A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away.....

Growing up, I watched the Star Wars movies with my dad.  I loved the stories of adventure and good vs. evil and silly characters like a worrisome droid named C3P0 and then Luke whose father turned out to be one of the worst guys in the entire universe.  I mean, what would you do if you found out that your father aided in the great massacre of the Jedi Knights?

In the last year, we have let Tommy watch the original three movies and he quickly fell in love with the Star Wars stories too.  We have saber battles and fly invisible space ships on a regular basis in our house.  And you should have seen the shock and horror on his face when he found out that Darth Vader turned out to be Luke's father.  He kept saying, "Darth Vader is his dad!" 

Naturally, when all of the talk began about his big 5th birthday party, he quickly changed his mind from wanting a dinosaur party to having a Star Wars party instead.  And being the Star Wars fan that I am, I was totally okay with this.  It was probably harder for me to reign myself in because I was the one who wanted to go all out.

Yesterday, I finally got to see my vision for his Star Wars party play out.  It was probably my most favorite birthday party of all time - and it has to be, because we've told Tommy it's his last "big" birthday party for awhile.  After all, five is a huge milestone in a kid's life.  I mean, it's like half of ten.

Decorations were a blast to make.  I started with a big back-drop that I made from two black plastic table cloths.  Todd's mom splattered them with white paint to look like stars.  The Star Wars logo was just cut out from cardboard and painted.

Of course I had several Pinterest hacks like making Imperial fighter ships out of black paper lanterns and scrapbook paper.  I love how they turned out but I can't say the same for my X-wing which wasn't nearly as successful.  Even Tommy said it looked like an X-wing but it wasn't very good.  As I was hot gluing a red solo cup on to a cheap paper lantern I had to wonder what George Lucas would think if he saw what I was doing.

The food was creatively named after characters in the movie.  Like Chewbacca's Chips and Dip, Ewokookies, Vader Veggies, Jabba the Hutt Dogs, Luke Skywater, Yoda Soda and my personal favorite Obi-Wan Kabobies, which was nothing more than fruit on skewers.

My awesome friend Meghann made an R2D2 cake.  There was no way I could have done that with icing - she is amazing.  And my birthday party hero for making it happen.

We played "Destroy the Death Star", though really the kids just hit a pinata that was once a soccerball pinata - I spray painted it gray and put duct tape on it so it looked Death Star-ish. I was most proud of that idea because Pinterest didn't tell me to do it.  It was an original idea and everything.

Todd's dad came dressed as Darth Vader and all of the kids wanted to play with him.  He was such a good sport about it because some of the boys got a little carried away and were determined to take him down for real.

I even got into the spirit and dressed Jedi-ish.  With accessories and everything.   Naturally.

Tommy had informed me before the party that he was planning on being a Jedi but turning to the dark side at his party because he was done being a Jedi.  And sure enough - he did.

Tommy was loaded up with plenty of Star Wars gear and Legos galore and even a new bike.  It was pretty much the best 5th birthday party in the history of the entire galaxy.  

And now, we have a five year old.  A soon-to-be Kindergartender.  I'm not exactly sure where these five years have gone, but I'm pretty sure it goes by as quickly as they say it does.  Because it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was holding Tommy in his footed sleepers and singing him to sleep and now he's this big boy that loves Star Wars and is starting to read and can count to 100 and even has future wife picked out.

Tommy is smart, tender-hearted, cautious, playful, energetic, creative, imaginative and he loves music just like me.  I'm so proud to be his mama.  Celebrating his life, making a big deal out of his birthday, will always be one of my greatest joys because he is one of my greatest gifts.

I love you Jedi Tommy.  Oops, I mean Darth Tommy.  Jedi or dark side, I do love you so.

Top 10 Reasons I Haven't Been Blogging

1)  It's summer.  It's my favorite.  I'm busy having fun and doing summer things and living and playing and being and enjoying.

2)  I used to be able to blog at work ages ago - I can't do that now.

3)  My computer at home is slow and the keyboard is wonky and sitting down in front of it literally kills my creative.  Hence the very nature of this post.

4)  Jacob still doesn't let me pee by myself much less sit in front of the computer without him.

5)  Because I can't blog on my smartphone.

6)  Because I've been writing in journals and writing up story plots and developing characters - true story.

7)  I'm also knee deep in Star Wars party decorations.  Like Imperial fighter ships made from round paper lanterns.

8)  My computer is stupid - have I mentioned that?

9)  Because I really need a laptop and I totally don't have one.

10)  I don't really have 10 reasons, but it sounded much better than 8.

I'll be back to regular blogging soon.  But I might need to tell that to my sad, slow computer.

Independence Day

Have you ever tried explaining freedom to a five-year old?  Yeah, you should give that a whirl sometime.  It was hard explaining to Tommy what our big 4th of July holiday was all about and why I was making everyone dress in red, white and blue and why Daddy didn't have to work and why they shot fireworks off in the sky.

Someday he will grasp and understand the meaning behind why we celebrate every July 4th.  Someday he will know what freedom is and know how our country began and why this day is such a big deal.  For now though he enjoyed his burgers and playing with his friends.

I discovered yesterday that my littlest firecracker is a water baby just like me.  He loved being in the pool and playing and it was clear he was ready to take off on his own and do his own thing in the water. 

We had a late afternoon rain storm yesterday and thought our fireworks-watching plans were going to be washed out.  Thankfully, it passed over the place we were heading to and we got to see another amazing display out at Lake McQueeney with our friends - the same place we went last year. Even Jacob was into them and watched the whole show with us.

This year I am grateful for my little family, friends to celebrate with, my freedom, and my little nest I call home in this country.