Turning 5 is out of this world!

Yeah, so my little man turned 5, and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened! Not that every birthday isn't special (especially for the little ones), something felt significant about little r turning 5. It's that age where the really start to understand so much of their world, which makes the birthday party even that much more important to them.

When we moved across the ocean, little r had to leave some really great friends behind. It is tough at his age to explain the distance and the reason for moving far away. We were happy that he fell in love with his school here and instantly made some incredible friends. Unlike prior birthday years where the party was more of a huge gathering of all our closest friends (which always included all of little r's as well), this year we kept the party small and very focused on little r. His class at school is small, and he has three close buddies there that are inseparable. He also has a couple other friends from the neighborhood that he has gotten really close to. Five friends when he turns five - sounds like a perfect number for a perfect party.

Little r picked his theme - we went all out on the Star Wars idea. The boy is obsessed with all things Star Wars, so we decided to have a lot of fun with it!

Big R and I made a huge team effort on this party. I did some Pinterest and internet searching for ideas, and he helped me think of ways to make the fun come together. It was actually all super simple, but the boys thought it was fantastic. I love it when fun is easy and stress-free!

We decided to make the theme of the party a "Jedi Training", so I wanted all of the boys to have a Jedi costume and a light saber. Little r also insisted on having a piñata, and of course, an ice cream cake. I went to the hobby store and got enough brown flannel material and rope to make six Jedi costumes. (Believe me, people, these are "simple" costumes because this girl is anything but creative and I have yet to own a sewing machine.) I also found a piñata with a shape that just happened to work perfectly for Big R's storm trooper idea. (We compromised a bit because I couldn't find anything shaped like a ball to make a Death Star.) Added a couple cans of paint to the cart, and made my way home.

Big R made the birthday boy's costume extra cool!

Happy Jedi

The force is strong in this one!

Darth Lando - hahahahaha

the jedi youngling

He was so excited for everyone to show up!

Jedi robes were hung and ready to wear

The awesome Storm Trooper piñata

I remembered that we still had some glass bowls from our wedding (haha, yep), and some decorative sand, so we created some center pieces for the table. Big R and little r had a blast staging those battles! We had hot dogs and mini burgers, and some fun treats, just in case anyone got hungry during the party.

Star Wars Legos came in handy to stage a battle scene in the sand!

I mean, seriously, this is too much fun!

The finished product...

Some of the treats - courtesy of Big R - Yep, he made the storm trooper cookies AND the light saber pretzels 

Little r was so excited when his friends started showing up. We got all our Jedi younglings into their training robes, and handed them a light saber... Oh yeah, the light sabers sound like a frightening idea, right? We saw many tips online to use those pool noodles with duct tape. They were awesome. The boys played their hearts out with them the entire time and no one got hurt. Perfect!

Jedi's in training...

clearly tactical planning going on here...

little r couldn't wait to beat that storm trooper!

The most exciting part of the party was when Darth Vader made an appearance. This was supposed to be Big R (obviously), but he tried the costume on the night before and it was WAY too small. I was very quickly informed that I would become the master sith and try to turn the younglings to the dark side. The boys never saw it coming, and they had a blast ganging up on me.

Darth Vader came to take them all...

....he lost this battle and was thankful the light sabers were made of foam!

Little r informed me that I "didn't need to go too crazy" with the cake. He really just wanted me to use his Star Wars figures and stage a battle on top of it. HA! Love this kid because it really was the easiest cake I have ever made... The cake was a Turkey Hill brand ice cream cake I bought from Kroger (and it was HEAVEN!), and the battle was staged by Big R (as if that needed any announcement).

The party was too much fun all around. I'm so glad little r's friends were able to come, and I hope they enjoyed their Jedi training as much as we had fun pulling all the plans together. The boys got to take home their costumes, light sabers, and candy from the piñata as their party favors. Overall, I would have to say, this was a huge success.

We love you little r. You are such an amazing kid. I hope your birthday party felt as special as you are to us. The big 5, buddy! This is going to be such an awesome year!