Jedi Training Academy

Tuesday morning our group staked out a spot for the Jedi Training Academy. Four of our five kidlets got chosen. Hazel was amazingly sanguine for having been left behind. Maybe it was because she'd gotten her face painted with pixie dust and had a visit with a fairy godmother?
The Jedi instructor was my favorite part of the whole trip. Fast as an auctioneer, deadpan as anything, and his patter was absolutely hilarious.
He taught the kids a choreographed sequence with their light sabers.
Then the dark side showed up in a cloud of dry ice.
Each of the trainees got to try out their new skilz. Here Charlie gets to take a whack at Darth Vader with some coaching.
Sebastian was the first one to take on Darth Maul. He was so creepy and kept looking at the spectators with his golden eyes (Darth Maul -- not Sebi). I thought Sebi might fall to pieces, but he kept it all together.
Maddie has been training with hickory broadswords all year long in her Shakespeare class. She was ready to take on all of them.
Will looks concerned here, which is healthy. You should be concerned about fighting people with eight horns and a double-edged sword.
After the foes were vanquished, diplomas were handed out and they turned in their hoods and sabers. From our point of view as parents and cubmasters and primary choristers, this was a masterful job of kid wrangling. The performers were entertaining, professional, and they really knew how to manage their charges. You can see a segment with the same jedi and a kid like Charlie here and over here is another video where the padawan goes completely off the rails, forgets his routine and starts wailing on Darth Vader.
This was definitely one of the highlights for the whole family. I think we'd still have a quorum to go back and do it again tomorrow!

Comments

Lois said…
OK, you've convinced me. I'm going to have to do that next time we go to Disneyland.
10:54 AM
ishtheintrepid said…
Okay, your kids are always adorable, but Charlie v. Vader is the cutest thing I've seen in years. Such great pics of Maddie, too. :)

Kaki
11:53 AM
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