Star Wars: The Force Awakens Free Activity Pack #StarWars #TheForceAwakens

We are merely DAYS away from the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and everyone here in my home cannot wait! As you countdown the days, you can keep your kids busy by downloading the free Star Wars: The Force Awakens Activity Pack which includes coloring pages, mazes, a memory game and more!

Click image to download activity pack.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens in theaters December 18, 2015. My boys and I can't wait for this movie!

Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars Free Activity Sheets

It is no secret that my boys and I are huge Star Wars fans. HUGE. And thanks to Netflix, they also became big fans of Phineas and Ferb this year as well. So we were thrilled about the Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars special. Unfortunately, we don't have cable so we have yet to see it. But it is finally available on DVD, so Santa will be dropping this in a stocking at my house this Christmas.

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Netflix Adds The Clone Wars to its Lineup #StreamTeam #NetflixKids

Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows by now what huge Star Wars fans we are in my house. I am talking about crazy, ginormous fans. While my personal preferences is for the orginal trilogy movies and the extended universe books, our four boys absolutely love The Clone Wars animated series on Cartoon Network. However since we are a non-cable household, we are always at least one season behind as we have to wait for the latest DVD sets to be released. We own four of the six seasons so we've fallend quite behind. Until recently.

The other day imagine my surprise when I received an extremely excited text from my husband letting me know he is watching The Clone Wars series on Netflix. That's right, my husband...not my kids. I mean once they realized it was there, they all became excited, but I don't think any of them topped him. They immediately began watching Season 5, which they got through fairly quickly and wow did that season end with a surprise. now we are moving on to 6 and I am trying to make them go at a slower pace to stretch it out!

Lucky for us The Clone Wars wasn't the only animated series that Netflix added recently, so we've had a bunch of new to us shows to choose from. Two other new Netflix additions that have also been a huge hit in our house lately are Pokemon Black and White and Phineas and Ferb. While to most of the country these shows are old, we had never seen them until they popped up in our Netflix menu. I love the ever growing list of shows and movies to choose from, there is always something to make everyone on our family happy!

Have you or your kids discovered any new favorites on Netflix recently? Or do you have a favorite show that you are really hoping gets added to the Netflix lineup soon?

Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars Bundle Now Available!

Way back in 2011, I saw an announcement that Xbox would soon be releasing a Star Wars Kinect bundle. My husband and I immediately fell in love with it and we anxiously awaited its release. I mean, how could any Star Wars fan not want this? The console itself has the look of R2-D2 and the wireless controller is designed to look like C3PO.

Oh I get goose bumps just looking at it! This limited edition bundle includes:

• Xbox 360 Console with 320GB hard drive and custom sounds
• Kinect sensor
• 1 gold controller
• Standard Kinect Star Wars Game
• Kinect Adventures
• LIVE Token for bonus content
• Wired Headset
  

When my seven year old and I had a chance to visit Skywalker Ranch earlier this year, we got a live demonstration of the Kinect Star Wars game and all of the kids even got to play it. Sadly the adults were not able to play. But from what I saw, it looked like a lot of fun and all of the children really loved it. I think their favorite part was the Rancor Rampage, where you run around as a Rancor destroying things. You can also fly a pod racer, fight as a Jedi and so much more. This game is sure to be a hit with Star Wars fans of all ages.

The Kinect Star Wars Bundle is available for $450 from many retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart. The best deal is currently at Target, where when you buy the bundle for $450 you also get a $50 Target gift card. That special offer ends April 7, so head on over now if you want to take advantage of it!

For more information on the Kinect Star wars Bundle, check out Xbox on Facebook.

This is NOT a compensated post, I just really think this is awesome and wanted to share it with my fellow Star Wars fans.

Wordless Wednesday: Star Wars Play Time

On most days you can find my children playing with something involving Star Wars. This past weekend, they put on their costumes and had some fun.

L and his Obiwan Kenobi stance.

The ultimate battle of good vs. evil.

Number 3 enters the fray, sans costume but with a ginormous lightsaber that is taller than me.

Uh-oh, Darth Vader is down!

Wordless Wednesday: Star Wars at Disney

Last week we took the boys to Walt Disney World for the first time and we had a blast. The big day for us was of course the day we spent at Disney Hollywood Studios because of the very awesome Star Tours ride.

