Happy Halloween!
Just a quick pop in here to say Happy Halloween from Little Princess Leia and her clone trooper bodyguard!
Have a safe one trick or treating tonight!
*Updating this post with one of the whole Star Wars family!*
Tag Archives: star wars
Fake Cupcakes – The Star Wars Kind
I know. Fake cupcakes just sounds bad on so many levels. However, I had to work within narrow limitations for my son’s birthday celebration at school. Since his school has a “no sweets” policy, I tried to still give him a cake of sorts for his class party.
Remember my Lego Advent Calendar? Well it turns out that most of the 24 days consisted of these cute little miniature Star Wars battleships!
They are simple to put together and are made up of small but very few pieces. I was actually going to hunt down these pieces and pull them together for the contents of each cupcake, but I found out that most minifigure collectors had bought the Advent Calendar set specifically for the 6 figures that came with it and were selling the ships (unopened) for about $1 each on Ebay. That made my life a lot simpler! I ordered enough ships for the entire class (and a couple leftover).
Each ship came unassembled and with its corresponding instructions. I cut up the instruction card so that it would fit at the bottom of the cupcake liner. I stuck it to the bottom with some tape.
Then I just used some tissue and ribbon to package up the pieces of the ship. I fluffed out the top of the tissue and curled the ribbon to make it look like icing and sprinkles. Ha!
They were real easy to make and I finished all 22 in less than an hour while the babe slept.
Next I had to figure out how to stick a candle in somewhere. Since these cupcakes were made of tissue, I needed some kind of elevated stand for the candle… I went on a hunt in Rex’s room and came away with this. One of his many creations.
I was trying to figure out a cool way for the Clone Trooper to hold the candle but was pretty tapped out of ideas by then. So I just taped the candle to his back! Haha 
I taped the Lego plate that the ship and troopers were on directly to the platter and arranged the “cupcakes” all around it. Voila! My fake cupcakes that passed the school guidelines for no sweet treats!
I brought it to school during snack time for them to sing happy birthday to my little man. He was a little embarrassed by all the attention.
The kids were all excited to get one! I think the fact that they knew it was a toy (and a Lego toy at that) made them forget that the cupcakes were fake!
This trick definitely works better on kids (or adults) who prefer Lego toys over cupcakes!
Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar Refashioned
About 3 years ago we started the tradition of the Advent Calendar during the Christmas season. Over the course of the 3 years we’ve customized it to tailor to what my little boy is into. This is his favorite part of December. And it also makes it easier to get to Christmas when you have something to look forward to every day.
Last year I bought the Playmobil Police Advent Calendars. It wasn’t the prettiest of things. It came in a box with perforated “windows” you could punch out and open each day.
This year I found a Lego Star Wars one on Amazon! Here’s the link to it if any of you have a little Star Wars fan in your family. I ordered it immediately.
I had already decided I didn’t want the box with it’s perforated windows to house the cute little ships and minifigs that it came with. It was just visually unappealing to me!
So I scoured pinterest for some ideas for alternate and unusual ways to create an advent calendar of sorts. Here is what I came up with using stuff I already had in my home.
I found some green fabric and cut them up using my pinking shears (one of my purchases using my 50% off coupon at Michaels!) into 10″ squares.
I cut up some red ribbon to use for ties. You can add ribbon-problem along with my glitter, paints, pretty papers, glue problem. I am a sucker for way too many craft supplies
To make the tags I found some card stock and used my 1″ hole punch to make 24 circle cards. I also cut up some 2″ square cards to glue the circles on them. I thought about printing the numbers out before cutting them up but it was just too tedious. So I just wrote out the numbers myself
I cut out each numbered door and matched them to the ship/minifig. Since they were not in order, I left them in the tray to keep them organized while I worked
I glued the numbered circle to each square card, attached the corresponding numbered door to the back of the card (each door had instructions on how to put the pieces together), punched a hole and strung my ribbon through
Then I just placed the shuttle/ship/minifig in the center of a piece of fabric and tied it up into a neat bow. Voila! My prototype!
