Cake, cake and more cake and the most beautiful book...

Ebi-kun was sick and had another day off school, and I take the day off for my birthday - work wise that is, I have such a great boss (thanks me!) so we basically ate cake, watched movies and read books...

Cake #1 which was absolutely delicious - you should always start your birthday with cake for breakfast!

Cake Set #2 - The new Star Wars film open on my birthday, of course we couldn't go and see it but we did celebrate with fancy Star Wars cakes - Japan does cute cakes s well, and these were no exception...

It felt so mean eating the cute Ewok..

Ebi-kun is a big Yoda fan so he went for the the matcha Yoda cake...

I did get some lovely gifts including the book Before They Pass Away by Jimmy Nelson - I have been drooling over this book since it was released, It is absolutely beautiful, the photography is stunning, if you want to see his work check out the tribes section on his site Before They. He has also done TED talks and hundreds of interviews, there are plenty of links on his site if you want to learn more about his photography.

In the book there is a page dedicated to each tribe telling your were and how they live, their main source of food etc. Ebi-kun and I sat for most of the afternoon going through the book, it is a coffee table sized book though, so not suitable to stick in your bag!

The book is available on his site and on Amazon UK and Amazon.com

images © Jimmy Nelson

In a galaxy far, far away....

Well in a city about and hour and a half away....

There was a Star Wars exhibition and a certain little boy wanted to check it out. So did his dad but it didn't look like he was going to be able to make it before the exhibit closed so we went on an adventure by ourselves.

When we got to Roppongi station there was a guy selling tickets, brilliant I thought, no queuing to get in when we get there! 

How wrong I was!

We got to the right place then had to queue for about an hour just to get to the ticket station, but you already have tickets Jo!

I know, but we are in Japan and life is not that simple. You can't actually use the pre-purchased ticket, no, no, no that would be far too simple. You have to exchange your ticket for another ticket (pokes oneself in the eye with a light sabre!)

Then, because one can not queue enough, we had to queue for the lift, why not take the stairs Jo? Because it's on the 52nd floor! Eventually we made it in...

I also stupidly thought it wouldn't be too busy because it had been open for a few weeks at this point, yet again I was proved wrong and a lot of shuffling from one thing to another went on.

All those peeps in the background are waiting to get their photo with Darth Vader, we weren't daft and just used a different 'unofficial' angle!

"There is no escape from the queuing. Don't make me destroy you."

There was an interesting collection of concept ideas and art and some amazing models of the various transportation used (I wasn't able to sneak photos of those!)

We found the best way to see everything was to shuffle around the perimetre of each gallery then shuffle around the exhibits in the centre. Ebi-kun came out with a corker. There were exhibits showing the costumes and Anakin's outfit was on one of those dolls that they use in shop windows.

"Look, it's Makakin Skywalker"

Oh how I laughed, good to see he has inherited my amazing sense of humour hahaaha

We finally shuffled our way to what I thought was the exit but we got directed to stand in yet another queue and this was to get into the shop...half an hour later...

Ebi-kun had his heart on buying Daddy something for Fathers Day, obviously I can't share what yet and so then we had to queue to pay! I had seriously had enough of this queuing lark by the time we had finished.

All in all, it was interesting and we both enjoyed it, the queuing side, not so  much! Anyone who loves Star Wars will enjoy it I think.

I was a bit disappointed because the original write up I had seen about the exhibit appeared to have a lot more stuff going on, I'm not sure whether we missed it somehow (we didn't pay the extra ¥500 each to go to the Sky Deck to battle with Darth) or whether that was included with the opening somehow. Of course I don't remember where I read the initial article to check!

If you want to go, there is more info HERE

Origami Yoda obsessed with, your son will become....

I have to thank my reader Carla for putting me onto these books, they have been a BIG hit. We got Art2-D2's Guide To Folding and Doodling and The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda.

First up is the Art2-D2 book. Now I am not an 8 year old boy but I have been enjoying this book too, there are lots of silly quips and lots of origami and doodling. If you buy it make sure you buy a pack of origami paper too, although there are a few pull out sheets in the book, it won't last long.  Ebi-kun has already spend many hours making and doodling!

One of the things I like about this book is that they show that your work doesn't have to be perfect, the creative process is important, some of the things in the book look like they have been made by and 8 year old and the sense of humour is very silly boyish - which is why he loves it!

The collection of multi-coloured Star Wars characters which have now taken over the top of the bookcase...

And that brings us to Origami Yoda....

Who, has a whole book of his own. If you have a boy who is a reluctant reader and he likes Star Wars then this might be a way to get him interested. The story is about a bunch of 6th graders, one of them is a bit weird and he has an origami Yoda finger puppet who gives out advice. The strange thing is, often the advice is very accurate. The book is a series of 'case files' about the advice the finger puppet gives and whether or not Origami Yoda is really magical or not.

