LEGO STAR WARS Party Ideas

Legos and Star Wars.  What else could a first grade boy want for his birthday??

I am totally living vicariously here, since I don't have little boys.  Legos are super cool.  Period.  Legos I get.  But I must admit, I have not understood little boys' fascination with Star Wars until I started looking online for party ideas.  I mean, Star Wars has a lot to offer kids.  Good vs Evil.  Other planets.  Awesome space age technology- complete with ridiculously powerful ships and droids.  I totally want a droid to follow me around.

LIGHT SABERS!!!!!  Enough said.

So, let's stick with light sabers for a sec.  In my opinion, no Star Wars party can be complete without light sabers.  This is a perfect favor idea, and it also doubles as entertainment during the party.  And look at these, made with pool noodles (which are probably on clearance right now!):

I got this pic from Aimee Austin Deisgns.  She has some great ideas one there.  She also sells the invites, so if invitation creations are not your thing, you should check her site out.

Speaking of invitations, I do like to make my own.  If I were going to make these, I would probably head to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and pick up some of this lego scrapbook paper.  I would use that for a mat around the actual invitation.  If you have Star Wars Lego pieces, I think it would be super fun to have your little one design a scene for you to snap a picture of and use for the border or the top of the invite.  I think this would be a great way to give your child ownership.  If that's too time consuming, you could just find an unlicensed photo online by searching "Star Wars Lego" images.  You can easily make this in MS Word.  Just paste the picture at the top.  If you want a starry background, similar to Aimee Austin's, you could print the invite onto black starry paper, but be sure to use white lettering.

**One benefit of giving yourself several weeks to work on the invitations, other than the obvious time management plus, is that you can wait for Hobby Lobby to put their scrapbook paper on half price- which seems to happen every few weeks.

On to the cake....I love serving cupcakes because you don't have to take time to cut the cake, no extra plates and forks are needed, and they are easy to make ahead of time and freeze.  You can also spread them out on a table to maximize their use as decor, similar to the penguin scene we did here:

I would probably ice the cupcakes in primary colors (preferably using natural dyes).  You could use Lego candies to top them and intersperse them on a table with Star Wars Lego figures to create a fun scene.  In the picture below, we used a white tablecloth with small boxes underneath in some spots to provide depth.  For Legos, I would probably use a red tablecloth or black.  If you don't have one, I would send an email to friends before buying one.

For favors, I like the light sabers mentioned above.  But if you also like to hand the kids something as they walk out the door, you could easily fill a baggie with a handful or two of bulk Lego pieces with a printed label that says, "May the Force Be With You.  Thanks for sharing Ryan's 7th birthday with him!"  If you decide to do a pinata, you could fill it with the bulk Lego pieces and some candy.

Entertainment for this party is simple enough.  I would use those bulk Lego pieces and put them on a building table.  You can throw your kid's Legos there, too, as they will all stay with you when the kids leave.  The light sabers above will also keep the kids having fun.

For decor, you could cover the walls of the party room with black bulletin board paper, similar to the graffiti wall I mentioned in a previous post.  If you have a disco ball, or can borrow one, and some strobe lights, you could make the room dark (the black paper with help with that) to lend itself to the inter-galactic world feel.  Glow in the dark stars would make this effect even cooler, and could be bought in bulk and used in favor bags or the pinata also.  A soundtrack would be great as background music for the party.  Again, I would think about borrowing the music from the library or a friend if possible.

Have I left anything out?  If you have any ideas for Star Wars Lego parties, please share them here!

Party Favor Idea!

These are sooo cute!  What a fun and useful party favor idea- I wouldn't mind having on for myself either!

On sale, BUILT NY Munchler Lunch Bag - Meadow, at amazon right now for between 6-7 dollars, these would make a great favor for a small party.  These bags are pretty green, with high safety standards-lead free, yada, yada.  There are a few varieties: pink panda, black and white dog, and the green bunny.  The bunny and panda also qualify for free shipping!

A sharpie message on the inside strap saying, "Thanks for coming to Brittany's party" would make these a fun and functional favor for any party.

Of course, I found out about this sale from hip2save.  If you aren't a subscriber yet, why not??

Pirate Favors: Captain's Logs and DIY Pirate Patches

So...last week, I found some awesome pirate hats to use for favors.  They were on sale BOGO free, and on clearance to boot, so I got them for about $2.50 apiece (originally $19.99 apiece).  Not bad!  But..since my goal is $3 per favor, I am going to have to get creative with the other things...

