Do you have a hard time pulling your little guys away from The Empire Strikes Back orThe Clone Wars?

Why not embrace their love of Jedis and lightsabers and throw them a Star Wars birthday party? I went to amazingmoms.com to learn a few tips of the trade!

PLANNING YOUR STAR WARS PARTY
You don’t need the powers of “the force” to host a memorable party, but time planning and the ideas in this guide will help. If possible, 4-6 weeks is the perfect no-stress time line. Begin with Star Wars party supplies. Then, use this birthday guide to prepare your Star Wars party games and activities.

Star Wars Partyware from Birthday In a Box

Build a Star Wars party box with everything you need for a fabulous party or purchase a la carte items.

STAR WARS PARTY GAMES AND ACTIVITIES
Star Wars Badges:
Get your guests in the spirit of the latest Star Wars saga with this fun craft project. Before the party, cut out badges from construction paper. Provide the kids with Star Wars stickers, extra paper, glue, scissors, glitter, markers, crayons, magazine pictures, etc., and encourage creative expression. During the party, hand out extra badges as favors while playing games. When giving out the badges, honor the kids with special awards, i.e., Best Yoda Impression, Best Team Player, Most Infectious Giggle, or Biggest Smile.

Asteroid Hunt:
Purchase small treats or gifts and wrap them in aluminum foil. Hide them in a sandbox, around the house or in the yard. At the party, let the children dig in the sand, or search throughout your “planet” to find their “moon rocks.” The kids will love the excitement of opening their rocks and finding treasures!

Light Saber Training Course:
Before the party make some light sabers with foam pipe insulation or skinny swimming “noodles”. Wrap 4-6 inches from the end with colored electrical tape to make a handle. One red, one black, blue etc. To play, divide the kids into teams to go through a challenge course. Each team will get one “Light Saber”. Create tasks for each potential Jedi to accomplish (not too hard) with the light saber in hand. For example: Hit ping pong balls with the light saber, crawl under a chair tunnel, go down a slide, roll under a tarp, pop bubbles with the light saber — you get the idea.

Alien Face Painting:
Purchase a set of face paints and give each guest a unique alien “look.” Let each child make up an alien name for himself or create a few of your own and let the kids draw names randomly. Use movie names or your own, such as “Zork,” “Murblap,” or “Gondar.”

STAR WARS PARTY FAVORS
Make your own party favors by filling plastic party cups decorated with Star Wars Stickers. Write each guests name with glitter glue and fill with glow in the dark items, flashlights, glow-balls, small Star Wars toys and treats. Save time with complete Star Wars party favor kits, an easy and special way to say “thank you for coming to my party!”

Former American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood, is celebrating a birthday today! Happy 27th Carrie!

Since her American Idol days, Carrie has blossomed into a multi-platinum selling artist, multiple Grammy winner and 3-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner! In fact, her first album is the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history!

In the U.S. alone, Carrie has sold over 11 million albums — surpassing fellow Idol contestant Kelly Clarkson!

And speaking of Idol, check out Carrie’s very first American Idol audition tape! You could tell from day 1, she was a sure thing!

Happy birthday to Hollywood-beauty, Brittany Snow!

At the very young age of 24, Brittany has already proven herself to be a true triple-threat! Starring in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, Hairspray, we got to see Brittany act, sing and dance with some of Hollywood’s best actors including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron and Queen Latifah.

She’s also starred in films like The Pacifier, Prom Night, and Finding Amanda as well as TV hits like Gossip Girl and Nip/Tuck.

To learn more about today’s birthday girl, check out TVGuide.com!

