Mission Zone Conference Luncheon, Star Wars Style

A couple months ago I was asked to chair a luncheon for a missionary zone conference held at our church building today. The instructions were to plan a lunch for 25 people. Our committee of 3 were to prepare the food, serve, and clean up. Not too complicated, right? We decided to keep things simple and have sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit, and dessert. 

Then I had an epiphany: Why not add a Star Wars theme to it? 

There are numerous blog posts and articles about the spiritual and religious implications of the Star Wars movies, so I went with one of those. I debated about asking permission, but decided to just surprise everyone.

Here is our account, taken with our lame interim camera,

while we await replacing our broken one.

Overall Table Display:

complete with themed food labels and action figures!

Bread options: homemade wheat loaves, egg-bread rolls,
and store balloon bread 

Filling Options: Calrissian Chicken Salad,
Sliced Bantha Meat and Cheese,
or Jabba's PB and J

Fruit: Obi-Wan Kabob-i's

Vader Veggies and Droid Dip

(R2D2 accidentally got left at home, oops!)

Padawan Potato Chips

Dessert Options: Pretzel Light Sabers, Boba Fett Brownies,
and Wookiee Cookies

At each table, we included water, 

Jedi Juice (real lemonade made from Yuma-grown lemons), 

and reading materials relating missionaries to Jedis.

There was a slight pause when the missionaries first entered the room
as they were overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it all. They enjoyed the
food and the displays and some even asked if they could keep the printed memes.

And so far, I haven't been called into a disciplinary council for 

preaching Star Wars philosophies mingled with scripture.

May the Fourth Be With You!

The force has been strong as we have prepared for our Star Wars party! We have had non-stop arts and crafts for school the past week, first making a BB-8 Bean Bag Toss Game:

a Death Star Pinata using this tutorial:

Pin the Blaster on Boba Fett

and a Storm Trooper Target Practice game:

Additionally, we made a new cosplay costume for Erin.

Doesn't she make a perfect little Rey?

(pardon the purple flip-flops--no wool boots were available in Del Rio)

Dallin wore one of Ian's old youngling costumes.

We joined our forces with the Young Men of the Del Rio 1st Branch and held the party at our church building. The evening started off with Ian giving a short presentation of "How Star Wars is Religious."

Then we all played the games, engaged in light saber battles, and ate treats.

And the treats! They were AWESOME!

(We spent most of the afternoon making ours--the light sabers, popcorn,

and BB-eats.)

We played a trivia game, Jeopardy-style with "Who Said This?" 

questions from all of the 7 Star Wars movies. 

Then we ended with the destruction of the Death Star.

Ian was the rebel who blasted it to pieces.

I can now empathize with Darth Vader, 

seeing countless hours of work destroyed with a single hit.

Another Recycled Jean Project

We have an old couch pillow that has seen better days. I made the cover years ago, pre-children, and the hand-quilting is almost non-existent now. This is the new and improved couch pillow made entirely from scraps and old jeans. The children all like it better, and so do I.

It Pays to Be a Geek!

In last Saturday night's Priesthood Session of our Church's General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf stated in his talk, "Every family has moments of awkwardness like . . . when your dad arranges a family portrait with everyone dressed like characters in his favorite movie and you get the Chewbacca costume."

In our case, it was me (Mom) who made for the awkward moment when I saw a sign at our Del Rio Walmart store advertising a Star Wars costume contest for children and adults tonight at 8:00 PM. It was part of their promotional activities surrounding the midnight release of the Star Wars The Force Awakens DVD.

My thought process: "We have put lots of time and effort into our Star Wars costumes over the years. Let's dress up the children and see if we might have a chance of winning a prize, and that would be so cool!" We had no idea what the prizes would be.

At 7:59, we arrived at Walmart, with Dallin dressed as a Jawa (minus the blaster that I gave away prior to our move--dang it!), Erin dressed as a Jedi padawan with a light saber (but she forgot her cloak--oops!), and Ian in his Boba Fett t-shirt and carrying his Boba Fett helmet (because he had completely grown out of his costume from this photo shoot). Poor Ian really didn't want to take the helmet, but I persuaded him to (refer to above awkward reference).

We attracted some strange looks from customers as we walked through the parking lot and store all the way to the back. There we found the displays set up, cupcakes and punch, and a plethora of Star Wars merchandise. We were in the right place for the costume contest. So far, there was only one other boy dressed as Darth Vader.

Again at my insistence, we took photos:

Yes, Ian, you too!

And again over here by BB-8:

Wouldn't that Falcon be awesome to have hanging in your bedroom?

This was the screen where we would be watching the movie following the contest.

Employees passed out some glow necklaces and trading discs to all the kids.

After 30 minutes, there were still only 4 costume contestants, so they did the judging.

"Stand here so we can take your picture."

A couple of the employees deliberated a bit, and then they announced the winners.

First place went to DALLIN!!!

He won this Legendary Yoda Robotic Toy!!!

He really is excited--he just refuses to smile sometimes.

Erin received the 2nd place prize of a $30 gift card!!!

Darth Vader got 3rd place prize of a $25 gift card!!!

And Ian got 4th place prize of a $20 gift card!!!

(No adults had dressed up, so they didn't hold the adult contest.)

We watched about 50 minutes of the movie before returning home.

How could we possibly leave the movie early? 

Well, rumor is that someone might be receiving it next week for a birthday present! 

Oh, and if you happen to be in Del Rio next month, 

our May the Fourth party is going to be AWESOME!

Sewing Distractions

It all started with the pillowcase that I made Megan for her birthday. 

We found fabric from the new Star Wars movie at Christmas time, so I got some. 

We sent the pillowcase in a birthday package last month.

But then I had leftover scraps, so I made a couple of luggage tags.

And, why not make a couple of quilted potholders as well?

I used black jean fabric for the back, since I love to repurpose jeans 

and happen to have a collection of old jeans that I moved all the way 

from Yuma (because I hadn't finished all my jean projects yet).

I also cut 168 circles out of the jeans to make another scrap quilt using this tutorial.

I really should get my sewing space properly set up in our bedroom so I don't keep overtaking the kitchen table with my projects.

Easter in Del Rio

We put together a package to send to Megan in Provo, since this is her first Easter away from home and she wouldn't be participating in our annual scavenger hunt. Included were some homemade goodies and some chocolate, and then we got a bit carried away with a Star Wars theme...

...Because we discovered a variety of Star Wars Easter cards on the internet, such as these:

She got some Kylo Ren cotton swabs in a reusable tin:

A reusable bag:

A puzzle and a game:

Besides, May 4th is coming up soon and she needs to be prepared to host her own party.

On the Del Rio home front, we made and decorated Easter sugar cookies! It took nearly all day Saturday.

I made some special ones just for our family.

We shared the others with the missionaries and some other church friends.

Saturday afternoon the children went on their annual scavenger hunt. This year Kevin gave scriptural clues, so they had to expend a bit more effort to figure out the locations. Here they are searching by our fig tree. Funnily enough they ended up with a Kylo Ren puzzle and a Star Wars Top Trumps game too. Additionally, Dallin got BB-8 Bubbles!

Sunday, Kevin had a break from his usual church leadership meetings and got to spend more time at home with us. He made challah to go along with a baked ham and mashed potatoes! It was a delicious dinner. We only took pictures of the bread, however.

We were grateful to have some quality family time and reflect on the Resurrection of our Savior. 

We read through our Resurrection Eggs scripture activity later in the evening.