You Don't Know the Power of the Dark Side

Pinterest. The Dark Side I'm referring to is Pinterest. And while some may see it as "the dark side," I have to politely disagree. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend about numerous things and the topic somehow came to Facebook and Pinterest. His opinion was that people only throw elaborate birthday parties so they can brag about them with posts to Facebook and Pinterest. While yes, a "like" on a Facebook picture is certainly an ego boost, I totally don't think that's the reason some people throw Pinterest worthy parties, or participate in certain activities, or even share pictures on social media... I honestly feel that nothing "they" do has anything to do with you or me. For example... I share my life on Facebook. Facebook has become for me what scrapbooking was to my mother- a way to capture and share my family's memories. This blog is another example. It started as an outlet for a mom who hung out with a 4 year old and 4 month old all day. The fact that people read it is a blessing, but it didn't begin as a way to virtually "brag" about anything. For me, Facebook and blogging is all about friends and family and bridging the gap that geography and life have put between us. But that's not my entire train of thought...


The Dark Side...

My son is obsessed with Star Wars. What IS it with guys and Star Wars? I'm obsessed with my son. I'm also obsessed with making things pretty, as we've discussed numerous times in this blog. Sooooo... naturally I'm one of "those" Pinterest party moms. (You didn't think I was defending the type without reason, did you? I'm a card-carrying member!) I think it's more of a personality thing and it certainly has nothing to do bragging on social media. For example, years ago when I was in middle school I was given the opportunity to decorate my homeroom's door for homecoming. The project wound up growing from a door to a wall. It was awesome. I LOVED doing it. And from there on out, all of my projects tended to go overboard. My personality type would exist without Pinterest or Facebook or blogs... you just see me (and moms like me) more because the world is simply WAY more connected. We each have our own talents and I love that we can share them better thanks to the internet! To the coupon moms out there- I WISH I could be more like you! I tried and it's totally not my forte. To the "life hacker" whose posts I find on Pinterest (where someone way more clever than me came up with 100+ uses for the Magic Eraser)... THANK YOU! We are all gifted in certain ways and I think social media allows us to share those gifts. I do think being gifted in coming up with clever, spend-thrifty things is way more awesome than wanting to decorate out the wazoo whenever life gives the opportunity, but hey... we all have to embrace our talents! For the past few months, I've slowly been using mine to plan an elaborate 5th birthday party.

The theme (as you've probably gathered) was Star Wars. I took my inspiration from our trip to Disney last year where we watched the Jedi Training experience. I wanted to throw a party where I didn't have to plan a million games to entertain the masses, so I thought simply training a few Jedi might be easy and fun. We planned the party to last for two hours and reserved the facility for 3 hours to allow for set-up and cleaning. If you're looking for somewhere to host a small event in Huntersville, NC then you should look into the Huntersville Arts and Cultural Center. It's wonderful and cheap. You can learn more about it here.

Jedi training in full force.

For Jedi training, I decided I'd host the session myself (gotta put the teaching experience to good use!) and watched YouTube videos of the Disney professionals to put together my training plan. At Disney, Darth Vader crashes the training session, so of course I needed a Darth Vader. Amazingly, I happen to know a family with the COOLEST Star Wars costumes and the kids were raising money for a school trip. I asked if I could rent them in costume for an hour and the rest was history. The kids will be doing another school trip next year, so if you're interested in cool Star Wars characters at your next party, I can give you their information! (Side note- the kids are super awesome and kind! They were great with our guests at the party and I couldn't have asked for anything better! For real, you want them to come to your party!)

Our awesome characters!

I knew guests wouldn't all arrive at the same time, so we played a Lego Star Wars video (thanks, Cartoon Network and YouTube) while guests arrived. The party favors were light sabers. (Yes, they were expensive, but at around $9 a piece they were only a few dollars more than what parents generally spend on goodie bags and will be played with way more, so for me it was worth it.) We used the party favors during the training session. After about 15 minutes of training, we turned on what Ridge claims is his favorite song (blame the dad), Imperial March by Celldweller and Darth Vader came in with his Stormtrooper escort. It was AWESOME! We battled the dark side for a few minutes and then sang happy birthday with our cool characters present. After cake, the Star Wars crew hung around for guests to get their pictures taken and then played around with the kiddos. That was pretty much it! It was a super quick, simple party and we had a blast. I still felt like I didn't get to spend enough time with our guests (why does it always feel like that?!) and stressed out for about 2 hours prior to the party getting everything in order. But it was worth it!

Listening intently to the Jedi master. Ridge wanted to dress up for his party...  Let them be little and join in on the fun!

Party crashers

We battled the Dark Side and W

My take-away on our latest party?

• Forget paper invites to kids birthdays. They're nice and I'm sure Emily Post wouldn't agree with me, but creating a Facebook event to invite and inform guests was so much better! I was even able to send a "heads up" message when I confirmed the Star Wars characters so parents could let me know if they thought their kids might get scared. Paper invites couldn't do that.
• If you're doing a themed party where you'd like cool decorations, give those things as presents beforehand. Santa brought some Star Wars toys at Christmas and Ridge's birthday gifts from family members were also Star Wars themed, so it was all brought to the party and made decorating way cheaper! The Star Wars backdrop fabric we used is going to be made into a blanket. So my suggestion is this: whatever you buy to decorate a party with, think about how you can use it after the celebration is over. 
• Make things as easy for you during the party as possible. (Meaning, you don't want to have to be the entertainment for the kids. I know... I totally didn't follow this rule. But the party would have been more fun for me if I had.) 
• Light sabers are cheaper at Target than Walmart. (Really?! Really.) 
• Have the party outside of your home. Best. Thing. EVER. 
• Think about your child's favorite things and center it all around that. Ridge won't remember many things from many parties... but I bet he'll always remember that Darth Vader came to his birthday and that he got to battle his friends with light sabers. 

The party food was a total Pinterest copy. We served Wookie Cookies, Padawan Popcorn, Droid Nuts and Bolts (Chex Mix) , Edible Ewoks (Teddy Grams), Thermal Detonators (cheese puff balls), Princess Lays (Classic Lays Chips), Hans Rolos (Rolos), Death Star Donuts (donut holes), Jedi Juice (Capri Sun), Wookie Water (bottled water), and Yoda Soda (Sprite). 

Baby Leia observed from afar

The birthday boy and the Star Wars crew

Thanks to Cheeky Cakes for making our Star Wars cake a reality! I highly recommend working with them! Find their Facebook page here.

I love this. Ridge couldn't get all of his candles out on the first try...

...so our Jedi master and Darth Vader began to use "the force" to help! 

My last thought on the Dark Side is this: Do what you want. It's too hard to please everyone all the time. If you want an elaborate party, throw one. If you want to post the pictures to social media, do it. I've tip-toed around "What will people think" for too long and find it so freeing to no longer worry about it. (Or no longer worry about it as much- let's be honest!) But the real Dark Side isn't Pinterest or Facebook or even Darth Vader... it's worrying about the judgement of others. So... step into the light my friends and thanks for checking out our 5th birthday Star Wars extravaganza!