5 year old Star Wars/Clone Wars Party  I tried to make this really age appropriate, by putting my effort into things 5 year olds appreciate.  INVITATIONS I used the Clone Wars invitations purchased at Wal-Mart (They read Invited You Are, Fulfill your Party Destiny You Must the we just filled in time and place). They feature Yoda, Obi-wan, and Anakin on the cover. My son loved these invites.  A great picture on the invite is so meaningful to 5 year olds who don't read and don't understand really clever verse on the invitation.  My son loved the art on the card and wanted to hang the extra invite up on his wall like a poster.  The kids liked the clone wars art because it matches all the video games they play. DECORATIONS We bought 4 rolls of streamers (red and yellow) and attacked the house with them.  My son's favorite was the canopy we made over the table. It was very festive. You can use quite a few color schemes for star wars. We chose red and yellow for their boldness.  We had an awesome poster from Shopko that has a collage featuring every star wars character and George Lucas.  We hung that under the canopy near the table and the kids had a blast searching for their favorite characters while they ate. The kids also liked the streamer curtains we hung in front of the doors leading to the party areas. We set the table in white plates and black silverware it contrasted nicely with the red and yellow.  A red or yellow tablecloth would have been nice too.    OPENING ACTIVITIES As the guests arrived we had Star Wars Theme music playing and the Imperial March.  This music is so thrilling that the kids were bouncing around saying I LOVE STAR WARS!!! They played with Star Wars Legos while we waited for everyone else to arrive. We had 6 boys, and my two children for a total of 8 kids. We didn't do anything with light sabers at this party because this group of kids play with nerf light sabers constantly and my son was sure that wouldn't be new or exciting. GAMES Battleship Bombing Game. For this game we set a silver tarp up in the driveway.  Then we put two bins (about 9x20x6) one on each side of the tarp.  We taped pictures of star wars ships on the front of each bin.  We split the kids up into two teams and let them throw popsicle stick bombs at the other team's bin (you can learn how to make these on you-tube). The appeal of this game is that none of the kids had ever seen this type of bomb before and they were fascinated. They make great, dramatic, harmless explosions. The team that got the most popsicle sticks (shrapnel) in the other team's bin won.  In the end they all got Pop Rocks and the winners got to choose their Pop Rocks first. The candy went into Clone Wars treat bags purchased from Wal-Mart with their names on them.  This game could be done with water balloons or bean bags and would be much easier to manage.  We discovered that we had two make about 3 or 4 bombs for every bomb that survived intact to the party. They explode soooo easily.  We had trays of the things and if one went off early, you lost the whole tray. The boys really loved this activity, but making the bombs in advance was a challenge.  Jedi Hot Lava Challenge. An important part of being a Jedi is teamwork, no Sith ever went down without the teamwork of two Jedis. The grass in our yard became hot lava and the challenge was to build a bridge� over the grass from the front sidewalk all the way to a playhouse in our backyard we were calling Yoda's Cave.  Most the kids don't read yet, but a big picture of Yoda on the door of the playhouse sufficed. We told them their next prize was in Yoda's Cave.  The kids could use anything they found in the garage (we conveniently had useful things right in plain sight. They started with a slide and then used a bunch of sterilite storage containers and lids, moving boxes, newspapers, garbage bags, old rugs, an old garden trellis, etc. I had a whistle and if they stepped on the grass they had to come back to the driveway.  It was fun watching the bridge grow and all the kids carefully passing the supplies� down the bridge to avoid falling in.  The whistle made the whole threat of the grass more real for the kids. This game was the best, least chaotic, game we did because the kids all worked together beautifully. It was the game my 5 year old anticipated the most also. When they made it to the cave they were so thrilled with their work and spontaneously broke into cheers and celebration.  In the cave we had Star Wars sticker books $1 each at Wal-Mart. Pod Race We then had a pod race. Our pod racers were simply plastic storage bins from around the house that could slide across the grass.  We marked the race course with soccer field flags (my husband referees soccer). We had four pod racers and four bike helmets for the drivers to wear.  One kid drove� wearing a helmet and one kid pushed the racer halfway and then they switched.  The helmets were a big hit and the kids loved getting rides in the racers.  We told the kids that in this pod race everyone would finish. If anyone got tired of pushing they got help from a grown-up (that way every kid got a ride). The official winner was the boy who pushed his pod racer the farthest the fastest.  This game was only so, so.  The kids loved riding in the pod-racers, but they got bored of pushing really fast (which we had anticipated).   