This little kid we've been blessed with has stretched our family is some pretty fun ways. And one of them is a fascination with sci-fi. At the library while many little boys are getting books about dump trucks or bugs, ours cleans out the whole section of Star Wars and Ninjago. With the books falling out of his arms, he says with excitement, "Look at what I found!! Can I get all of these?!" I think it's fascinating. He's never watched any of them. We know the whole Star Wars plot from early readers and kid books alone. Lochlan doesn't sit still. He moves, jumps, wiggles, and fidgets all. day. long... unless we are reading him a sci-fi book. He looks in rapt fascination with eyes wide open completely still like a statue with a smile of wonder. It's actually really funny (and now I feel like I should try to get a good picture of it), but he clearly loves these books.
You can imagine his amazement when he discovered that there were movies to go along with the books.
As we started the school year and began working with him more seriously, we were having a really hard time helping him learn his letters. He had about a 15 second attention span... giving up super easily and crying in frustration when he didn't instantly get it.
I'll just say it. We resorted to bribery.
We told him that when he learned the letters, their sounds and was able to write them all correctly, he could watch Star Wars IV. It was a painful year. He was much more motivated, but it still took like 9 months! When he was down to his last few letters, I casually mentioned the challenge to our home Bible study (many of whom happen to be crazy Star Wars cult fans)... And I asked them if there was some sort of Star Wars "holiday". To which they enthusiastically replied , "May the 4th!!" (Be with you). Get it? I had never heard of this. But it was a month away and we decided that it would be fun to do it then. He learned the rest of his letters... barely, and our friends (and a few neighbors) invited themselves to the viewing. Then it turned into a ridiculous party. My neighbor Deborah made a Yoda cake and a yoda banner (Yoda is Locke's favorite), Amanda brought Leah buns (cinnamon rolls), Ross helped decorate the Darth Vader pizza, and there were masks and people dressing up, and it got nutsy.
Oh yeah, and Cliff decided to branch out a bit and channel his inner Magnum P.I. I'm still not completely sure I understand Ross's costume, but apparently it was brilliant and everyone loved it :)
And Mason's long hair worked out great for his Jedi costume.
I thought Lochlan's little Yoda mask turned out pretty cute :)
I didn't count how many people came, but our living room was brimming full.
Oh, he (and we all) loved the party. The cutest part was when he saw a scene on the movie and he'd get up and run to the library book basket to find the book with the scene he just watched.
Yay for bribery! Some people said it was a reward... which it could have been. But it actually felt more like bribing :) Either way, it worked! And we made some fun memories along the way.
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