Force Friday

This past Friday (September 4) was apparently nicknamed "Force Friday" because that is the day that the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens toys and other merchandise were released for sale to the public. There were news stories about people waiting in line to be able to be the first to buy those items at midnight. We did not participate in that. In fact, we didn't get to any store until Saturday afternoon.

The whole family plus three of Alex's friends that spent the night on Friday, all went to IHOP for breakfast. That was a large breakfast bill, but Alex's friends all seem like good kids, and it was to give them a little treat. All of them got up on their own by about 9am except for his friend John, who Alex literally dragged out of bed. We sat in adjoining booths, the boys in their own booth, otherwise it might have taken forever for all eight of us to get seated.

After breakfast, Natalie and I took advantage of some of the Labor Day sales at La Cantera Mall. After that, Eric reminded me that I told him I would take him to Target. He really wanted me to take him to Target first, but that would have involved his having to go shopping with Natalie and me, and that is not what he nor we wanted to do.

My whole family loves to go to Target. Eric always likes to hang out in the toy section to look at their Legos. He can spend quite a while there, but since it was just the two of us at Target, he knew he would have to do "shopping" with me first then I would take him to the toy section. This time, there was a big area for just the Star Wars stuff. There were costumes, clothing, toys, and lots of items all in the Star Wars theme. Some of the stuff was not necessarily Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie-themed, but just Star Wars in general.

We spent quite a bit of time in that Star Wars area. Eric honed in on the new Kilo Ren lightsaber. Kilo Ren is a "bad guy" in the new movie and he has a red lightsaber that has three points. According to Patrick, there has been talk online about how impractical such a shape would be because it would be difficult not to strike yourself with the perpendicular lightsabers when fighting with the long central lightsaber. It didn't matter--Eric really wanted that lightsaber.

He also discovered a large "Jedi Master Lightsaber Set" with interchangeable parts that you can customize to your liking. At first we thought that set was $19.99. The Kilo Ren lightsaber was $12.99. The prices weren't cheap but I didn't mind spending that for my Star Wars-loving boy. Then when I did the price check and discovered that the big set retailed for $49.99, that was too much to spend for a non-birthday, non-Christmas gift for Eric. Target had a coupon for $10 off a Star Wars purchase of $50 or more, but that was still a lot of money. I presented the situation to Eric, who said, "But I really want it." I had to admit that the big "Jedi Master Lightsaber Set" was pretty cool. He volunteered to pay for it with his allowance money. I agreed to give him a discount off the tax, and he got two lightsabers for $55.

The top picture above is of Eric with the two lightsabers put together. On Sunday night, when we had our family friends over for dinner (Patrick smoked ribs again--yum!), they were also impressed. I texted that top picture to Anthony and he was impressed also. Eric has been playing with them since then, and so has Natalie. Eric also showed Alex and of course he thought it was cool too.

When Eric went to bed on Sunday night, and Alex was still expecting some of his friends to come over to spend the night, I asked Eric to put away his lightsabers. He had them by his bed near the window (where I couldn't see them), and he laughed when he realized that if he had left them in the game room where Alex and his friends usually sleep, one of them might accidentally have laid down on the lightsabers and gotten a surprise lightsaber sound in the middle of the night. Eric thought that would be funny but not a nice thing to do to Alex's friends when they were trying to sleep.

The second picture above is of Eric in his usual "stance" when it come to looking at Legos. He was looking at Lego Ninjago Legos at the time, but he likes to squat down to get a better look. He was doing that today also, when I took him to North Star Mall to the Lego Store there. I had to take him there before the week got busy, to see the new Legos and to see the new merchandise at the Disney Store. I took this last picture after we went to the Disney Store. I saw the big poster/graphic on the front window and told Eric that I wanted a picture. I didn't tell him how to pose. He decided on his own to reach up as if he was actually holding the lightsaber in the picture. What a goof! I do love that he can use his imagination to have fun, and that makes it worth carting him around to all of these places this weekend.