To make matters trickier,  I found these adorable notebooks in the clearance bin at Michael's a couple of weeks ago and couldn't resist. I also found pirate foam stickers and used a 50% off coupon to get them for around $3. Those will double as decor and a way to personalize the notebooks.   I can throw the extra ones in the treasure chest as more loot. The books were a dollar apiece...which means...I am already over budget.

But considering how fun those hats are, and how cute these "Captain's Log" notebooks will be, I am ok with it.  The hat will serve as the container for the favors, and the inside of the notebooks will be a great place to stick my signature, "Thanks for coming to Monkey's 6th birthday party" labels.

And besides, 3 dollars was mighty ambitious anyway.  However, since we do tend to have a houseful of kids, I am going to try to make the rest of the favors with stuff we have.  AND to make it FUN, I plan to get the girls involved.  HINT: Since I am planning way ahead, I have plenty of time to get creative and go back to the drawing board without having to give up one some of my ideas or go way over budget.

So, I still need pirate eye patches.  And the ones Monkey picked out were almost $2 apiece.  What's a girl to do?  Google it, of course.  A quick "Make Your Own Pirate Eye Patches" brought up this awesome how-to. To make Monkey fall in love with these more than the ones see saw online, I plan to bring out the glitter paint and gems- what can girl resist that?

A true planner knows that half the fun is in planning all the details, and making these with my girls will be a great lead up to the party.

The moral of the story:  Plan ahead; plan well ahead.  But don't be afraid to veer from your plans when something serendipitous comes along.  And always leave a little wiggle room in the budget for those awesome finds you just can't pass up!

Save Money on Favors by Planning Ahead: More Pirate Finds!

One of the perks of planning your parties in advance is that you have plenty of time for great deals to fall into your lap!

For Monkey's pirate party, I am on the look out for a cute pirate outfit for her, as well as favors for her guests.

If you don't know about Hip2Save, you should really put it in your arsenal of deal finders! In her daily deals email today, Collin listed a great clearance sale at Costume Express where I found this adorable pirate hat on clearance for $4.99, down from $19.99. These would make fun favors and would serve as perfect photo props at the party! These are already on clearance for $4.99, but with their BOGO sale, I can get them for $2.50 apiece!

Here's how to find the best deals on those sites. First, put in your search. In my case, "pirate." Then, find where the website asks how you want to sort: "Sort By:" and sort by low price. This will allow you to quickly search for any great deals, without having to look through dozens of pages.

Last week, the cheapest pirate costume I found for Monkey was 24.99, and it wasn't pink, which is a real problem in our house. Today, on this site, I found this adorable PINK PIRATE costume for $14.99. And with the BOGO, I can add one for Squeaker for free. Woo hoo!

See how easy it is when you plan ahead?

You try it! Think about Halloween costumes or the next birthday theme and check out the website above, or just google your theme + clearance. Let me know if you find anything awesome!

More Favor Ideas: Penguin Party

Squeaker was obsessed with penguins (still is) and chose to have a penguin party for her 3^rdbirthday. It was lots of fun, but the favors were my favorite part!

Inside these cute little black bags, decorated with foam stickers by Bridget (thanks Bridget!), were detailed instructions on how to bathe like a penguin:

Included with the instructions were homemade bath salts, penguin shaped soap, organic fish shaped fruit snacks (all consumable/non-clutter, earth friendly/non-toxic, and fun), and these penguin washcloths found at Target (useful- all kids bathe!, earth friendly, and fun). All 3 of my goals were met! The only thing I would do differently next time is to wrap everything inside the washcloths, so I wouldn't have to use paper bags.

This was lots of fun to make and cost only a few dollars per favor. The guests seemed to like it- some of the kids went home and jumped straight into the bath, and every time the kids use their washcloths, they can remember Squeaker's fun party.

Brainstorming Party Favors For Pirates

When I start thinking of party favors, I have 3 goals to meet:

1. It should be something useful versus clutter
   
2. It should be as earth friendly as possible
   
3. It should still be fun and not too practical- this is the challenging part
   

So, today I'm brainstorming pirate party favors for Monkey's upcoming 6^th birthday party. We're going to have a treasure hunt as the main entertainment, and each child will have some loot in the chest upon digging it up. I want to have individually labeled favors in the chest, mainly because I'm not a fan of the free for all that occurs when little ones see a pile of goodies. We're going to be pretending to be pirates and all, but I don't want any looting and would prefer that no one lose an eye and actually need those cute eye patches they're getting.

