You Gotta Fight, For Your Right, To PAAARRRR-TAY!!!

Thank you Beastie Boys for providing my life's mantra ...

well, maybe not my whole life's mantra,

but there are moments when it is time to Party,

and sometimes I do have to fight for my right to throw a party.

Perhaps I could have warned my husband about this obsession before we were married, but I think some surprises are a good thing.

And the fact of the matter is, I Love Parties.

So, as a sort of a compromise, the tradition in our home is that

the Big "4" is the start of the friend birthday parties!!!

Remember who turned 4 this week?

Oh, yeah ... it's his turn!

Let's Hear for The Boy!

We tried something new this year ... have the party at the park!

(A little FYI ... fabulous!)

The King, The Boy and I set up the party

while Bert picked up the girls from school.

He was such a good little helper, "organizing" the safety sabers for me.

And The Boy had to test everything out just a little before his friends arrived.

Once they were all there and suited up in the Jedi training gear,

(okay, I realize I mixed up the colors, they should have had a white vest

and a tan tie ... blah blah blah ... details ...)

Bert taught them the "art" of saber combat and they all got a turn with him.

The Boy had the last and the longest turn of them all,

he really liked pounding on his Daddy.

We popped bubbles with the sabers ...

... I love the happy faces in this photo,

they might have been having a little fun.

We played "Master, Master, Jedi" with the sabers, too.

There was also a little balloon game, too,

but the wind kind of put a quick end to that one.

Then we sent our young Jedis on a little obstacle course,

this was the youngest Jedi in training that day

... isn't he so darling???

(and thanks to all the moms who stuck around and helped -

BIG, BIG thanks)

At the end of the course, there was a special surprise waiting for each guest!

The Boy's VERY COOL nephew dressed up as Darth Vader and each kid was able to personally defeat Vader! I hope he doesn't have too many bumps and bruises from his work today. The kids loved it! (well, most of the kids loved it)

After we defeated Vader, it was time to destroy the Death Star ...

We finally got Vader to come to the good side and take a whack at it himself

... he did pretty good!

With peace once again established in the universe,

it was time for a little celebration.

We lit the candles, sang happy birthday and

the wind blew out the candles,

but we still had The Boy pretend to blow them out,

he made it seem mostly authentic.

(although it is pretty obvious by the size of his dimples

that he thought it was a pretty silly thing to have to do)

So, the party was over, the balloons got away and floated away into the sky

and The King sat back and enjoyed some pizza!

It was a good day!

Many, many thanks to all the party websites for the ideas I found and used for this event!

Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you.

You feed my addiction and make parties work on my budget!

Bless you!