The Force is Strong With This One

Archer is all about Star Wars these days. Naturally, he wanted a Star Wars birthday party. I have a bone to pick with George Lucas. The lack of Star Wars party supplies around here was very limited. Nothing at Fred Meyer, Target, Shopko, K-Mart and I even resorted to Wal Mart (where I don't shop) and all they had was wrapping paper. From the local party store we grabbed a pack of plates and napkins (because Matt thought the Yoda on the napkins looked cool, not because 6 year olds would actually use them). We also found a Darth Vader helmet pinata. Very cool. When I was informed that my total was $30 and change, I almost lost consciousness. The pinata was $22.99! For something a bunch of kids were going to smack open in less than 5 minutes.

I put my crafty mind to work, and decided to make one. What I won't show you is my feeble first attempt (because no documentation exists). I bombed. Second attempt involved buying a baseball pinata, removing the stitches, spray painting (by dad), adding some electrical tape and voila, the Death Star.The cupcakes Archer wanted had Storm Trooper and Darth Vader helmet rings and were $18 at Fred Meyer. However, they were gone and the bakery wouldn't have sold me the rings even if they had more. Instead, I traced an image of a Clone Trooper helmet onto wax paper 40 times. Then I melted chocolate candy melts, tried to dye it black and piped the outlines.
When those hardened I filled them in with white candy melts.
I peeled them off and this is the final product on the cupcakes. Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself. The kids loved the fact that they were edible!
The arsenal of light sabers waiting for the party to start (pool noodles cut in half, duct tape and electrical tape). Of course, the princess of the house had to have a pink one. Archer said to just pretend it was purple because Mace Windu has a purple light saber. Of course.
And of course, what kid doesn't dream of attacking the Death Star with their own light saber? I don't think I needed to have planned any other games (Lego Star Wars bingo, pin the light saber on Anakin, pass the Thermal Detonator aka hot potato), they were totally content running around outside. I'm sure one or two moms were less than thrilled that I sent their kid home with a weapon.