A Gathering of the Jedi...

Yesterday Jaron had a party with some of his friends for his birthday. He wanted a swimming party like he's had for the past two years, but this year I decided to do it at our house and not the rec center.

Here's the invitation I made for Jaron's party this year...


This was the sign I made for the front door, the "hanger" was the back yard...


This was a sign I had hanging on the gate to get to the "hanger", Jaron really liked it.


I put together a treat table for Jaron's party and I was really excited about it. We had some really fun ideas for treats and they were all really yummy.



Here's a close up of all the yummy "Star Wars" treats we had to eat...

We had "Edible Ewoks" (gummy bears) and "Hoth Pops" (powdered donut holes on a stick...I was going to make white chocolate covered cake balls, but Jaron wanted the donut holes)...


..."Wookie Cookies" (chocolate chip cookies) and "Space Rocks" (Nestle Cruncha Buncha)...


..."Light Sabers" (Tampico freezer pops) and "Leia Rolls" (mini cinnamon rolls)...


..."Boba Fett Bounty" (chocolate gold coins) and "Death Star Donuts" (old fashioned donut holes)...


..."Padme Popcorn" (buttered popcorn...I wanted to make white chocolate covered popcorn, but again, Jaron wanted regular popcorn) and "Space Dust" (Nerds)...


...and "Darth Vader" and "Yoda" chocolate cupcakes (per Jaron's request)...


We also had lunch for all the kids.


Lunch consisted of "Padawan Pizza"...


..."Yoda Soda" (Sprite and lime sherbet)...


...and "R2-D2 H2-O"...


This was the gift table with the goodie bags for all the kids. In the goodie bags were some "Star Wars" fruit snacks, a "Darth Vader" pencil, and either a "Darth Vader" or "Yoda" pencil sharpener.



I also had some "light sabers" for the kids to keep and play with in the pool...


While I was setting everything up for the party, I was getting a little nervous and frustrated because it was really cloudy and it was starting to rain a little bit. It had been nice and sunny all week and then on the one day I needed it to be nice, it was raining. I didn't know how things were going to turn out. I thought maybe the kids could watch a Star Wars movie if it got too bad.


The kids played a little bit on the trampoline before the party started. I love Jaron's face...


Then, we let the kids eat...


I also got the kids some fun curvy straws to use for their drinks...


I'm not quite sure what's going on with Jantzen and Tate's faces in this picture...they are a couple of silly boys!


Jaedyn enjoyed her "Padawan" pizza in the house with her daddy and she really liked it. I love her facial expressions as she eats, she's too cute!


Despite the sprinkles coming down, after lunch the kids decided to get in the pool. Jaron was a little hesitant at first because he said the water was too cold. Instead he just had fun hitting his friends with the noodle. I told him if he didn't get in the pool I was going to push him in. I started walking towards him and then he jumped in.


I wanted a picture of all the kids together before they all got crazy and this is what I ended up with. I absolutely love this picture! Jantzen was being a stinker and didn't want to be by the rest of the kids for the picture, so I thought, "whatever"! What he was really doing was getting ready to make this picture the best. He jumped off the ladder into the pool right as I was taking the picture, it was perfect timing! I love how he's perfectly posed as he's jumping in the pool with his noodle in hand. That kid makes me laugh so hard sometimes.


The kids had a blast playing in the pool. I had to do some fun editing in the top picture because Kennedy dove in the water right as I took the picture and the result was a picture of her toosh. I didn't want to embarrass her, so I added a smiley face to cover it...pretty cute, huh?



After playing in the pool for a little while, the rain started coming down harder. I thought the kids would get out and not want to swim anymore, but I think it made it more fun for them. Nothing was going to ruin their fun in the pool.

Here's Jaron and Jace having a noodle war, or should I say, Jaron beating Jace up with the noodle...


Then, Jaron had a splashing war with Kaiden...


While Jaron was having wars in the pool with his friends, Jantzen was playing on the trampoline with Sadie and Tate and they were having a blast! Jantz was loving the fact that the trampoline was wet from the rain, it made it slippery for him to slide around on.



Jaron saw that they were having a lot of fun on the trampoline, so he decided to join them...


...then Jace joined them and they all bounced all over the place. I got some really good pictures of the kids up in the air...


A little bit later the light saber battles began. Jantz and Tate battled on the trampoline, while Jaron and the rest of his friends battled on the patio...




It didn't take too long for the older kids to want to battle on the trampoline too, so they all moved over there. It did get a little crazy a few times with so many kids battling each other, but fortunately there weren't any injuries.


About a half hour before the party was over the sun and blue skies decided to come out, just in time for Jaron to open presents...


Jaron got some really fun gifts from his friends this year. They all know him so well because he was so excited and loved everything he got.

He got a light up light saber from Jace and a "Harry Potter" Lego set from Kennedy, Sadie, and Tate...


He got a new "BeyBlade" from Keagan, money and his favorite brownies from Sierra, and a new "Nerf" water gun from Kaiden.


After Jaron was done opening his presents, we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and had cupcakes. What a cheeser Jaron is for the camera!


While we waited for parents to come, the kids had some more light saber battles on the trampoline. This time they only battled two at a time, Sadie kept beating everyone...poor boys, being beat by a girl is so humiliating.


The party ended up going good and was a lot of fun for the kids despite the flashes of rain. I'm glad everything turned out so well and that everyone had a good time, I had fun planning it all. It's nice that Jaron has such awesome friends that he can celebrate his birthday with. Thank you everyone that came..."Happy Birthday Jaron"!