Once I was satisfied with the way it looked I started assembling the rest of the 23 little fabric “bags”. I thought it would go much faster but 24 is A LOT of bags to put together!
It took me two days since I could only work on them while Rex was in school! But I finally finished
I purchased 3 potted poinsettia plants and placed them on our shelf in the kitchen. I spread out the bags around the plants. I love the color theme and how they tie in with the poinsettias. They actually look like leaves around the plants!
Today my impatient little 5yo will get to open the first one! Let’s just say I’m really glad I hadn’t finished this particular craft any earlier than 2 days before Dec 1. I don’t think I could take anymore 5yo bargaining and conniving to figure out how he could open one earlier than the first day of December!
Our Star Wars Halloween
I grew up without ever celebrating Halloween. It was not part of our culture where I’m from. I remember watching all the Halloween festivities with haunted houses, amazing costumes and tons of candy on TV shows and movies enviously. My first Halloween where I got to actually dress up and pick my own pumpkin to carve came when I was about 20 or so after I moved to the US. Well I might as well have been 5. I LOVED it. And every year after that I’ve always dressed up in a costume come October 31st.
Now that I have two young children it’s a whole new world of Halloween fun. Before the kids came I always got Grizz to dress up in cheesy matching couples costumes with me. Yes we were one of THOSE couples. He of course put up with it. I remember one year we even went out as Pocahontas and John Smith! Trust me, if I could have, I would have gone door to door and asked for candy too!
Well guess what? Now I can! Apparently when you have kids with you it’s ok to go trick or treating even if you’re 36. Imagine that. So now, through my amazing children, I get to live this wonderful holiday I never had as if I were 5 again. I thought about bringing a Halloween candy bag to collect my own but decided I’d just “share” Yoda’s 
Every year since my son turned 2 we’ve always had a Halloween family costume theme. And my Grizz always takes a deep breath, puts on whatever I tell him to and we take the kid(s) trick or treating in our neighborhood.
This year I’d like to introduce you to our Halloween 2011 Rebelion Family. Our Storm Trooper niece is actually a rebel spy we used to infiltrate the Sith. And to carry baby Yoda
My young Obi Wan Padawan and I spent most of the day at school for his parade and party
So we were pretty worn out by the time evening came to go trick or treating. Ok maybe it was just me. 5 year olds have amazing amounts of energy (fueled by candy I’m sure) on Halloween.
What made it more fun this year for my Padawan was the fact that he got to go trick or treating with a couple of his buddies from school and their families too.
The BFFs. Quite the unlikely friends. But notice they both wield light sabers!
The stores and their owners on the main drag in our neighborhood are always decked out and ready for the hundreds of kids that start flooding the sidewalks at 5pm. But this is SF. We don’t always get candy. And we trick or treat at the neighborhood nail salons while women are getting pedicures
It was a little overwhelming at first for my Master Yoda
So she stayed close in Master Qui Gon’s arms at first with her Storm Trooper guard close by
And then she got introduced to candy! (Bad daddy!)
It was game over from then on. The child dug into her loot right there on the sidewalk
Padme and the Storm Trooper got into a minor altercation on the sidewalk but quickly resolved their diferences Master Qui Gon and Master Yoda stepped in
I love that we can just walk 2 blocks for some of the best trick or treating in the city.
After collecting as much candy as they could carry the kids and their families all gathered at our place for even more fun and pizza.
I thought Halloween was awesome when I was 20. With my own kids to share it with today it is even more fun than I could have ever imagined as a child. I’m happy that my children are getting to do all things Halloween every year. Especially since I never did.
Happy Halloween From Our Jedis
Happy Halloween from Padawan Obi Wan and Master Yoda!
It’s a busy day for us all. Lots of games and a parade at school that I’m volunteering to help with as well as Trick or Treating tonight! So I will leave you with a peek into what our day is gonna look like.
My little Padawan ready for training and battle
Master Yoda will be overseeing all training and scheduling today
There was some Jedi training to prepare for the big day
I can’t wait to take my Jedi’s trick or treating today. We’ll have more pictures later this week with Grizz and I in costume too. For now I’m off to tackle and enjoy this fun holiday!
