Right before the pandemic took hold in my part of the world we sold our house to move over 1500 miles for my job. The plan was to stay with some family (about 1/3 of the journey to the new place) for a few weeks while my wife and I took house hunting trips. Unfortunately that has become well over two months and counting. And with no school, all our belongings packed in storage, and stay-at-home orders we are constantly looking for ways to keep the kids occupied.

My father passed away unexpectedly in the first week of May one year ago. He was not a Star Wars fan himself, but the last thing he ever said to me (via text message) was “May the Fourth be with you.” I thought it would be nice to give my kids an awesome “Star Wars day” in his memory.

So on May 4th we spent all day doing Star Wars themed things. For breakfast we cooked “Princess Leia cinnamon hair buns”. Then we did Star Wars themed activity and sticker books followed by building a new Star Wars LEGO set. Afterwards we went outside and had an epic (but short-lived) battle in the “Endor” woods with some crummy* Rubies lightsabers that I got at the local party store. For lunch we cooked a “Jabba the Pizza the Hutt” and had “Yoda soda” to drink. Then we made and decorated “Wookiee cookies”. We spent the afternoon snuggled up on the kids’ bed watching 4K77 on my laptop and consuming WAY too much movie candy. My dad wasn’t a Star Wars fan, but he was a great dad and an amazing grandfather who loved going out of his way to do silly, fun stuff with his grandkids. It felt like a very appropriate way to remember him one year since his passing.

*seriously, these things shattered like glass after one or two whacks from a 4 year old…