Birthday Party: Jedi Training Academy: The Invite

All great parties start with the invitation.  Being barely associated with Star Wars and all the things that go along with it, I searched online and found several ideas for invitation wording.  I wanted the invitation to be just like the rolling paragraphs at the beginning of the first movie.  (First movie meaning first made, not Episode I.  That still confuses me!)

So I merged several ideas together, rewrote most of it, and came up with this invite:

 

 

The invitation was placed in a large brown envelope with this label:

 

 

Children who responded were given a second directive:

The invitations were a huge hit and promised of wonderful things to come!

Lightning McQueen Bed

For his Lightning McQueen room, my son needed a race car bed.  I wanted a bed that would fit a twin mattress, and the molded plastic car beds from Toys'R'Us and the like were all made for toddler mattresses.  Plus, they weren't really Lightning McQueen, just red race car beds.  

Hubby to the rescue!  He probably was wearing his Superman shirt that day haha!  He laid out a large sheet of 5/8 inch MDF and I covered it in wax paper.  The wax paper became my pattern paper.  I used my son's large talking McQueen toy, the DVD cover, and a scene from the movie (which we left on pause), and I drew out the entire side of the car.  The only area I redid a couple of times was where the driver and passenger window go.  It had to be high enough so he wouldn't fall out of bed, but low enough to allow easy bed changing access and for him to easily get out of bed.  Plus, it had to look sporty without looking like a convertible.

HubbyWe did two layers of MDF in some areas: all 4 tires and large and small lightning streaks.  My hubby cut it all out with his table saw and then went over each edge and side to round them off.  If he wasn't asleep right now, I would ask him what the tool is called.  I can't remember.  We used the red accent paint from my son's room and bought some new paint in yellow, orange, black, and silver.  A paint gun helped hubby us get the blends on the large lightning streaks.

End result: We all love it!  And, most important, when my son walked into the room to see it for the first time, he said, "Lightning McQueen!"

For the matching artwork we did, click here!

Linking up with some great parties!

If God Collects Each of Our Tears, He Must Have Pools of Mine

I am such a cryer. I cry at movies. I cry at TV. I even cry at commercials, for crying out loud. I don't know when this happened. I remember teasing my grandpa because he was always crying at movies - he was such a softie! Now I am just like that but even worse. I miss him...

The commercial that gets me the most is the A&W one. I know. You're thinking, are you serious? A hamburger commercial? You crazy woman. Yep, the hamburger commercial gets me bawling like a baby. And that's why - a baby. Have you ever seen it? There are four people getting food - a husband and wife with their son and his wife. The husband orders a Papa burger for himself, a Mama burger for his wife, and two Teen burgers for the young marrieds. The son sneaks in another burger on tray. They all sit down, and the son starts handing out the burgers. The older man is given the Grandpa burger and starts to give it back to the son. Incredulous looks fly between the two couples and between father and son, and then everyone starts crying because the grandparents to be now know that the younger couple is expecting. Gets me every time. Geeeeezzzzz!!

Course, now I am watching Top Gun and am crying because Goose just died. Now I gotta go find my kleenex before my computer gets wet. Grrrreat.