Aidas started at this daycare when he was a mere 10 months old. He was our very first daycare member. I have watched this wonderful little baby grow into a busy little toddler, and now a super-hero and Power-Ranger loving little boy. But most of all, he loves Star Wars. Thus, there was no theme more fitting for his good-bye party than a Star Wars Party.
The first part of the party was Aidas's favourite: The Droid Hunt. The scenario was that there were missing droids that needed to be rescued. I hid two kinds of droids in Leila's room. Four of them were larger droids (made of 2 tin foil cups stuck together). I also hid 12 smaller droids which consisted of plastic Easter eggs wrapped in tin foil. All of the droids contained Star Wars stickers inside.
Before the kids entered the room, they were each given flashlights and glow in the dark bracelets. They also each carried a little plastic bag with their name on it, to collect the droids they found. I stuck 2 silver car sun visors together and hung them over the doorway to the room to make it look more space-like. I also played Star Wars music from a laptop and since it was part of a video, it distracted them a little, as you can see in the video below.
After we had found them all, we brought them to the living room to count them. Our mission was incomplete. We only had 11 out of the 12 droids. Finally, (after I remembered where I had hidden the other one!) we found the last one. We cheered that we had successfully completed our mission. Oh my goodness. The kids were so cute. They were genuinely very excited and proud of themselves at this point. Pure joy!
Aidas had already noticed earlier that there was something inside them. The kids opened them up to get all of the stickers out. I thought they would be really into the stickers, but Aidas left them on the ground and requested that we go back and look for more droids. I told them that we had already found the droids. He responded with "Can we go fight Darth Vader or something then?"
Instead, I helped them build a space ship with cushions. We used the flashlights as headlights. Since it was Aidas's good-bye party, he got to be the captain, up front.
We headed outside for the official Jedi training. The kids had to hit a foam die off of a platform three times, using their lightsabers. They were all successful! We also trained by seeing how long we could keep a balloon in the air using our lightsabers.
Then we came in for a Jedi lunch. We had breadstick/turkey lightsabers and cucumber/cheddar cheese lightsabers! I know...it's a stretch, but I had to try! Oh, and in the photo beside are the rocket ships (fruit and graham crackers) we had had for morning snack. Again, a stretch, but 3-4 year-olds aren't too critical!
We used a black table cloth to make it look like the night sky, and had sparkly silver stars scattered about. We had shiny party horns too.
But the best part of lunch was...dessert! My friend Kirsten from Yummy Mummy Cupcakes made these awesome Star Wars cupcakes. http://www.facebook.com/groups/310188892658/
Aidas chose R2D2. They were so delicious! And, although I have read that "the sugar high" is a myth, the video below begs to differ. It's Aidas after lunch (and dessert). True bliss.
Since Aidas had seen some of a star wars video when I was playing the music for the droid hunt, he really wanted to see more. As it was his party, I obliged him, and we watched a couple of clips on the computer (in lieu of a story book) before nap time.
Look at Leila. Just one of the guys!
After naps we made R2D2's. Each of their robot cutouts had shapes penciled in on them. The kids were given foam shapes to put in the right penciled area.
Here was the Bristol Board paper cut-out (with baggie of foam shapes clipped to it).
Afterwards, the R2D2 clones met each other.
I took a few last pictures of this very special daycare group playing together.
And when I saw Aidas being....well, so Aidas, I had to take a couple of last pictures of him at the daycare. He is always carrying a multitude of objects. Together, they seem random, but his creative mind has it all worked out. They are usually tools, or gunners, or other weapons, often the kind that superheroes use. I am really going to miss his ways. We love you Aidas. The rest of the world will too!
#starwarsparty
