Mark Llobrera

Forty

Published in #family, #film, #photos

We’re out in Manahawkin, New Jersey, staying with my folks and my brother’s family at my family friends’ beach house (demolished by Hurricane Sandy and since rebuilt).

As their birthday gift to me Em and Soph performed a finger-puppet rendition of the first act of Return of the Jedi. Em and Soph hand-crafted finger puppets for the key players. My favorite was Bounty Hunter Leia, who Em kept referring to as “Alt-Leia”. They assembled Han-in-carbonite from Magforms. They also made Jabba’s palace out of a shoebox, complete with a trap door for Luke to fall into the Rancor pit.

A young girl acts out a scene from Return of the Jedi using paper puppets.
Jabba laughs as Luke falls through a trap door.

The palace also transformed into Jabba’s barge—lifting the top reveals two paper sails that unfurl. A plastic Solo™ cup was the Sarlacc pit (yes, they did the scene where Boba Fett’s jetpack sends him into the pit).

A lineup of paper puppet versions of Star Wars characters.
Papercraft Star Wars cast

We also made it to the beach on Long Beach Island.

Three girls play in the sand by the water line.

Finally, this:

Sunset in Manahawkin, NJ.
Sunset from the deck