The very cool AT-AT Walker and the Ewok Village, where my husband proposed to me 11 years ago. I wish we took a picture of us there, but the crowds were crazy near the Star Wars ride.

The Tatooine gift shop where the Star Tours ride conveniently drops you off at when its over. The amount of money we spent in here is ridiculous. Even mommy and daddy walked out with lightsabers. 

Star Wars Weekend Day 2: Presidio of San Francisco #StarWars3D

As if spending a day at Skywalker Ranch wasn't amazing enough, our Star Wars weekend wasn't over just yet. Sunday, January 29 was the second and final day of the Star Wars press junket for the upcoming release of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D on February 10. Since our bodies were still stuck on Eastern time, we woke up nice and early and enjoyed our first breakfast of the day while watching The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network.It was actually the perfect start to our morning.

This day's journey would take us on a quick bus ride over to The Presidio of San Francisco. Once a military post, The Presidio is now a 1,491-acre national park site and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Are. I wasn't really sure what would we see here, but the minute we drove into the park it took my breath away. No matter which direction you turned, you were surrounded by beautiful landscaping, buildings and views of San Francisco.

Now in addition to being a beautiful park, some of George Lucas' companies are headquartered here. The Letterman Digital Arts Center is the combined home of Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm and LucasArts. Leave it to Mr. Lucas to pick such a beautiful backdrop to work at. I could not even imagine getting to go to work here every day. Just amazing.

The first event of the day was breakfast and for my son and I, this would be our second breakfast. Hey what can I say, time changes make us hungry. At the door we were greeted by some Storm Troopers who are members of the local 501st Legion. In order to be a member of The 501st, you must make your own costume.

Once inside we walked to a lovely cafeteria where a delicious Boba Fett breakfast was set up for us. Despite already having a plate of Ritz Carlton pancakes earlier that morning, my six year old had two servings of scrambled eggs as well as more pancakes. I am a little nervous about what he is going to eat like as a teenager. Four teenage boys with big appetites scares me.

While we sat and enjoyed our meal, the Storm Troopers marched around the room. I tried to get W to take a picture with them, but he refused. Much to his surprise, the Storm Troopers came to him.

"These aren't the eggs you're looking for."

We also were thrilled to see everyone's favorite Astromech Droid rolling through the room. R2-D2 made his way around to all the tables, stopping to take photos with us all. I want my own R2-D2 for my home, there is so much he could help me with. After a lot of coaxing, I got my son to take a picture with me and R2.

But wait, there is more! The cafeteria is enclosed by three walls of windows which give you a beautiful view over the grounds at The Presidio. So not only did we get to enjoy a delicious breakfast with some cool Star Wars characters, but we also got to look out the window at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Directly across from where we were was this beautiful dome building that I had spotted when we first arrived. I took a few pictures and kept thinking that it was somewhat familiar looking to me. Finally it hit me. Now maybe it is just a coincidence, but it sure does have a similar style so the dome buildings of Naboo, doesn't it? I wonder if Lucas and the artists were inspired by this building at The Presidio?

Building at The Presidio

Naboo Buildings

After breakfast, the parent bloggers and kids were able to have a round table interview with some of the top guys we had spoken with at Skywalker Ranch: John Goodson of Industrial Light & Magic, Matthew Wood of Skywalker Sound (a.k.a General Grievous) and Craig Derrick of LucasArts.

John Goodson, Matthew Wood and Craig Derrick.

This was mostly a kid driven interviews so all of the kids got to ask them some questions which was neat. My son asked John Goodson about the Death Star models:

W:  What kind of model is the Death Star?
John Goodson:  What kind of model is it? Well, there are a couple different models.  The first Death Star was just a ball, and it had lights inside of it, and it had little fiber optics, but basically it made little windows on it that lit up, and it was about this big. (Uses hands to show size)  And that one got blown up at the end of Episode IV. Then, they made another one for Return of the Jedi, and that one was about four feet across, but it was only half of it.  So because you only saw one side of it, and it has all these sections cut out of it where they're building it.  It's under construction. And it had all kinds of little intricate stuff inside and more of those little fiber optics that made little lights in there.  So, in reality, there were three feet and four feet.