To meet goal one, I try to think of things that all kids use and enjoy- and that doesn't include any tiny little plastic creatures or figures that I can never find a place for in the playroom. (My friend Julie has a box that I'm pretty sure is labeled something like, "Plastic trinkets that don't go anywhere else," which I think is ingenious but I'd still rather not go there). It can get tricky because I still want to follow my theme and not many kids that I know, thank goodness, actually need pirate gear. My sister orchestrated a treasure hunt not long ago with the girls and her loot was fantastic, so I plan to steal a couple of those ideas. She is awesome about respecting our families whole food, non-toxic, very little plastic, very little sugar lifestyle and she clearly put some time into coming up with some great pirate booty that meets all those criteria. Yes, she's amazing.

So first we'll have a captain's log. It will be a small journal the kids can write or draw in. It will have a label inside that will say something to the effect of, "Pirate captains use their log books to record things they observe (like good places to bury their treasures), want to remember (like where they buried their treasure), and people they meet (so they know who knows where the treasure is buried). To make it more whimsical and a reminder of Monkey's birthday party, I will probably have a picture of her dressed as a pirate on the label also. My two girls have been carrying their log books around and recording in them since digging them up, and being a former writing teacher, I love to watch them practice writing! Useful- check! Earth friendly- check! Especially since I plan to find ones made of recycled paper! Fun- check! My girls love having notebooks like Mommy's and these are going to be pirated and whimsical to boot.

Because pirates need certain attire to get into character, there will also be eye patches. I was thinking pink for the girls and red for the boys, Monkey wants white?!? ones, and Sarita (the sister) suggests black for all. Not sure who will win that battle. I want to have one more piece of pirate flair to adorn the kiddos, and I thought about pirate hooks or jewels but decided against both. First, the hooks are sure to reek of plastic fumes and are sure to become clutter and may actually take an eye out. Second, the jewels are likely only to be interesting to the girls and the younger boys (aka siblings) and I don't want to have to come up with a similar but equal counterpart to the jewelry for the boys. I found these really cute pirate bandanas that I thought would serve as a cute photo op when the kiddos have them on with their eye patches, and they will also solve the container issue. I plan to personalize them with the kiddos' names and use them to hold the rest of the loot inside the chest. That way, each kiddo will have their own package and I don't have to use bags that will be tossed in a landfill to contain the goodies. Talk about win/win! Useful- check! They will serve as part of the décor and photo-ops for the party and our friends still love dressing up. Earth friendly- check. I'm sure these will be made of plastic, but at least they will be used more than once. Fun- check! Dressing up is always fun- even for adults. I plan to be decked out in pirate gear for this bash!

Sarita insists that there be gold doubloons, which I am against, mainly because I don't really feel like kids need candy on top of cake. But I am reasonable and plan to put a couple in there also- which will make the burying of the treasure trickier since we live in Texas where things like chocolate doubloons melt rather quickly. No matter, I found a treasure chest cooler that we can bury the treasure in and then use for our Pirates of the Guadalupe trips down the river. Luckily, Whole Foods makes some chocolate coins without all the disgusting hydrogenated oils in them. Useful- eh. You can't win 'em all. Earth friendly- check... At least the coins from Whole Foods will be toxin free. Fun- check! I mean, kids love candy.

My last concern is to keep the price down for the favors, especially because our parties always end up rather large, no matter how small we dream of keeping them. Actually, I am a sucker for a full house and love all the excitement! So, with the loot I have chosen thus far, each favor will cost about six dollars apiece (2 for bandanas, 1.50 for eye patches, 1 for the notebook, and 1 for the candy), but my goal is to get that down to 3 before we're finished. To do that, I will be on the lookout for coupons and free shipping to the party favor sites that have the loot, and I will be on the lookout for cheap notebooks. Since I plan to deconstruct the journals in order to make them captain's logs, I can use any old journal and may even see if I have some floating around the house. I will need about 30 when all is said and done, but they don't have to all be the same, as each will be unique in the end anyway. I also love to send out emails to friends and my mom's club asking for any supplies they might have but not want. I always get great responses! So, I'll be emailing for extra notebooks in the near future. I consider this win/win because it saves me time and money, and it helps my friends de-clutter their spaces. Boy, are they lucky to have me!

Kids also like to walk out the door with something, so I plan to have some individual pirate's booty snacks with some navigational glow in the dark star stickers for the kiddos to grab on the way out. So, those will be another 2 dollars apiece when all is said and done. I do have some leftover glow in the dark stars, so if I can find a few more from friends that have leftovers too, this will be less moola too!

What are some useful and economical favor ideas you've come up with? I'd love to hear your ideas! Happy favoring!