Jedi Training

I had never seen Star Wars.  Neither has most of my family.  It just wasn't part of our childhood.  Last year when one of the new Star Wars movies came out and all our kids' friends were talking about them our kids really wanted to see them.  I had NO desire to ever see them.  But I was talked into it and I reluctantly agreed to watch all the movies as a family.  In the end I enjoyed it more than I expected - but truly hated most of them.  Anyways... the kids loved them and have loved Star Wars ever since.  When I saw on a friends Facebook page this Jedi Training I knew they would love it.  As I mentioned earlier the first thing we did Monday morning was sign up for it.  It is outside so they told me that if it was raining they would cancel the show.  I signed up for the last show of the day hoping the rain would let up by then.  Luckily for us it did - all the shows were cancelled for the whole day except the last 2 - it was perfect.  

They got to wear these Jedi robes.

And then get trained on how to use the force and fight with a light saber.  They taught them this little routine that they were told they would have to use later.

Madison has her back to me and legs spread and  you can pick out the other 3 from their orange jackets.

After the training they got ready to fight.  It was VERY dramatic with loud music and smoke AND it was the real Darth Vader music to boot.  Madison got very very scared and thought she was really truly going to fight Darth Vader - the mean horrible killer.  She started to cry and wanted to stop.  I thought for sure they would bring her back to us (we were in the audience) but this cute worker sat with her the whole time and talked to her.  At the very end she decided to go up and the announcer said, "and the most reluctant and timid Jedi has come to face Vader" It was perfect.  She also felt more comfortable fighting the Seventh Sister.

Megan was fearless.  She was very excited and fought very well.

Brock took the whole thing very seriously (as Brock always does).  He learned the whole routine perfectly and while most kids went up there and just waved their light saber around Brock did all the right "moves".  The workers commented that he did the best at following the routine and getting into it.

(Wow - look at Vader it looks like he is going to kill Brock - quite the swing!)

Noah was hilarious.  Before he even got on stage he was practically giddy - smiling from ear to ear and jumping up and down - he could not even contain his excitement.  Jason and I looked at each other and Jason said, "we are going to get kicked out of Disneyland.  Noah is going to seriously attack Darth Vader".  I completely agreed.  We watched in total suspense wondering what Noah would do.  It is just like Noah's personality to realize this is his one and only chance to fight Darth Vader so "forget the rules, forget the routine... this is going to be legendary"  as he walked up he had this very mischievous look in his eye - and Jason and I just sat there holding our breath...

But we were wrong (as parents often are).  He did a great job and I think had one of the more thrilling times of his life - his smile was huge the whole time and just enjoyed the moment.

It was so fun and such a great memory.  We were tempted to do it again the next day.  

My one complaint is that they never give you a chance to take a good "posed" photo of your child with the robe and light Saber.  At the end they line them all up - the audience claps - and then they immediately take the robes and light sabers.