It is very silly but it even made a fully grown woman snicker in places, it is perhaps meant for kids a little bit older than Ebi-kun and it is very American (vocab and location is different to what Ebi-kun is used to). Not that, that is a bad thing but I have had to explain one or two things to him.

Both books get a big thumbs up from us. We will be heading to the in-laws soon, so I will be packing the Art2-D2 book along with a new pack of origami paper!

How to plan a Star Wars party part 2

Oh course you can't have a Star Wars party without light sabers. I had seen several posts using pool noodles and that is what I had plan to do.... except, there were no pool noodles to be had! I dragged my poor suffering husband all round the home centre looking for something suitable.

First I spotted some foam that is for covering water pipes but it was white and we actually picked it up and was one the way to pay for it when I spotted the green foam. Again this is supposed to be used to cover some kind of piping but double pipes. No problem, I just spilt it down the middle and cut it to size roughly 80cm each.

I used duck tape to make the handle and then smaller pieces of duck tape to make the 'buttons'. I really recommend using duct tape over other types of tape because it is super sticky and with stand up to a lot of beating. The padawan at the party took their light sabers in the pool and they held up fine. 

The other great thing is that they are actually quite soft so there is less chance of injury or kids hurting one another with them. I highly recommend that you make enough for each child and their dad!

How to plan a Star Wars party part 1

Birthdays are not a big deal in Japan and you don't get all the fancy party goods that you can get back home so if you want fancy goods you have to get a bit creative or dig deep into those pockets and order through the internet!

I thought I would share how I put the party together, I did a little at a time over the course of a few weeks and got Ebi-kun involved as much as possible. Now, although I did this for a Star Wars theme you can easily adapt most of it to any theme you like.

First up, decide on a theme.

Next get onto google images, I put in Star Wars and then used various characters names and had the image setting to high so I knew the quality would be OK for printing. I am on a mac so I basically dragged any image that I liked onto my desktop.

With something like Star Wars it is virtually impossible to trace an image back to it's original source to ask permission to use it but if you are wanting to use an individual artists work then you really should contact them about using their images. I am going to share how I prepared everything for our party but not the actual printables since I do not own any of the images.

What I will share with you is how to make...

• Cups
• Food labels/tags
• Yoda soda
• Light sabers
• Death Star piñata
• Sandpeople senbei
• Death Star watermelon
• Treasure hunt
• Goodie bag toppers
• Fridge magnets
• Mini colouring books (& resources)
• Yoda Birthday Cake

That would be one looooong post so I will break it up and do a bit at a time and then bundle it into an ebook at the end, how does that sound?

CUPS

what you need:

white sticker sheets for the printer

printer

images you have collected

scissors

plain cups

Use whichever software you have or there is software online that you can use, I used Photoshop. Crop your images so that they are about 5cm x 5cm and place them on the pace in a grid fashion (easier to cut that way). Print them out, cut out and stick onto your cups. I made ours all different so that everyone knew which cup was theirs plus it was fun to see which character you would get when you took a cup.

You can also use the same sheet to make stickers for the goodie bag or to decorate thank you notes etc.

Yoda Soda

what you need:

printer paper and printer

image

soda (pop) or juice, whatever the drink it you are using

ruler

scissors

The easiest thing to do it remove the existing label from the bottle then measure it, make sure that there is an overlap on the length to make it easier to glue onto the bottle. Using which ever software you are comfortable with, make a rectangle, mine was 10cm x 27cm.

In the centre of the rectangle add an image and some text. If you want to get fancy you can also add imaginary ingredients (if you have guests with allergies then listing what is written on the ordinal label is probably a good idea) and a bar code. Print, cut and stick to the bottle.

Food labels

what you need:

printer friendly card

images

scissors

One way to make the food more fun is to give it fancy or funny names, we tend to have pot luck parties so I had no idea what most people were bringing. I designed some blank labels and then as the food arrived I gave it a Star Wars themed name such as 'The Dark Side Pizza' and 'Han Solo & Cheese Sandwiches'. For the labels themselves I made a new grid, each rectangle was 5cm x 10cm and I placed one of the Star Wars pictures on each rectangle, leaving space to write in the food name afterwards. Of course you could use these for name tags or present tags too.

OK, next up will be the light sabers...

A Star Wars Party For A Seven Year Old..

Well, an almost seven year old, Ebi-kun will be 7 next Sunday but we had his party early because some of our friends leave this week for the summer. This will be a photo heavy post and I will do another post with the explanations of what I made and how...

Saturday was wet and miserable so we were praying that the weather would clear up for Sunday, it did thankfully so we started off with lunch (we didn't want the food sitting out so it would spoil). We did it as pot luck and had some great dishes such as The Dark Side Pizza, Wookie Cookies, Han (and cheese) Solo Butties all washed down with Yoda Soda - Refresh you, it will.