After the interview we got an awesome tour, mostly of the Industrial Light & Magic area. Every hall you walked down, every corned you turned was lined with various models from movies they worked on. And we aren't just talking about Star Wars movies as ILM works on so much more than that. You should recognize these two models, Davy Jones and E.T.

Model of Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Model of E.T.

 As we made our way through the ILM halls, we stopped and peaked into John Goodson's office. This is by far the coolest office ever.

The we made our way into a room with various Star Wars models and I was face to face with Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Even as I recount this story for you all, I still can't believe I was a part of this and got to see so much cool stuff. I mean its Han Solo! In carbonite!

 

Just a few feet to the left of poor Han was another slab of carbonite, but not one I had ever seen before. Apparently, a fan made this for George Lucas and he liked it so much that he kept it and put it on display. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that this particular fan was trying to show how much people disliked the character of Jar Jar Binks.

Of course, no Star Wars trip would be complete without a Yoda sighting.

As our tour winded down, we were finally at the main event. This is what we were here for: the screening of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D! It has been so long since I saw a Star Wars movie on a big screen, so I was super excited and I think might have even gotten a few chills. For my son, he had never seen a Star Wars movie in the theater, so he was even more excited! Mostly to see Darth Maul fighting in 3D, of course. We thoroughly enjoyed it and I was told that we need to go see it again with his brothers.

When the movie was over, we knew our amazing weekend was coming to a close. We all headed out to a beautiful courtyard for lunch. Many people had planes to catch, so they quickly grabbed their food and ran for the shuttles. We were fortunate enough to be staying one more night which bought us a little more time to enjoy our lunch. And yes, the Storm Troopers were back!

The centerpiece of this courtyard is a gorgeous water fountain with a statue of Yoda on the top. My husband had told me about it and to look for it, but he thought it was at Skywalker Ranch. So I was glad that we found it here and I was able to snap some pictures for him. Again, I cannot even imagine how great it is to come into work every day to this.

Sadly, our time at the Star Wars press junket was at an end and it was time for us to board the bus and head back to our hotel room. This was one of the most amazing trips ever and I know it is something that my son will never forget. Not many people can say they toured Skywalker Ranch or the Letterman Digital Arts Center, but we can!

Thank you for following along on our fun adventure and don't forget to check out Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D on February 10! May the force be with you.

For more information on Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D be sure to visit the official movie site, like Star Wars on Facebook and follow Star Wars on Twitter (#StarWars3D)

My son and I were guests of 20th Century Fox for this amazing weekend. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Many thanks to 20th Century Fox for giving my son and I the experience of a lifetime!

Our Day at Skywalker Ranch #StarWars3D

On Friday, January 27 my oldest son and I headed out to San Francisco to attend a Star Wars press junket for the anticipated release of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D, which hits theaters on February 10. This was my first time ever to California and his first time ever on a plane, so it was a pretty exciting day for both of us. Neither of us could wait to get there and head over to Skywalker Ranch! Skywalker Ranch in not open to the public so for huge Star Wars fans like us, this is a pretty big deal. We were both a little giddy about the whole thing.

We started with a quick plane ride from Connecticut to Washington, D.C. where we had the worst connecting flight situation ever. I had 40 minutes to get us from Terminal A to the far end of Terminal D and we made it with less than5 minutes to spare, running the entire way. My poor six year old was exhausted. Thankfully we had a lovely flight from there to San Francisco. Once we landed we met up with Letica from Tech Savvy Mama and Matt of Geek Dad and headed off to the prestigious Ritz Carlton. When we arrived in our room, it was about 11:30 our time and we were beat. But things quickly picked up when we found these goodies on our bed.

This was just the perfect way to end our long day and now we were even more excited for what Saturday would have in store for us. Luckily, we had Saturday morning free to do as we please so we watched a little TV, showered and then headed out for a little sight seeing in San Francisco, which I'll do another post on. We joined the other parent bloggers and their children for lunch and then we all got on the bus to start out journey over to Skywalker Ranch. Our bus ride started with a quick drive out of the city and then over the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.

After a little bit of time on the highway, we exited at Lucas Valley Road. After doing a little research I found that the road is actually NOT named after George Lucas, but it is still pretty cool. We were on this road for quite some time, weaving through the beautiful mountains.

