As I said, the Jedi training was the main focus of the party. We did this for the second hour and the kids had an absolute blast. Just look at their faces in these pictures!
We had a wonderful friend from our church come and be our Jedi master. Bill is pretty funny in real life, so I knew he would be perfect for this. He did not disappoint!!
The kids started out doing stretches to get them ready for the strenuous training. They all took this so seriously!!
He then had my nephew, who was his "Young Paduan," to demonstrate push-ups for strengthening exercises. For some reason, the Jedi master didn't want to demonstrate them himself...
I have to say, it's pretty funny watching these kids, who are mostly 6 and under, trying to do push-ups!
Next came the team-building activities, which went over the kids' heads a little. Bill realized this and simplified things a bit, but the kids were hysterical to watch!
Now came time for the Light Saber Ceremony. Each child was given a light saber, which each color symbolizing a character trait. I can't remember what Bill said for each one, but it was something like red is bravery, blue is honor, and green is strength. The kids ate it up and no one complained about getting a certain color! :)
Next, the Jedi master taught the kids sword positioning, and even had names for the different positions.
They took turns throwing their light saber at a poster of Darth Vader, darts-style. My four year old nephew won the prize for the most direct hits! He's got a future as a Jedi...or a darts player!
After a bit of one-on-one sparring to practice their moves, we had a dueling tournament. We had two groups of two going at once, and I timed each battle for one minute. We had "touch counters" who counted how many times each person was touched with the light saber. The person in the pair with the lesser amount of touches was the winner, and we continued with the tournament.
We tested out the light sabers ahead of time and whacked each other pretty hard (getting out some marital aggression!) to make sure the kids wouldn't get hurt. So we knew they were safe!!
Just look at the smiles of these kids during their battles!
Cousin-on-cousin here! These boys are just 3 months apart!
Completely coincidentally, the finalists were brothers! Just look at the snarl on Andrew's (who is 2 years older than Jacob) face! These boys are also experienced with light sabers, having had many battles of their own at home!
Despite his size and age, 5 year old Jacob beat Andrew and won the championship! His signature move was the spin-and-swing, which he did often while yelling out a battle cry.
Paduan Owen didn't get to be part of the championship, but the Jedi Master and Matt took him on. I think they may have won... :)
The fun turned sour when Darth Vader crashed the party though...Stay tuned!! :)
Comments
How fun!! I have to hand it to your "Jedi Master".... What a trooper he was!! ;)
The kids threw their light sabers at Darth Vader's picture? Awesome!! ;-D
Wait. What?! Darth Vader "crashed the party"? I cannot wait to read all about that!! ;-}
--Raelyn