Star Wars Party (3&11yr) Star Wars Cantina

This year I threw a Star Wars party for my 2 sons who were turned 11 & 3. 

For the invitations we printed the following message in "jedi" font on "opal rain" transparent paper, which has a glittery background.  We increased the font size on each line to mimic the scrolling text at the beginning of the movies.  "STAR WARS  EPISODE 3 1/2   THE REBEL ALLIANCE NEEDS YOUR HELP. JOIN JEDI MASTER R (I GAVE MY SONS JEDI NAMES HERE) AND HIS PADAWAN APPRENTICE T  IN CELEBRATING THEIR BIRTHDAYS BY RESCUING THE GALAXY FROM THE EVIL GALACTIC EMPIRE.  FIRST YOU WILL CONSTRUCT YOURSELF A LIGHTSABER THE WEAPON OF A JEDI KNIGHT.  THEN WILL BEGIN YOUR TRAINING.  RECEIVE GALACTIC CREDITS BY BUILDING A POD RACER AND WINNING THE RACE AT THE MOS ESPA ARENA.  THEN YOU WILL SEEK OUT JEDI MASTER YODA, WHO WILL GUIDE YOU IN YOUR MISSION.  RENDEZVOUS AT (THE PARTY ADDRESS HERE) MONTH:   DATE:    YEAR:  TIME:   SEE ENCLOSED TECHNICAL READ-OUT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."  This invitation we rolled up into metalic silver mailing tubes along with a second page which had the directions to the party, rsvp information, and a reminder to bring this lightsaber handle (the mailing tube) with them to the rendezvous point.  They would need it in their quest.

Because the weather report called for rain, we decorated a posterboard that read "Welcome to Kamino.  Climate: Constant Storms   Terrain:  Ocean World"  which we pasted a photo of Kamino with the torrential downpours, and mounted on an easel just outside the entrance to the party.  We hung yellow and gold balloons, and streamers along with a mylar Darth Vader balloon, and covered all the tables with black tablecloths sprayed with adhesive and sprinked them with silver star confetti.  

When the guests arrived we provided them with a 3' length of foam pipe insulation to make lightsabers from, along with the handles they brought with them, and let them choose from blue, red, green or purple duct tape to cover the foam.  We laminated the following sign at this table:  STATION 1 CONSTRUCT A LIGHTSABER THIS IS THE WEPON OF A JEDI KNIGHT.  NOT AS CLUMSY OR RANDOM AS A BLASTER.  AN ELEGANT WEAPON FOR A MORE CIVILIZED AGE BRING YOUR LIGHTSABER HANDLE HERE TO CONTRUCT YOUR LIGHTSABER.  CHOOSE YOUR COLOR: RED, BLUE, GREEN, OR PURPLE. 

The next station was the pod race.  The laminated sign at this station read: STATION 2 POD RACE TODAY AT THE MOS ESPA ARENA- WIN GALACTIC CREDITS!! ATTACH THE CORK ENGINES TO YOUR POD RACER USING THE COLORED PIPE CLEANERS.  THEN LAUNCH YOUR POD DOWN THE RACE TRACK TO WIN Each guest received a foam rocket launcher which they attached cork "engines" with colored pipe cleaners to make a pod-racer.  They had to launch their pod down the length of the table and knock a picture of Sebulba off the other end.  For winning the pod race each guest receive 500 galactic credits, which we used from an old Star Wars Monopoly game.  Then the kids would speak to Yoda (a talking Yoda doll) 

The sign read: STATION 3 YODA'S QUEST FOLLOW YOUR DESTINY YOU MUST,  BUT ONLY A FULLY TRAINED JEDI KNIGHT WITH THE FORCE AS HIS ALLY WILL CONQUER VADER AND HIS EMPEROR.  YOU MUST RETURN TO COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING.  SQUEEZE YODA'S HAND.  IF HE SPEAKS OF THE FORCE YOU MUST TAKE A QUEST 1" CARD AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.  IF HE SPEAKS OF ANYTHING ELSE YOU MUST TAKE A QUEST 2" CARD AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. The following messages were printed on the quest cards: QUEST 1 TRAVEL TO YAVIN 4 (STATION 4) AND HELP THE REBELS IN THEIR ATTACK ON THE IMPERIAL DEATH STAR QUEST 2 TRAVEL TO NABOO (STATION 5) AND HELP THE GUNGANS BATTLE THE DROID ARMY  They squeezed Yoda's hand.  If he spoke of the force the kids would go to Station 4 to destroy the Death Star.

