to Ashton's delight...presents were opened.



That present must have been really cool as even I was making a face.

Apparently my mom thinks Ashton is turning six, heaven help her when she has more than four grandchildren to keep track of...



Here is Ashton opening up the Darth Vader costume we got him. This is what his little heart most desired (and I got a present and Halloween costume in one!) This present caused me much distress because a few days earlier I had seen plenty of them at Wal-mart and figured I would pick it up when I got all the supplies. Well..Friday night found me at three different Wal-marts, Kmart, and Shopko and still no costume. It seems all 5 year old boys in the valley and made a run for the costume in the last two days and I was in tears. Luckily David made a last minute trip to Partyland on Saturday and though we had to pay twice as much, he got back just in time to save the day.

And Darth Vader had another epic battle with Yoda.

But Zander was still unhappy..

Finally, after all the children left and Ashton was happily playing with all his new treasures, Zander's mood finally forced him to turn to "the dark side"

But I guess that was all it took to finally get a smile out of this little guy

Happy 5th Birthday to my little Jedi knight, Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi...or whomever he is playing that day. Your imagination and adorable personality brings "the force" into our home. We love you Ashton!