Have a great Halloween everyone!
Thank You Note And A Breakfast Walk
Rex’s godmother was here recently and spent the night with us. (He adores her!) She brought him a great Star Wars calendar. Such a perfect gift for him. The woman knows her god-son. Or reads my blog. Either way, he loves it. He wanted to start using it right away unfortunately we have to wait another 3 months before we can start making notes and drawing pictures of important occasions on our new calendar.
He came home from school the day after she left and decided he wanted to write her a thank you card. And no I did not plant the idea in his head. He just decided he wanted to all on his own. So I let him select some tools to make his godmother a card.
Of course he wanted to use his Star Wars stamps along with his alphabet stamps and some markers
He told me what he wanted the card to say. I wrote it out for him on our craft paper lined table. And he copied it word for word all by himself onto the card. Then he started decorating with the stamps. I realized that this whole thank you card thing might have been an excuse to play with his star wars stamps but if it was, it was a good one.
I’ve also noticed he likes to decorate everything the same few ways – Hearts, flowers, stick men and crossing things out with a slash or an “X”. For the colors he either chooses pink. Or orange and black. (He has ALWAYS loved pink)
And of course Jack-Jack wanted to write her own thank you card too.
The child threw the biggest tantrum ever when at first I wouldn’t let her. So in the end to keep the peace and allow my son to make his card without her yanking at him every 2 seconds, I set her up with a couple of washable markers and some paper. That was all she needed and was completely happy with her little art-making-station. So Godma, if you’re reading this, the other paper in there with a whole bunch of *ahem* abstract art, well that’s from Jack-Jack just for you.
After we were finally done with our card (the project took 2 days since my Rex wanted to take breaks and only wanted to work on it when his creativity sparked. Artists! *sigh*) we had to mail it. The closest mailbox in our neighborhood is in front of our favorite bakery. We bundled up and walked up the street for some coffee and breakfast…
…and to mail our card
And no I don’t know the whole look he was going for with his outfit that morning. I asked him about it casually and he mentioned something about being an FBI Police Officer. I didn’t dig any deeper. Hey, it looked like a legitimate FBI Police Officer to me
But then he wanted to switch it to a traffic cop look at one point I think… I don’t question too much anymore. I just enjoy the imagination and creativity his little 5yo mind comes up with whenever I can
We sit and enjoy the warm sun coming up with our apple juice…
…and iPhones
My little gadget-crazed family. I love them with all my heart.
Storm Trooper Luggage Tag
With the start of Kindergarten I’ve learned that my son needs EVERYTHING he takes to school labeled! At preschool there were only 8 kids in his class so his teacher kept track of everything the kids came and left with. Well with a 22:1 child/teacher ratio at kindergarten and 3 kindergarten classes, I definitely could not count on his teacher to keep track of his stuff. And once I learned there was at least one other boy with a Captain Rex lunch box well, I quickly went to work coming up with these luggage name tags!
So I knew I wanted to make something quick and easy, Star Wars themed and out of the foam sheets I had on hand. I decided on luggage tags. At first I thought I would try and draw the Storm Troopers free hand. Ha! My experience making the Star Wars peeps obviously gave me lots of confidence in my Storm Trooper drawing skills! Well I remembered I had ordered these stamps a couple of months ago and decided that it would be much easier to stamp the Storm Trooper helmets than drawing them
I started by creating my template for the tag
Total length I made it was 8″. 2″ square and 6″ strap
Then I stamped my Storm Trooper on. I wasn’t happy with how light the ink was so I went over it again with a permanent marker to give it more definition
Much better ya?
I wrote his name in underneath the image
And to make it more durable I covered it with a clear contact sheet trimmed to size
Ta-da! All done.
I looped it around the handle of his lunch box and hot glued it together. I was a little concerned that the hot glue wouldn’t hold but I’ve yanked hard on it and it seems to be pretty durable. If it comes off I’m going to make the next one using a brad to secure it.