The sign here read: STATION 4 QUEST 1- ATTACK ON THE DEATH STAR- YAVIN 4 USE THE FORCE TO GUIDE YOUR PROTON TORPEDO INTO THE EXHAUST PORT.  A DIRECT HIT WILL TRIGGER A CHAIN REACTION, DESTROYING THE DEATH STAR COMPLETELY GUIDE YOUR BALL INTO THE CHUTE TO WIN.  RETURN  TO YODA WITH YOUR WINNINGS AND QUEST CARD TO RECEIVE ANOTHER PRIZE.  Here we covered a long box with Star Wars wrapping paper and decorated the inside with silver glitter to look like the death star trench.  The kids would use "the force" to guide their "proton torpedo" (a foam ball) down the trench into the "exhaust port" (a hole we cut into the bottom of the box. We gave out Chewbacca spin pops and Yoda keychains as prizes. If Yoda did not speak of the force the kids would move to station 5 (Naboo) and help the Gungans battle the droid Army. 

The sign read:  STATION 5 QUEST 2- GUNGANS BATTLE THE DROID ARMY-NABOO DESTROY THE BATTLE DROID ARMY BY FIRING YOUR GUNGAN ENERGY BALLS AT IT DESTROY THE DROID ARMY.  RETURN TO YODA WITH YOUR WINNINGS AND QUEST CARD TO RECEIVE ANOTHER PRIZE Here they would toss Gungan Energy balls (blue water balloons colored with metalic purple fabric paint) at photo of the droid army we had laminated.  The kids got galaxy water tubes as prizes.  After completing their quest they returned to Yoda to "complete their training" and received another prize (a light up wand)   Before the kids could attack the "second deadly Death Star" (A pinata that we made and decorated with silver and black glitter) they had to duel with Darth Vader. Meaning they had to use their lightsabers to knock down a cardboard Darth Vader stand up.

We taped a sign to Vader which read:  STATION 6 DUEL WITH DARTH VADER THE FORCE IS WITH YOU BUT YOU ARE NOT A JEDI YET.  BEFORE YOU CAN DESTROY THE EMPEROR AND THE SECOND DEADLY DEATH STAR YOU MUST FACE VADER KNOCK DOWN DARTH VADER WITH YOUR LIGHTSABER TO WIN THE DUEL  We filled the pinata with Star Wars themed M&M's light sticks little alien toys, and the Millenium Falcon and Star Destroyer playing pieces from the star wars Monopoly game.  The following sign hung from the pinata: YOU HAVE REDEEMED DARTH VADER AND VANQUISHED THE EMPEROR.  NOW  BREAK OPEN THE PINATA TO RESTORE PEACE TO THE GALAXY 

Then the kids got to spend their galactic credits at the Star Wars cantina where a laminated menu offered Darth Malts (red hawaiian punch & vanilla ice cream) Yoda Sodas (green hawaiin punch with lemon/lime soda) lightsaber pretzel rods (pretzel rods dipped in melted chocolate & sprinkled with red, blue or green glitter sprinkles and tinfoil around the handle) bottled water and Han Solo Hoagies, with "Galactic credits gladly accepted" printed on the menu. The cake was a brown cake with an orange river of lava running down the center, upside down sugar cones for volcanoes around the sides, 

We had "Galactic Heroes" action figures of Obi-Wan Kenobi and "dark side" Anakin.  Obi-wan standing on a brownie in the lava, and Anakin standing on an upside-down peanut butter cup.  The kids watched Episode 3 and ate their cake and strawberry revel ice-cream, with light-up lightsaber spoons that we collected from cereal boxes.  Before they left the kids got Star Wars goodie bags, with Darth Vader blowers, yo-yo's m&m's mini lightsaber tubes, star wars stickers, trading cards tatoos and pez dispensers (all star-wars themed).  We had a great time and the kids really loved all the activites.  It was a great party.