When we finally pulled up to the gate at Skywalker Ranch, you could feel the excitement from everyone on the bus growing. The archway in the photo below, though hard to read here, says Skywalker Ranch in Italian.

When we arrived there was a beautiful red firetruck to greet us. Skywalker Ranch does have its own fire station which not only serves the ranch, but it also responds to other emergencies in the surrounding areas.

Directly across from where we were standing outside of the Tech Building was a mountain side filled with cattle. Skywalker Ranch isn't called a ranch just for the fun of it, it actually is a working ranch with cattle, horses, vineyards, olive trees and more. The cows were nice enough to greet us with a few louds "moos."

A brief walk down the road, on the way to the Fitness Building, is the lovely Lake Ewok. There is a dock out in the middle so I have to wonder if LucasFilm staff cool off in there during the warm summer months.

The Tech Building houses Skywalker Sound and is where we spent much of our time. From the outside you can see the beautiful brick work and if I remember correctly, those were olive trees out front. Or grape vines. At this point I was still pretty giddy so some of the finer details are a bit fuzzy.

Before heading inside for more of the tour, the kids of our parent blogger group had a little light saber fun together. Periodically throughout the day, light saber battles would erupt. Hey when you hand 8 kids super cool lightsabers, its bound to happen.

Once inside we were greeted with an Xbox Kinect demonstration with the soon to be released Star Wars Kinect game. My son decided not to try it out, but we watched a lot of the other children play and it looks like a lot of fun. If only we had an Xbox in our house. Also on display were some props from Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, including these three famous lightsabers. The back dual lightsaber of course belongs to Darth Maul, front left to Qui Gon Jin and front right to Obi Wan Kenobi.

Yoda was also there to provide us with some healthy snacks and refreshments. Thank goodness because we were still on Eastern time and even though it was 3:00pm in California, it was dinner time back home in Connecticut and for our stomachs. I just have to say that I would love to have this in my kitchen, a huge Yoda fruit bowl! How cool would that be?

We then made our rounds to various "workshops." First up was John Goodson, a digital artist for Industrial Light & Magic. In addition to working on Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3, he has also worked on hit films Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Transformers and the upcoming The Avengers - which we can't wait to see!

John Goodson talked to the kids about the many models he worked on for The Phantom Menace, including this full size model of young Anakin's pod racer.

Next we were able to chat with Matthew Wood who is the Supervising Sound Editor for Skywalker Sound. Matthew also worked on Episodes 1, 2 and 3 as well as The Clone Wars animated movie. He talked to us about how he add sounds to the movies, for example many of the pod racer sounds he recorded himself. Some were of Ferrari engines, Porsche engines and even speedboat engines. But the coolest thing about Matthew is that he is the voice of General Grievous as well as the Battle Droids. So it was kind of like we were sitting there talking to Grievous himself. 

While we were talking to Matthew Wood we were seated inside the sound studio where he does much of his work. Often times George Lucas comes in to see what they are doing and it just so happens that my son was sitting in the same chair that Lucas sits in. The kids were then even able to do a little voice over themselves as Battle Droids which was a lot of fun.

Finally, it was time for the event that my son had been waiting for all day: lightsaber training! We made our to a theater where we were greeted by ObiShawn. In addition to going over some lightsaber moves like the salute, ObiShawn also did a little Jedi mentoring. He told the kids that if they wanted to be good Jedi's, they had to keep on top of all of their studies and to find something they are really passionate about and strive to be good at it. Great advice ObiShawn!

 My son absolutely loved his lightsaber training with ObiShawn and he is still talking about it almost a week later. Just look at that smile! Today he even put on his Jedi robe and practiced some moves in his bedroom.

After we were done with our workshops we got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. We ordered a little room service for dinner and W could not stop talking about how this was the best day ever. I have to agree with him, it was an amazingly cool day!

I will be posting about Day 2 at Presidio of San Fransisco soon which is the home of Industrial Light & Magic, LucasFilm and LucasArts. So much more cool stuff to come so stay tuned!

For more information on Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D be sure to visit the official movie site, like Star Wars on Facebook and follow Star Wars on Twitter (#StarWars3D)


My son and I were guests of 20th Century Fox for this amazing weekend. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Many thanks to 20th Century Fox for giving my son and I the experience of a lifetime!