Star Wars Love

I never believed in the gender stereotypes. At least before I had my first daughter. I bought her trucks and dolls, princess dresses and firefighter outfits. I didn't want any preconceived ideas of what a little girl 'should' be like pushed upon her. I don't think those trucks or firefighter outfits were ever touched by her little hands. 

When she was 2 1/2 I bought her a twirly dress. This quickly became her 4 day a week dress, only not worn when it was in the wash. We had so many battles about that dress, I soon bought her a second. For a solid year and a half she wore some kind of twirly dress every day. Not even a skirt was good enough for this girly girl. The sparklier and twirlier the better. Oh, and don't even think about a color beside pink. Princesses and glitter and dresses, oh my!

This last year when my second daughter, now 4, became obsessed with Star Wars I was a little torn. Don't get me wrong, it was great to have some kind of relief from those princesses! I wasn't so crazy about the guns and other weapons, the play fighting, and her love of the villains though. As hard as I try to push the good guys, she just insists, "Darth Vader would love to have me on his side!" Whats a mom to do?

We embraced the Dark Side. Do you know how hard it is to find Star Wars clothing for a little girl? A friend told me about Her Universe, that has Star Wars and other Sci-Fi clothing specifically for women but unfortunately, she's 4, and they don't start that little. 

I came across a this tutorial at Stay At Home Artist for freezer paper stencil and made these shirts for my little Jedi. I thought about creating my own tutorial, but it's been done so many times, and done so well. 

So now my little Jedi had her own Darth Vader shirts because, lets face it, she wouldn't wear a Yoda or Luke Skywalker one. 

She was able to go to the Jedi Training Camp at Disney World this year and did get a little scared of Darth Vader when he came out. I guess it's a good sign that she didn't bow down to him.

So, we embrace it. It's a nice departure from twirly dresses and princesses. As long as she doesn't plan of freezing her little brother in carbonite, I'm fine. Plus, it's really fun to create all kinds of Star Wars goodies!

Like these cakes made for my closest friend's son.

 And these cupcakes for my daughter's birthday, blogged about here.

May the Force be with you!

May The Force Be With You

When my older daughter turned 4, we had a princess party. Boy, did she love princesses. We had our babysitter come dressed as a princess, played princess games, and made candy castles. She loved it. We took her to Disney World that year. She was in heaven with the Disney royalty.

My younger daughter, she's a different story... We took her to Disney World this year. She was in heaven!

Needless to say, when this one thinks of princesses, she thinks of Princess Leia, not Princess Jasmine.

So, for her 4th birthday party, she had a Star Wars party. Star Wars plates, Darth Vader candle, and to top it off, Light Saber cupcakes. I've been making decorated sugar cookies for years and found this great idea, with a tutorial to go with it, for light saber cupcake toppers at the The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. I came across Sugarbelle years ago on Flickr and she sure knows how to wield an icing bag! I loved the way the rainbow Jedi cupcakes turned out!

I think my little Jedi was quite happy too!