Kai turns 7 at the end of June but as his friends start to scatter for the summer we thought it best to get his party done while there were still people to invite. Work started well over a week in advance as the first layers of the paper mache Deathstar were laid down. I ended up using Nora’s bouncy ball as a template so the thing had a diameter of almost two feet. With such a large structure I needed to make sure it would stand up to a full load of candy so I put on several layers. When the paper mache goes on it seems so flimsy. I put on two coats of paper at a time and then effectively kiln baked it by letting it dry in the sun in the back yard. In the end it was loaded with candy and the two halves connected with double layers. ((advice to anyone contemplating making a do-it-yourself pinata. It is really pretty easy all things considered but never, never put chocolate based candy in a pinata that is going to spend any appreciable time outside in extreme heat)) As I was hanging it that morning I marvelled at the rock hard structure and thought to myself “there is no way a 7 year old gets through this”. I was almost right. After each one had a swing–and we went without blindfolds for the safety of bystanders–the Deathstar was still intact though cracks were starting. I finished it off and gave it a good shake to distribute the candy well. Many of the kids salvaged pieces to take home in their goody bags as trophies.
The Jedi robes were a hit and the kids loved that they could keep them. With the rope belts they looked like nothing so much as Fransiscan monks. When one of the dads picked up his son at the end of the party he looked at the kids playing turned to me quizzically and said “So……..monks?” He did have a point but I would have thought the lightsabers were a dead givaway. Monks don’t use plasma swords. Nora definitely didn’t look like a monk though – the robes were all the same size so she was completely lost in her robe and was a spitting image of a jawa.