Blaster Practice Our blasters were from the Nerf Elimination Game�. It comes with 4 guns and 8 bullets.  We liked having lots of guns so the kids wouldn't have to wait too long for turns. Our target was a poster I made on the computer using six sheets of paper.  My son wanted to shoot at a Droideka, but I thought it was boring so I put an archery target in the background of the Droideka. It ended up looking really cool. We added interest to the game by telling the boys were the weak� points were on the Droideka and challenging them to aim for those. My husband loaded the guns for the kids who couldn't do it themselves.  We had tootsie rolls for the kids not shooting to snack on and that really helped the game go better. If I did it again I might tape off the NO MANS land between the guns and the target, one child kept wanting to chase bullets before other kids were done shooting (we managed to keep him safe though *smile*).    Asteroid Search We wrapped up about 50 pieces of candy in tin foil and hid them all over in rooms we didn't use earlier in the party.  For the last game we had the kids go find 5 asteroids each. It gave me a chance to get food out. My five year old son was really excited about this game too.  Candy just hidden everywhere, it will be so fun!!!  It was like an egg hunt and was perfect for this age group.  PARTY SNACKS Welcome to Jabbas Restaurant! Present opening can be quite boring for young guests, so we combined the lunch and present opening time.  I tried to create a lunch that was 5 year old friendly and could be served quickly and easily. The menu was Yoda Sodas, Padawan Pizzas, Vader Chips, Ashoka Cups, and R2-D2 cake. The Yoda Sodas were the favorite.  My son is too young to appreciate lime sherbet floats, so his Yoda Soda was a Capri Sun with a picture of Yoda taped over the label.  We printed the Yoda Pictures off the printer, cut them out in ovals like the Capri Sun label, and taped them on the Capri Suns with packing tape.  They looked so cool to the kids that they went for those first out of everything we had.  We had taped a giant picture of darth vader over the label on barbecue chips (black bag).  The Vader Chips were for the picky kids, I figured if nothing else at least the kids would eat chips. The Padawan Pizzas were homemade mini pizzas.  We could have bought pizza, but my son insisted that individual pizzas are really so much cooler.   I think he was right, the kids appreciated the novelty. I used the dough for two pizza crusts to make 16 mini pizzas: 8 cheese and 8 pepperoni. We froze them uncooked and when we put them together we put the cheese and pepperoni down first and the sauce last to avoid soggy crust when cooking later on. When the kids arrived I had them choose cheese or pepperoni. We started preheating the oven then and baked one for each kid during the games. The general baking instructions for homemade freezer pizza is 20 minutes at 400 and that was perfect for our pizzas.  The Ashoka Cups are a great trick to streamline ice-cream at a birthday party for little kids who take all day to eat the ice-cream.  You can buy ice-cream cups or make your own. We saved the snack-size applesauce cups to make these. My son's favorite is rainbow sherbet (and looks great to 5 year olds). We filled eight cups with sherbet and covered them with circles of tin foil (Voila Ashoka Sherbet Cups). Then at party time, you don't have to scoop ice-cream, you just pass out all the cups at once with the pizza and chips and they have plenty of time to eat it.    CAKE The cake was R2-D2. We made a home-made chocolate cake instead of mix so it would be a dense enough cake to cut into droid shape after baking.  We traced an 8 ½ x11 R2-D2 onto wax paper and used it as a pattern to cut out a shaped cake.  We attached our pattern to the cake with toothpicks while cutting the shape. Then we frosted it to look like R2-D2. It is our tradition to always decorate with candy, so we had 3 PB m&m's on the top for buttons (red, yellow, and brown). We had twizzlers on R2's feet for the red wires.  This project took a lot of TLC, but if you like making cool cakes this is a fun one to try. Ours turned out great. The five year olds had a lot of fun deciding whether to have their piece cut from the head, feet, or robot arms.  How funny kids are. The kids actually ate their cake too (a first for a 5 year old party). It helped that they had already had their ice-cream cups along with the pizza. Also I think most kids honestly prefer the texture of the denser, less crumbly cake rather than the perfection of a cake mix. FAVORS The party bags were started earlier during the games, but in the end, the kids ended up with Clone Wars bags full of candy asteroids" pop rocks a few glow in the dark stars glow sticks and sticker books. If you start the treat bags early in the party like we did it is helpful to have a basket to carry around from game to game to keep them in. This way the kids don't have to keep track of them during games or lunch and are easy to find when parents come.   TIMELINE The party was 1 ½ hours long. We did games for 1 hour ate/opened presents for 25 minutes and did cake the last 5-10 minutes. That is a pretty rushed timeline but seemed ideal for the attention span of our eight 4-6 year old kids.      "