The Journey of the Mighty Quinn & Scarlett Begonia: Star Wars 6th Birthday Party

On August 5th, we had Quinn's official birthday party. The theme this year was Star Wars and I got lots of great ideas off the internet. Thanks to both sets of grandparents, (who spoil their grandkids) for hunting down pool noodles and a cool Darth Vader mask in the States and mailing them to us.

This was probably the easiest party I have done so far. As soon as the kids arrived they selected a pool noodle light saber and the battling began and never stopped (except for short periods to eat). The Japanese children didn't really know Star Wars, or lightsabers but instinctively knew to hit each other with them. (Neal and I had practiced beating on each other to make sure no one would get hurt.)

Then we had the coolest visitor, Darth Vader. Quinn was thrilled, excited and surprised. He said, "That's what I wanted at my birthday, Thanks Mom." Again the Japanese kids didn't really know Darth Vader but their Mom's did and the cameras were going wild. Only one child cried and Scarlett was scared but didn't cry. As the night went on Scarlett said, "I don't like DV", then "I like DV, a little", and by the end of the night, "I like DV a lot. and I want DV to come to my birthday".

A side note about Darth and how we got him to come. Last Halloween while trick or treating Darth was standing out at a house down the street which ended up being someone Neal knows. It ended up being a friend of the guy Neal knows and we asked if he would come and he said yes. It takes him an hour to dress up and he didn't want us to pay him. In the end his payment was a bottle of Jack Daniels... sweet deal all around.

The homemade Death Star pinata survived a lot more kids than I had thought. In the end it was the strings that broke. But everyone loved trying on their own Darth Vader mask and the candy, of course.

Quinn was exhausted by the time we cleaned up and headed home (around 8:30pm). He went through his gifts and curled up on the couch with a blanket.

It was hard to pick pictures for this post ... so many good ones. But I hope you all enjoy them. We wish all of our family and friends from around the globe could have been here to help celebrate.