Simply Star Wars : Half a Hundred Acre Wood

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A not-so long time ago [11 years], in a galaxy [town] not so far, far away [Knoxville]…

a child was born to Gary and Brandy Ferrell. We celebrate the memory of this momentous event by inviting you to join us for Galactic Alliance Pizza from Jabba-the-Pizza-Hut, and Star Wars Cake and Ice Cream from the evil Walmart Empire. Join us for balloons, piñata, and games! (We are unsure that our face-painting professional will be able to join us. In the case that light sabers and Darth-Maul masks are not available to grace our faces, temporary tatooines will be offered.)

We indeed celebrated Stephen’s eleventh year of life at the beginning of July, and I’m just now getting around to writing about it! Before more time slips by, we aim to capture a few of the precious memories of another sweet celebration of life.

The Cake

How did I make such a totally awesome birthday cake just three weeks after the birth of a new baby boy, you ask?

I ordered it from Publix.

The Food Stuff

Although a store-bought cake was sufficient for Stephen, labeling the food has become such a tradition that Stephen couldn’t handle the thought of me not labeling it. Thankfully, it took very little effort or creativity on my part. I found some fabulous free pre-made-by-someone-else party labels. {Thank you to Sarah at All Thing With Purpose!}

I made one thing. Just one thing. Pretzel Light Sabers that did not look like light sabers. For some reason, the white chocolate crumbled up on me (which has never happened to me in the past! Possibly the difference between Nestle and Hershey chocolate morsels? maybe?), so I reverted to Baker’s milk chocolate and sugar sprinkles. This is what I call last-minute improvision. Here’s how I did it:

Impressive, right? Well… hmmm. At least they tasted good!

The food stuff line-up

Light Sabers: Chocolate-covered pretzels with sprinkles on top
Wookie Cookies: Chips Ahoy!
Hans Rolos: Rolos
Leia’s Buns: Little Debbies Pecan Pinwheels
Princess Lays: Lays Chips
Thermal Detonators: Cheddar-flavored popcorn
Ewok Treats: Teddy Grahams

The Piñata et cetera

Procrastinator that I am, I waited until the week before and started looking for a piñata to order. Of course, everything on ebay, Amazon, and Etsy took at least twice that amount of time just for production. As a last-ditch effort, I checked Party City’s website (we live 40 miles from the closest Party City; in fact, we live 40 miles from just about everywhere – except Walmart). They not only had a piñata available for immediate shipping, it was half the cost of the others I came across.

Stephen was quite serious about defeating the dark side.

Fast-forward 30 or 40 whacks later…

All of twenty of them had the chance to hit it at least once. We even busted the light saber on the thing. Eventually, one of them defeated Darth Vader using the stick part from a croquet mallet.

Upon opening one of his gifts, Stephen shouted, “It’s the LEGO Jedi Interceptor Set Number 75038!!” Now that’s a boy who loves his LEGOs. (It’s a good thing, too. He ended up with two LEGO Jedi Interceptor Set Number 75038’s.)

In a rather loud manner, he also informed me – and everyone else – that the Amazon gift card he received was not to be used for curriculum. Ha Ha, Stephen. Very funny.

Obviously, he did make me laugh. But perhaps that is my kind-of-embarrassed laugh. Or maybe it’s my I-absolutely-adore-you laugh. Either way, I’m going to get him back. One of these days, one of these days.

Darth Maul, Randomly Revisited
This is what Stephen and I would look like if we were Darth Maul. Scary, huh?