My oldest son, Benjamin, turned 9 last month, and he wanted a Star Wars party. We did some of the usual things, and added a few ideas of our own.
Boba Fett-a Heads: I bought green olives with pimientos in them. We took out the pimientos, stuffed them with feta cheese, made a T-shaped cut in one side and put the pimientos in that cut.
Wampa Brains: these are chickpeas, oats and seasonings mixed in a food processor until it becomes a paste, then rolled into balls and baked for 30 minutes. My kids and their friends call them dinosaur brains usually, so we figured wampas were a good substitute. Served with BBQ sauce for dipping.
Grapes of Hoth: Simple. Frozen grapes. Of Hoth. Yummy treat on a hot day anyway, worked well to add to our snack table.
We also did pretzel lightsabers, wookiee cookies, blue bantha milk, and Sarlacc Pit dip.
I found some cheap brown fabric and cut a very basic pullover style tunic, and as each child arrived they got a robe and belt, and a training card. (You can download the PDF here if you want to print your own. I glued them onto black construction paper after printing.)
String Maze: we used our swing set and just strung a maze at different levels that the kids needed to get through without touching the string.
Balance Beam: just a log balanced on two other logs.
Rock Stacking: we have lots of rocks in our yard, so we gathered a bunch in a wagon and let the kids stack them on a table. This one was scored – the number of rocks they successfully stacked was recorded on their training card.
Balloon Floating: using the pool noodle light saber, try to keep the balloon in the air for one minute. This one was a little hard to manage, especially when too many kids were ready at the same time.
Target Practice: a special light saber, a target on an easel, and a tub of paint. Dip the light saber in the paint, blindfold the child (we made Jedi training helmets out of dress-up helmets and duct tape), point them at the target and see how close they get.
Ring Jousting: we hung some embroidery hoops up, between two trees, attached by a lightweight magnet. The kids had to get their light saber through the hoop and disconnect it. Hard for some, not for others. They all had fun trying.
And finally, of course, there was cake and a piñata.
R2D2 cake: we bought a cake mold to make an R2D2 cake, then set him on a regular rectangular cake. Frosting it was fun, the birthday boy wanted to help.
Death Star Piñata: we were going to make one, but ran out of time and energy. So we bought a soccer ball piñata and painted it silver, and Benjamin added a few details of his own. It was good enough. For whacking it, we had an orange paint extender stick, which we added a duct tape handle to, and it looked remarkably like a light saber when the sun hit it! You can see a Jedi robe and one of the training helmets here too, worn over a sunhat.
It was a really great party. Nearly all the parents stayed, plus we had grandparents staying with us and an aunt came up for the day, so we had plenty of help running the activities (thank goodness!). Everyone seemed to have a good time, and most importantly, Benjamin was happy with the whole day.