Although she got her big break playing a teen rebel on Guiding Light, this angelic-looking actress was a good girl off screen. After launching her modeling career at age 3, the native Floridian appeared in regional theater and TV guest spots before signing on to the New York-based soap. In order to maintain a semblance of a normal life, her parents insisted that she keep Tampa as her home base, and from 1998-2001, Snow commuted to the set while keeping her spot on her school’s honor roll. In 2002 she charmed prime-time viewers as the lead on the family drama American Dreams. As a comely blonde dancer coming of age against the tumultuous backdrop of the ’60s, she became a teen idol and fashion plate. Although the series was canceled after three seasons, Snow launched a successful big-screen career in youth-oriented comedies (John Tucker Must Die, The Pacifier) while continuing to indulge her dark side as a neo-Nazi high-school student in a scary stint on Nip/Tuck.

Happy 24th Brittany! Here’s to many more birthdays!

In honor of Barbie’s birthday — yes, Barbie first debuted at the American International Toy Fair 51 years ago today — I thought it might be fun to provide some tips on how to throw a Barbie birthday party for your little ones!

Follow the advice I got from ehow.com and your little girl will be sure to feel like a princess on her special day!

Planning a Barbie Birthday Party

Step 1: Make the invitations. Choose die cuts (available at scrapbooking or craft supply stores) that look like clothes Barbie would wear, such as a fancy dress or fun purse. Glue these on the front of blank notecards or card stock and decorate with glittery gel pens and glitter glue. Include party information inside. Remind party guests to bring dress-up clothes and their favorite Barbie doll (or two).

Step 2: Decorate with pink, purple and silver. Use balloons, ribbon, streamers and actual Barbie dolls to decorate the entire party area. Consider placing one of your daughter’s Barbies in party attire on each guest’s chair.

Entertaining Your Barbie Party Guests

Step 1: Allow all of the girls to dress up when they arrive. Pull out old dresses from your closet for dress-up time. Have an area set aside for a quick kid-friendly makeover, complete with lip gloss, simple makeup and a full-length mirror to admire the results.

Step 2: After the girls get glamorous, have a space for Barbie’s makeover as well. Have brushes and ribbon on hand for a quick Barbie hair makeover.

Step 3: Play Hot Potato Purse, which is traditional Hot Potato but using a purse instead of a potato. The winner of each round wears a special Barbie tiara for the next round. Hot Potato is played with music and an object. The children sit in a circle and pass the object while the music plays. The person who has the object when the music is stopped is the winner or loser. In Hot Potato Purse the person holding the purse gets to wear the tiara and is considered the winner of the round.

Step 4: Play Dress Up Barbie. This is a race to see who can dress her Barbie the fastest. Give all players similar clothing, including pants, shirt and shoes.

Step 5: Give party guests free play time to enjoy playing with the dolls they brought. Have plenty of ribbons and doll brushes on hand for the girls to play hairdresser.

Step 6: Feed your hungry party guests! Enjoy a Barbie cake, tea-sized sandwiches and pink frosted cookies.

For all you financial types out there, today we are celebrating the birthday of the New York Stock Exchange!

Ok, so it may not be as interesting as celebrity birthdays or birthday party tips, but in an effort to teach us all a little something, here we go

Below are a few facts about Wall Street. You can also check them out at bargaineering.com!

