The Spirit Awakens

So today was the big day, the start of our new Star Wars themed series that has a new actor, one you see above.  She wasn't quite Rey, but she was certainly dressed as Rey.  She and a a few others were sort of background people, making the set we had look like a part of a space port on Tatooine.

Here's the cast so far.  Mommy did such an incredible job with some of these costumes.  Obviously, some were ordered online, but others were not.  Mommy put together costumes for a character themed like Finn, and there's a Mara Jade character as well.  We have another Senator from Naboo, so we went with a more regal look with that character.  One of our favorite characters is Mary Shannon in the middle, who is Stacey, a legendary pilot character from a few online fan movies that go back over ten years now.  We thought we'd throw her into the mix to add some humor, along with a Stormtrooper character that gets kicked out, but not because he's morally above it all.  He got kicked out because he's not that good at anything.

Here's Madison with Mrs. Christine, a local karate instructor who has been so great for us at KidPak lately. This morning, she and her husband did a lightsaber routine that kicked the whole service off.  Set to the music of "Duel of Fates," it was just perfect.

Here they are right now.  We had countdown videos and all kinds of Star Wars stuff going on the screens in between, plus the incredible set that Jason and a few others worked so hard on.  Here's just a sampling of it, a part of the set modeled after Watto's shop a tiny bit.  Madison and a Jawa are there, doing a bit of business.  I think Madison wants to buy that astromech.

One of the favorite costumes that Daddy and Mommy ordered was this pricy wookie costume.  We have been sparse with our costuming budget all year leading up to this one, so we felt we could go for it with this guy here below:

It looks way better than the standard wookie costume, which is essentially a big foot costume from the late 60's, complete with that weird rubber mask.  This one really is a walking carpet!  We named the wookie Jikkata, which means "young scoundrel" or something like that in the wookie language.  Because it's Robbie inside.

Here's one of Daddy's favorite costumes - a Jawa.  This one looks so great with the glowing eyes.  And you can see in the background there a remnant of the previous Star Wars series now over ten years ago:  Ye-Ye built that R2-D2 with sytrofoam, a cooler, and a colander on top.  A lot of legitimate electrical junk from the warehouse is sitting all about - it works for the overall look of the workshop.

On Stage Right is a GX-8 water vaporator, which you can see all over the planet Tatooine.  We're just pretty proud of the set right now - it's like walking into a set for the movie, or at an amusement park at least.

We have a lot of photos from the day, including this one here of the girls.  Mara Jade is over there on the right, and next to her is Stacey, and of course Madison there.  Camille is dressed as a Senator from Naboo, although not Amidala, of course.  Mommy put that costume together entirely from Goodwill this past week, and it turned out fantastic.  And of course, there's Christine there at the left in a Jedi robe, which we literally got in the mail yesterday.

Here's another shot of the junk shop with all kinds of parts inside.  Madison seems to be driving a hard bargain with that Jawa.  She remembers the Jawas at Hollywood Studios, how they'd try to scavenge silverware off your table at lunch.  They were lots of fun.

Ah, and one more picture of Bart and Christine dueling - this time in the light.  This is just them posing for a photo for publicity sake, as their actual performance was done in really low lighting, glowing sabers, and lots of intense music.  They're both black belts and beyond, so as you would expect, this combat section was really well choreographed!

One last picture of Madison.  This is out in the lobby of the church, on that new carpet we just had put in.  Apparently, that new carpet that we've had for about a month now… is no good.  Something isn't right with it, so we're replacing it soon.  So take your last look at it!

Madison is smiling because she had a good day here.  But so did the other kids too - they were very much excited about this series.  That's why there was so much pressure to do it right.  Daddy had devotionals and sermon booklets to hand out, and we had Parenting Matters, and characters in the lobby to pose with, and a great set, great music, and a message straight from the planet Naboo.  Oh, and a video we made using fruit dressed up as Star Wars characters!

Daddy is the peach.  The messages will change from week to week, covering the seven movies so far.  And both television series.  And the Ewok specials, and maybe even the Christmas special about Life Day too!

We got home pretty exhausted, of course.  But we were happy with the day, which is important.  It was a lot of work, a new hope, so to speak.

We watched, "The Phantom Menace" after Madison's bath this afternoon, and we had some game time before all that with Disney Infinity (with a Star Wars level, of course, shooting womp rats).  So it was a Star Wars day through and through.  Lots of fun for Madison, all leading up to yes, the Star Wars devotional.  This will be a fun, fun series at KidPak!