16201

Space Explorers Party -3yr- Space Music

July 2007

katie in tipp city, ohio usa

Special Mention

For my son's 3rd birthday he picked a space theme. I decided to take that idea a little bit further and stick with retro rockets and space explorers. I decided on a slight color scheme of red, light blue, and silver..with black accents.

INVITATIONS: I bought black rectangular cardstock cards with two front flaps. They came with white vellum envelopes which gave the finished product a very futuristic look. On the front the the flaps I cut out numbers ( 3..2..1)in red, light blue, and silver. And placed them over the flap to keep the card closed. I used white paint, and painted dots after each number. When you open the flaps it showed a retro-style moon in yellow with different sized circles all over to resemble craters and then a large cut out star beside it. I painted more white dots all around to look like far-off stars.

On the main body of the invitation I kept the black background and cut out a red, retro style rocket made of cardstock with silver wings. And a white circle for the window. Below the rocket I made flames coming out made of sparkle yellow paper and orange vellum. On top of the bottom flap I glued a light blue cardstock over the entire flap and cut out fluffy clouds and put the flames coming through. It looked like the rocket was blasting off into space. On the clouds I wrote in whimsical letters: blast off". I scattered a few more white clouds on the blue background and then wrote: "to max's top secret birthday mission to the moon". "launch date: launch time: secret command center: (our house). Since the backs of the cards were seen through the vellum I placed another star on the back that looked great next to the invited child's address. I addressed each invite to "space explorer ( and the kid's name). 

KIDS GIFTS: for each child I made a rocket pack out of 2 2-liters spray painted with a gray primer and duck taped together. I used orange and red felt to make flames coming out and topped them off with the yellow sparkle paper left from the invitations. I hot glued white elastic straps to the back of each. They were so easy..but looked really modern and retro. Next I filled up light blue gift bags with clearadjustable safety goggles.sponge disk throwers and glow sticks and bracelets 

DECORATIONS: from our local wholesale supply store I bought a lot of silver foil-looking table skirts and cloths. I lined the skirt along our long kitchen lower cabinets and lined the counter top with aluminum foil and scattered bright colored paper confetti all around. I hung black curtains from the kitchen window and cut out white paper stars and taped them all over. Above the punch table I made a large yellow moon our of poster board and repeated the circle pattern from the invitations. I also added some hanging white stars. I finished the kitchen off with silver spoonsnapkins cups with a metal pattern on them and light blue plates. Outside we put up our netted gazebo tent( family dollar store..$25) and lined the inside with $0.95 black plastic table cloths. It totally black the tent out and then I hung large light green and blue paper lanterns of different sizes and more white paper stars and some black streamers.

The lanterns looked like planets and also gave it a cool modern look. I put a long table with black table cloth for the kids to sit all together. On the backs each chair I put their rockets and gift bags. The best part of the party was the picture backdrop I painted. It was made of 4x8 plywood and I pained it black with lots of white stars with a red and light blue space rocket with silver wings ( just like the invites). I added a moon and a space explorer and my husband used his jigsaw and cut out four circles ( 2 for the rocket 1 for the moon 1 for the space explorer). I designed the explorers outfit to look retro..and gave him red and white polka dot boots! The backdrop was amazing for all the families to use for pictures (putting their faces through the circles) and also doubled as a target for the sponge-disk shooters. It was a huge hit and really dressed up the backyard.  

I also put together a cd of space-themed songs.frank Sinatra" fly me to the moon"Styks" mr. roboto".nat king cole"paper moon" david bowie" space oddity star man". It was so funny to see the kids in their goggles and rocket packs..running around to sinatra! Hahhaha. The parents enjoyed it too. I also found some space noises and had that playing in the kitchen with the food. It really added to the ambiance.

ACTIVITIES: we based the party outside so I made my son's swing set and large climber into a space explorer training camp. Underneath the climber's slide I put our large inflatable pool and filled it with small black and silver balloons. It was a cheaper alternative to buying ball pit balls and the kids had a blast sliding into them. I also laid out our neon green tunnel and made a control panel out of silver presentation board so that the climber was the rocket ship. I cut out diagrams and maps from an old telephone book to add to the control panel.  Scattered all around the yard I placed random things for the kids to use their imaginations with..silver dryer duck tubes for the kids to put around their arms ( they pretended they were robots:) my husbands black and silver car sun reflectors they used as shields and then just lots of balls to kick around.  We only played one game and it was a moon rock hunt. I took candy and balled it up with aluminum foil and scattered them all over the yard. The kids used their gift bags to collect the rocks and were so surprised that there was candy inside. 

FOOD: we ordered "flying saucer" pizza for the party and I made an punch of blue Hawaiian punch sprite and green sherbet. It looked like something from outerspace! For the cake I opted for cupcakes..and ended up finding little individual star cups in silver foil. It was so great! Everyone got their own little star cake and I placed out light blue tinted icing and star sprinkles to decorate. Each child decorated their own.  To top off the end of the party we all lit sparklers and ran around the yard. It was such a fun party and really laid back. We just let the kids run around and play and it was so relaxed. The best party yet!    "

• Kids Party Home
• Kids by Category
• Kids by A to Z
• Teen Party Ideas
• Adult Party Ideas
• Holiday Party Ideas
• Nutcracker Ballet