• The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) began in 1817 as the brokers formed the New York Stock & Exchange Board (NYS&EB), renting rooms at 40 Wall Street and adopting a constitution.
• The twenty four brokers or firms became the first NYSE members, they were: Leonard Bleecker, Hugh Smith, Armstrong & Barnewall, Samuel March, Bernard Hart, Alexander Zuntz, Andrew D. Barclay, Sutton & Hardy, Benjamin Seixa , John Henry, John A. Hardenbroo , Samuel Beebe, Benjamin Winthrop, John Ferrers, Ephraim Hart, Isaac M. Gomez, Gulian McEvers, Augustine H. Lawrence, G. N. Bleecker, John Bush, Peter Anspach, Charles McEvers, Jr., David Reedy, and Robinson & Hartshorne.
• Anthony Stockholm was the first President of the NYSE.
• William McChesney Martin, Jr., became the first full time salaried president in 1938.
• Originally stocks were traded in what’s known as a “call market.” The President would read out each stock and the brokers would trade them. There was a morning session and an afternoon session.
• There are 2,764 listed securities on the exchange.
• It is fourth largest in terms of listings behind the Bombay Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ.
• The NYSE was originally organized at the Tontine Coffee House, located at the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets, at 82 Wall Street. Business was transacted there until 1817.
• The Tontine Coffee House was located across from the Meal Market, where enslaved workers could be hired or bought.
• The first listed company on the NYSE was the Bank of New York.
• In 1868, there were 533 seats on the NYSE.
• There are currently 1,366 seats available on the NYSE.
• On December 1st, 2005, the highest price was paid for membership in the NYSE at $4 million.
• Thirty days later, December 31st, the NYSE moves away from seats to annual trading licenses.
• Muriel Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE in 1967.
• Joseph L. Searles III was the first African-American member of the Exchange in 1970.
• Merill Lynch & Co., Inc. became the NYSE’s first member organization in July 27th, 1971.
• The NYSE merged with publicly-traded Archipelago electronic stock exchanged, formed NYSE Group, Inc., and is now publicly traded under the ticker NYX.
• The longest period in which the exchange was closed occurred during WW1, when the NYSE was closed for four and a half months starting July 31st, 1914.
• The highest price per share stock on the NYSE is Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (Class A).

The Today Show weatherman, Willard Scott, is celebrating a birthday today!

And after years of wishing others a happy birthday, it’s time to celebrate Willard!

Last year for his 75th birthday, The Today Show put together a very funny montage of some of his very best TV moments! Trust me, it’s worth viewing!

Check it out for yourself!

Happy birthday, Shaq!

Standing at over 7’1, Shaq is one of the biggest players to ever play professional basketball — not to mention one of the most talented.

An overall 1st draft pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, he quickly became one of the most dominant post players in the league. Some of his accolades include: 1992-1993 Rookie of the Year, 1999-2000 MVP, 3 All-Star Game MVPs, 2 scoring titles and 4 NBA Championships. Not bad!

The NBA’s big man has been playing professional basketball for 17 years, but he shows no signs of slowing down! He is now a Cleveland Cavalier, playing alongside NBA superstar LeBron James. With those 2 on the same court — who knows — there could be a 5th NBA Championship on the way!

Happy 38th Shaq! Here’s to many more!

Hollywood beauty, Eva Mendes, is celebrating her 36th birthday today! Happy birthday, Eva!

While you probably know her from films such as Hitch, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Training Day, Eva is also an incredibly successful model! You’ve likely seen her in numerous Calvin Klein ads and she is also the international spokeswoman for Revlon!

To learn more about today’s birthday girl, I went to IMDb.com to get all the details!

Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida but raised in Los Angeles of Cuban-American heritage. In college she began acting, studying underneath acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. This led to her desire to appear in feature films. Though taking many smaller roles in movies, she was little known until playing the girlfriend of Denzel Washington’s character in Training Day (2001). Since then she has been featured in a wider range of roles, from comedic to dramatic. These gave her the ability to work with many highly regarded directors, such as Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)), Carl Franklin (Out of Time (2003), John Singleton (2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)), Antoine Fuqua (Training Day (2001)) and the Farrelly Brothers (Stuck on You (2003)).

Eva has co-starred in an independent film, The Wendell Baker Story (2005) with Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell, with Luke Wilson directing. Before that, her biggest movie was Hitch (2005), a romantic comedy that had her playing opposite Will Smith.

Along with acting, Eva is employed by Revlon Cosmetics as an international spokeswoman. She joins such elite actresses and models as Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, and Cindy Crawford, who appear in Revlon’s television and print ads. She is also a passionate supporter and active participant in Revlon’s fight against breast cancer.

Eva’s goals are to improve her acting skills by working with such contemporary directors/filmmakers as Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jonze and Pedro Almodovar, and learning from such renowned directors as Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni.

It’s hard not to love People magazine! Balancing just the right amount of celebrity gossip and human-interest stories, People is one of America’s most successful weekly publications!

