#177 Star Wars

Now that we’ve finished with one birthday celebration, it’s time to start planning another. My oldest son turns 7 in December. Last year at a silent auction for my younger son’s preschool I bought a karate birthday party; so that is what we are going to do. The auction was in February, so I had this planned long before the older son started taking (and loving and excelling at) Tae Kwan Do. I didn’t tell him about it since it was going to be almost a year until the party and I also didn’t want the younger one getting jealous and demanding a karate party too as it is kind of expensive and I didn’t think he would be old enough to really get anything out of it yet.




My oldest son is very dramatic and loves surprises so I thought I would get a great reaction when I told him he was going to have a karate party. To my surprise, I did not. I got downcast eyes and a frown and a quiet, “But I wanted to have a Star Wars party…..” Luckily I was able to explain to him that those two things are not mutually exclusive and that he can have a Star Wars karate party. Problem solved and excitement generated. But I couldn’t figure out why Star Wars…



I know he likes Star Wars, but he hardly ever asks to watch the movies or the animated TV show. He is much more into Ben 10 Alien Force, Johnny Test or Toy Story. He is also very into superheroes—Spiderman and Superman are still revered in our house. He doesn’t talk about Star Wars and I don’t think he really knows who all of the characters are.



I asked my husband why he thought my son was so set on having a Star Wars party and he came up with two reasons. The first is that one of his friends had a Star Wars party last year where the kids got to bash each other over the head all night with light sabers made from pool noodle floaties. Very cool. The second was Eric. Although my husband is a huge Star Wars fan and is the reason we have all of the movies, Eric was really my kids’ connection to the franchise. He bought them their light sabers, themed pajamas and pop up play room.



I’m choosing to believe that my oldest son wants a Star Wars party to remember and celebrate his uncle. Even if he doesn’t fully realize it himself.