Lots of fun possibilities to personalize this more with the other characters and colors of foam sheets I have. But for now, my Rex knows which lunch box is his!
Oh and I also tagged his backpack!
Bleaching Captain Rex
We really liked our Fathers Day T-Shirts we made so I decided to make us some Star Wars themed ones.
I had picked up this coloring book from Michaels awhile back for a couple of bucks and found it to be a great resource for pictures I could trace and cut from. Definitely better than anything I could find via Google Image search.
I had Rex pick out his favorite ones and got to work
It was pretty easy to trace through the freezer paper since only one side is wax. Soon I had my finished art to start cutting out
The cutting was a little time consuming but I would do it during Jack-Jack’s nap times and while Rex was having a snack or something. Finally I had my stencils done and ironed on ready to be bleached
The sun was shining that day so the bleach grabbed fast. It actually started bleaching my black shirt faster than my little guy’s.
After peeling the paper off and a wash and rinse we have our finished shirts! I love mine so much!
When MY Rex saw how cool mine looked he was upset he had chosen the helmet for his shirt. Of course I had extra shirts. I know better by now. So I let him pick another design and started working again
The second time around I knew I didn’t have to trace every single detail of the picture. I just needed the outline and some minor details that I could cut out to give it shape and structure. It went by much quicker.
This time I decided not to hang it to reduce that “dripped” look that comes from the bleach dripping down when the T-Shirt is hanging. I just laid it down on a flat surface and sprayed the bleach on.
After the wash and rinse we have our new Captain Rex T-Shirt for my fickle 5yo. He’s much happier!
I’ve decided I’m gonna make one for the babe too! I’ve already got the T-Shirt. Now to pick the design… Stay tuned!
The Trade Federation MTT Set
For months both my Rex and I have been saving for this. We finally reached our goal. So this weekend we broke my Lego Fund and emptied his wallet of savings for by far the most elaborate (and expensive) set he now owns.
I have never seen him happier
We’ll post pictures of the finished ship soon. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
The Happy Hour Date
That almost NEVER happens. Seriously, I think the last time we BOTH got to go to happy hour together sans kids while the sun was still up was probably before they were born!
Our niece was able to babysit unusually early one sunny evening so on a whim we decided to skip our movie date and head to happy hour by the water where all the kidless grown-ups hang.
Waterbar!
Oysters and top shelf cocktails. Yep that’s exactly what I was craving.
I had my MLB app running, my current favorite summer sandals on and my hot southern lover giving me smoldering looks.
Yes I was a happy camper
We ordered light food and it arrived quickly while we enjoyed the setting sun reflecting off the bay.
Now if only my date would stay off the phone long enough to pay attention to me… Not sure what happened to all those suggestive looks.
No matter, it would take more than a phone call to mar my happiness over being outside and enjoying the sunny evening without wiping up messes and picking up toys
It did start to get a little chilly after the sun went down so we moved this two-person party indoors next door where it was warmer and had a TV! Yep this was the game where our rookie Crawford had his first-career-hit GRAND SLAM. I totally called it too! Not kidding. It was bases loaded no outs when he came to the plate. Grizz said the rook would find a way to hit into a triple play to end the inning. I called Grand Slam baby. I’d say it was 50-50 one of us was going to be right
Hmm, not sure where that storm trooper snuck in. Hehe. We had hit a Star Wars sale earlier that day and Grizz claimed him and has now decided to bring him along on our date nights. I think he just misses our son when we’re out. Big softy.
It was a lovely date and we headed home before it was completely dark. Start early, end early. That’s our date night motto
Next time though I’m gonna ask that we ride one of these down the Embarcadero. I’ve always wanted to do that.
We got home to find both kids sound asleep. One in her crib and the other in ours. Sigh… that’s how it goes in our house. Pretty soon they’ll BOTH be in our beds when we get home. It’s ok. We roll our eyes and pretend to complain but really we love how close they stay to us
Posted in Sans Kids
Tagged cocktails, date night, dinner, giants, nightlife, sf, star wars, storm trooper, waterbar
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