36 years old today, People has a circulation of 3.6 million people! But, it’s not just the magazine — the website is viewed daily but millions of Americans eager to get their daily dose of celebrity news! In fact, in 2007, the website drew almost 40 million page views within a day of the Golden Globes!

But if you aren’t a weekly subscriber, chances are you’ve purchased at least one issue of People before…and I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s their most popular issue — the yearly “Sexiest Man Alive” issue!

What originally began as a Mel Gibson cover story became an incredibly successful annual feature! Check out some of the most recent winners!

2009 — Johnny Depp
2008 — Hugh Jackman
2007 — Matt Damon
2006 — George Clooney
2005 — Matthew McConaughey
2004 — Jude Law
2003 — Johnny Depp
2002 — Ben Affleck
2001 — Pierce Brosnan
2000 — Brad Pitt

So happy birthday People! Here’s to the next 36!

The second Twilight movie — New Moon — came out just a few months ago and, chances are, you have little ones that have read the entire series from cover to cover!

So why not throw your child a Twilight birthday party? Check out amazingmoms.com for more amazing tips!

Twilight Party Invitations and Decorations:
Take a cue from the book covers when coming up with your invitation designs. Consider black and red invitations in the shape of a red apple, a ruffled tulip or a chess piece and attach a torn red satin ribbon to each. Another option is to print and photocopy pictures of the two characters of Edward and Jacob and consider sending invitations supporting two teams: Team Edward and Team Jacob. That way, if you have games at the party, you can have two teams already set up. Or, you can order personalized Twilight invitations from Birthday in a Box with a haunting image that’s sure to leave an impression.

Decorate your house with lots of red and black balloons and a black table cover. Make sure you have plenty of Twilight cups, napkins and plates. Ask your local video store if they have any spare copies of the movie posters, or print up photos of the main characters to hang. If you have copies of the books, have them lined up somewhere for a trivia game later. Also, have the soundtrack playing as the guests arrive. If you really want to recreate the world of Forks, WA and don’t have the soundtrack, pick up a cheap sound effects CD of rain falling!

The other question to ask is “What Would Alice Do?” Queen of party decorations, and a fan of twinkle Christmas lights, Alice uses a whole range of great items when decorating. Take a cue from the book and see how Alice has decorated the house for her various parties.

Twilight Party Recipes and Favors:
In the spirit of Bella and Edward’s date, consider Italian food as an option for your meal. Make sure your beverages are “red” in color for those supernaturally thirsty guests. Red and black jelly beans or ju-jubes also fit the theme as nibblies, or red delicious apple slices as a healthier option. For the cake, consider a red velvet cake with a raspberry middle filling and dark chocolate icing. You can also add the four book cover items to the top: White chess queen, small apple, ribbon and tulip.

As for favors, try these vampire tattoos, Twilight stickers, stick-on body jewels, or you could give your guests personalized mini-zipper pulls or Twilight magnets.

Twilight Party Activities:
Watching the movie is definitely a main event for this particular party, so that the girls can all “moon” over Edward and Bella’s epic romance. There are other fun activities to explore as well. If you’re making it a co-ed party, consider the Team Edward/Team Jacob concept, and have games to challenge the teams against each other.

Twilight Trivia:
You will need: Twilight books or Twilight quiz questions, Paper and Pens

How to play: For the trivia game, you can take a few different tacts. Divide the guests into two teams. Have a game leader ask each team questions and have them guess what book that fact is from. Or you could list off quotes from the books and ask who “said it”.

Vampire Baseball:
How to play: Treat it the same as regular baseball, except add your own Twilight twist to it. For example, rather than having them run, they need to leap from base to base. Or play with the balls that are used making the effort harder for the teams playing.

Twilight Party Crafts:
Creating homemade jewelry is a great idea for these vampire guests. Lots of fake jewels, red and black beads and different necklace and earring patterns will have them creating some gorgeous options that would make Alice Cullen proud. You could also have a “before and after” photo session where you have the guests as “humans” before, and then give them all a vampire makeover and do “after” photos for the girls to take home.