The Party Recap!

(Right: The training remote pinata and light saber stick James made for the third Jedi trial. Click to enlarge the coolness.)

All right, without further ado I present the recap of the Jedi Knight Training Academy Trials, a.k.a. Michael's 6th birthday party.

The day started out incredibly frigid as young Padawans Laura and Michael used the force at their respective soccer games to score, prevent scoring, and keep warm. Laura's team won their game and Michael's team lost, but afterwards there was only one thing on the minds of the children, getting back in the warm car to head for home and ready themselves for the Jedi proving grounds.

Soon little Padawan friends started arriving, and the trials began. After they lined up from shortest to tallest, they were called down one by one to practice honing the Force, e.g. keeping the ova-orb on the spoon as they crossed a beam over hot lava. Older Padawan helped younger Padawan by lending their Force focus, as you'll note here in the picture.

The younger sister of one of the Padawan tries her skills at the first Jedi Knight trial.

Then it was onto the speed and reflex trial, Carbonite Freeze Tag (an idea I saw on another blog during my research). The instant each Padawan was tagged he or she had to freeze like Han Solo trapped in Carbonite, and when Laura was it everyone moaned because they knew they were so gonna get caught, ha!

Michael, Laura, and some of the other Padawan showing off their focused, frozen in carbonite poses.

The final trial was practicing the Force with the Jedi training remote pinata and light saber that James made. Each Padawan had three lasers to field (e.g. three hits), and ironically that was the perfect number because on the last kid's turn it finally broke and dumped out all the toys and candy.

Michael getting in a good few whacks, well on his way to becoming a Jedi Knight.

When all the trials were completed, everyone came inside and had Millennium Falcon cake, TIE Fighter cookies, ice cream and lemonade, and then gathered around Michael as he opened his presents.

Coveted Star Wars Transformers. Could there BE a better marriage of toys for Michael??

The closing ceremonies included an awards presentation where each newly minted Jedi was given their Jedi Academy Certificate of Completion, which James made and had signed by Yoda, of course. They were further honored with a goody bag full of the candy/toys they'd collected from the pinata, a Star Wars figurine, and their very own bubble sword light saber. To celebrate their accomplishments, they all returned to the back yard to spar with each other ... and to blow really big bubbles.

Thus concluded the Jedi Training Academy Trials, and we look forward to what's in store for next year!