Star Wars ROCKS!!

Today is Deanna's birthday. She's 9. Happy Birthday, my precious baby girl. I love you.

She decided she wanted to have a Star Wars birthday. She asked if she could have friends over and watch all the Star Wars movies back-to-back. The problem was that not too many of her girlfriends are Star Wars fanatics, like her. Don and I agreed and we began the plans.

We settled on Friday night for her party. Several of her friends came home from school with her. While in school, the son of some friends, whose entire room is decorated in a Star Wars motif, brought over Star Wars Trivia cards and lots of posters. I put a large cardboard poster with a picture of Darth Vader up on the archway from the dining room leading down the hall to the den. I put a variety of posters up in the den. Don downloaded a CD of music from the Internet and we had the soundtrack playing as the girls arrived. On the dining room table I had Star Wars cups, plates, and napkins. Deanna was thrilled.

After her friends arrived, we cued up the video of Episode I. I was amazed at how long the movie took. When it was FINALLY over, we put on the CD of Episode II. While the movie was playing, I popped, popped, and popped popcorn. Don ran to Wal-Mart and picked up the cake with the Darth Vader mask on it. The doorbell rang and, when I opened the door, there stood Darth Vader (my friends' son in the costume that he wore to the Premiere). He quietly walked into the den and stood in the doorway waiting for the girls to notice him - much shouting and squealing. While the second movie was running, I ordered pizza for this crowd. We stopped long enough to have cake and ice cream and open presents. After the second movie, we played some Trivia and, then, BACK to the movies. The girls were watching Episode IV from their sleeping bags on the floor of the den and 3 of them were asleep when I called it a night and stumbled off to bed.

At 1:30, I finally came back out, turned the TV off, and grumbled something about it being bedtime. At 6:00 a.m., they were up again, giggling and running down the hall to the bathroom. I think everyone had fun except, of course, Don and me.

Although I'm sure I knew this, I was once again reminded that young girls are LOUD. They talk incessantly and fuss at each other to stop talking so they can hear the movie. They giggle, laugh, and comment about everything, all at the same time, and as loudly as possible. They can't have a single thought without announcing it to the whole group. And, should any of them need a drink or to go to the bathroom, it becomes a group activity.

Girls - they're wonderful and challenging when they're young and they learn as they age to be even more wonderful and challenging. Just ask their dads.