Now, normally I make a cake but because it is hot we have to leave it at home and my husband has to do a run home and pick it up when we are ready to eat. This year I decided on something different... watermelon! and In Japan they have a tradition called suicawari, which is basically, beat a watermelon with a big stick until it breaks. In the morning I carved it into the Death Star, we sang happy birthday and they beat it up! It was good to see kids tucking into a whole load of watermelon instead of cake.

Next up was Padawan Training, the young Padawan were split into 3 groups and had a Jedi master to guide them. First they had a treasure hunt, I had taken close up photos of things around the park so they had to find what it was and write it down.

Next up, they had to capture of of the strange creatures (crayfish) and bring it back to Jedi Jo

Finally, they had to climb through the wall without setting off the bells and then they were awarded a lightsaber

And led me to shout one of the strangest things I have ever told a bunch of kids to do...

" Now go over there and fight!"

Fight they did, the dads of course had to get involved, the girls were getting into it too. Now, you would have thought that was enough violence for one party but no, there was more...

The Death Star piñata that I had worked on all week.

So, yes more swinging of bats, misses and giggling. Sadly it fell off the string so they ended up kicking it around, which is what we usually do.

Once it split the usual chaos ensued, the bottom picture the big kids are sharing with M-chan who didn't get anything, they were all trying to palm off the pink candies onto her!

The battles then continued into the pool, it wasn't so hot but warm enough to paddle and splash around in, in fact we all agreed it was better that it being a roasting hot day.

Ebi-kun got a Bear Grylls book from the group - we decided a few years ago that it was better for the parents of the birthday child to buy a book and present it as if it is from the playgroup rather than exchanging gifts. I prefer it this way, there is no expectation of piles of presents and it is less stress for the parents too.

Here are the Jedi graduates, ready for another battle no doubt! It was great fun, the kids were all exhausted (me too) and we got to hang out with old friends before they leave again. It was boy heavy, most of the older girls have left so poor N-chan gets a bit fed up with having to put up with all the boys. 

So, I will do another post with my resources and how-to's, I will make a cake for Ebi-kun's actual  birthday on Sunday so I think I will wait until I have done that then put it all together for you. If you have an questions pop them in the comments section and I will make sure to answer them in the how-to post.

The worries of a 6 year old....

Do we have seven candles for my birthday cake?

It's not his birthday until the end of July but I suppose one should start worrying about it now!

We usually have some sort of themed party, we have had safari (1), trains (2), dinosaurs (3) football (4), knights  (5) ninja (6) so what will be for his seventh? Star Wars has been mentioned so I have been gathering inspiration over on my Star Wars pinterest board....

I won't be showing Ebi-kun this or he will be wanting me to make him one!

Ebi-kun would LOVE one of these pool toys - not sure where you can buy them though.

These printable masks would be great at a party

This is pretty neat a paper AT-AT, but I for one, would not have the patience to make it.

and one to make you smile...

ahhhhhh.....

But is 6 weeks or so until the big day, the theme may have changed several times by then!

Chewbacca storage tin - tutorial

This is a completely no sew project and pretty easy to do. This is not one of the projects from the Star Wars Craft Book but was inspired from the book. The book has a tissue box wookie but that wouldn't work for us because the boxes are a different shape here so we took the idea and applied it somewhere else. This tutorial doesn't give measurements because it all depends on the size of tin you use, it is more of a how-to!

Supplies:

Faux fur

felt in brown, white, silver/grey, red

empty storage tin (dull any sharp edges before starting)

goggly eyes

black button

all purpose glue

ruler

cutter/scissors

Cut a piece of fur the same height as the tin and long enough to wrap all the way around but with a small overlap. Glue it to the tin.

If your tin had a lid then cut a circle of fur out which is slightly bigger than your lid, glue it in place.

Prepare the face. Cut two circles of white felt out that a twice the size of you goggly eyes, glue the eyes to them.

Cut an oval of red felt out for the mouth and a second oval in white, the white one should be a little smaller then the red. Cut the white piece in half in a ziggy-zaggy way to make the teeth and glue in place. Use a black button for the nose, then glue all the face parts to the tin.

To make the belt cut a piece of brown felt, make sue it will fit around the tin at an angle, decide the width by looking at your tin to see if the proportions look right. Cut a second strip, the same length but one third of the width. Now cut some blocks in grey felt. Again, just eye-ball it.

Place the grey pieces on the widest brown strip and glue in place, then glue the thinner brown strip on top.

Finish off by gluing the strip to the tin, the top back so that it is loose around the front.

Use the tin to store your Star Wars characters so that your mommy doesn't step on them!

For more tutorials, check out the tutorial page HERE.