Having a Star Wars birthday party for your son or daughter?

We recently  did – and it turned out great! The hardest part of planning was coming up with a really fun indoor-only game to play with really rambunctious nine year old boys in a small house. After much pulling my hair out with unnecessary worry, I mashed up a few ideas that I found online, and out came an all new scavenger hunt that ended up being a lot of fun. I wanted to share it in hopes of one day saving someone else the same worry.

The object of the game is to find all of the Star Wars characters assigned to your team.

The items to be found were my son’s Star Wars action figures. These were scattered around the house in plain sight. The clues that led you from one item to the next was a quote by a character in one of the six Star Wars movies, and the challenge of the game was to figure out who said the quote and then go in search of that character, placed somewhere around the house.

We split the boys into small teams, gave them their first clue and had them return to us after they thought they had figured out the answers and found each character. If they were right, I set them off to their next mission. If they were wrong, I asked them to place that character back and try again. This was because each team had a specific set of nine action figures to find, and if one were to be carried around by an opposing team, it would prevent the other team from finishing their quest.

I wrote out the quotes on index cards and these were placed with the action figures. Use your imagination but usually the top side said something like “Congratulations you have captured/rescued (depending on if the figure was a good guy or bad guy) so and so. Your next mission is to defeat/find the person who said: …” Then the flip side of the card had the quote.

Quotes themselves were not difficult to procur. Simply google “star wars quotes” or try imdb.com — their site is really nice because you can search for individual characters in the films. That way it was easy to find the characters that we had action figures for, and voila, that part was done.

The winning team got their pick of the prize loot – Star Wars stickers and hand towels found at a party store – but after congratulations were over, they were off to help the losing team find their remaining action figures and the game continued with everyone helping out. That was definitely a heart-warmer.

My favourite part was when they’d come back to me with the answer to one quote, I’d often read the next quote for them in the best imitation voice I could. The dawn of recognition on their faces and the sprinting before I was even finished speaking… priceless.

so let’s have some fun and see if you guys know your stuff!
I’ll post the answers in the comments after you’ve had sufficient time to sweat it out.

Here is Team A’s collection of quotes:

1. I don’t want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don’t you turn against me!
2. Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel… don’t think. Use your instincts.
3. What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me.
4. You know, I think that R2 unit we bought may have been stolen.
5. Listen to them, they’re dying, Artoo! Curse my metal body! I wasn’t fast enough!
6. Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder.
7. Monsters out there, leaking in here. Weesa all sinking and no power. Whena yousa thinking we are in trouble?
8. At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.
9. All who gain power are afraid to lose it, even the Jedi.

and Team B:

1. Look, Your Worshipfulness, let’s get one thing straight! I take orders from one person! Me!
2. You must join me, Obi-Wan, and together we will destroy the Sith!
3. Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?
4. Try not. Do or do not, there is no try….
5. I listen to all the traders and star pilots who come through here. I’m a pilot, you know, and someday I’m going to fly away from this place.
6. Anakin Skywalker. I expected someone with your reputation to be a little… older.
7. I’m just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe.
8. These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.
9. I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this invasion in a committee!

“Behind the Scenes: When Galaxies Collide”
just plain fun and funny

At first, Google Reader was an alien beast to me. I had a multitude of opposition. What do I want a collection of feeds for? Don’t my bookmarks do the same thing? That would take me forever to move them over to a new system!

And it did take forever. I didn’t start using it for everything at first. Just the websites I liked to check every once in awhile but was not personally invested in. You know — the silly sites and guilty pleasures like Cake Wrecks, Lolcats and Post Secret. But then my circle of blog friends began to grow and one by one I added them too.

Now my dear precious Google Reader brings in everything from my favorite Kijiji feeds informing me of local garage sales –> all of the Chick blogs at my fingertips –> an identical listing of podcasts as what’s on the iPod so I can listen while doing boring stuff around the house.

Literally anything with an RSS can be put in there. And you’d be surprised – these days everything is RSS. It really is an amazing tool and I am so glad that I was introduced to it. With all things technology, it hasn’t intruded on my life but enhanced it — with whipped cream and a cherry!

This morning I discovered that the Reader team had sprinkles waiting for me too.

Sprinkled!

These new tools promise to make my experience even better and I wanted to share the love.

1. Subscribe as you surf – go to your Settings, then look for the Goodies tab. Scroll down a bit as its second from the bottom. It gives you a link that you can drag and drop onto your browser’s toolbar. Clicking that link when you are on a webpage instantly takes you to Reader where you can hit subscribe. Without having to find the RSS, then copy and paste it over and then hit subscribe. WAY faster!!
2. Send to — this feature is newer and allows you to turn on the option to easily share posts to other social sites like facebook, twitter, tumblr, digg, reddit, the list goes on. Again go to your Settings page but look for the Send to tab and customize to your hearts content.
3. Submit your own ideas and vote on other’s ideas to improve your reading experience! Yes, this is basically the Reader team wanting you to do their marketing research for them, but it is so remarkably satisfying to see them working to do things better and wanting my puny insect of an opinion that it really is irresistible. Why do I feel like a… oh what the hell… Vive la Revolution! Click here to give your humble contribution.
   

In celebration of his recent book publication, Ethan Gilsdorf, the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, is offering quite a promotion! From his website:

What is your geekiest secret? Your freakiest fandom moment? Your most embarrassing gaming gaffe? In a brief essay, photo or video, we want you to spill the beans.The folks at Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks Headquarters want to know about that time you stalked your favorite Star Trek celebrity to a coffee shop, made a pilgrimage to a fantasy movie location, watched an entire season of Battlestar Galactica in one sitting, cooked a hobbit feast for your friends, or waited in line at midnight to buy a new video game. Or perhaps you have a photo of yourself posing with your fave SF/fantasy celebrity. Or perhaps you’ll shoot a video tribute to your geek lover, or give us a video tour of your collection of Star Wars Pez dispensers. Whatever the geeky, gamer, or freakish tick or obsession, we want to see, read, and watch it.

This what I get for surfing Goodreads instead of cooking supper… more books to read. more geekness to behold… but what the hell? Only live once!

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder what I could submit. What will YOU submit?

Think fast though — the clock is ticking! We only have until September 30 to enter and the prizes look like loads of fun.