Alien Space Party -7yr- Hatch the Alien Egg

Alien Space Party   My twin boys recently turned 7 and for their birthday we held an Alien Space Party. 

The invitations were enlarged clip art printed on card stock paper.  The picture was a rocket with an alien in it, outlined in glitter puffy paint.  The background had stars which were also outlined. On the back the party blurb was "Blast off to (boys names)  Alien Space Party.  Launch Pad: XXX, Lift off: XXX Return to Earth XXX. RSVP Mother Ship. "  The font was Digitek which is a futuristic/techy type font in keeping with the theme.  

When the kids came, their first activity was having their picture taken with the alien.  The alien for the picture was a long tube of black cloth, stuffed so that it was upright.  On the top where the head would be was an alien mask and a long black hooded cape was around the figure.  The kids stood next to the alien and had a Polaroid photo taken.    Lined up on the kitchen counter were their individual space ships.   I'd taken clear, round, plastic salad containers (the kind you get at take out counters), spray painted them silver and added puffy paint blobs for lights.  Each one was personalized with their name painted on it.  They looked like space ships when done.  There was one per child and they put their photos in them.  The space ships were also their loot bags and throughout the party whenever they got a prize they were to put it in their space ship.  They then went to a table which was set up with everything they’d need to make alka seltzer rockets (film canisters, toilet paper rolls, cardstock paper, tape) which was their craft.  I had spray painted the toilet paper rolls and cardstock paper silver so the rockets did look quite cool when they were finished.  Once all the rockets were built we went outside (quite the production since we live in Canada and it was December) to launch.   

Once all the kids had launched their rockets (did it twice since they liked it so much) we came back in and headed to the space room.  For the space room I'd sectioned off part of a room with black cloth and hung black cloth on all the walls creating a room in black.  The light bulb was replaced with a black light and I'd hung gold stars, silver moons, rockets, planets, etc. that I'd cut out of bristol board all around the room.   White and silver balloons covered the floor.  As well I’d hung about 50 glow sticks throughout the room.  In the centre of the space room was a large refrigerator box with holes randomly cut out of the sides.   Black lights do not work as well I remember them, but the glow sticks made up for it.   

The first game was Hatch the Alien Egg.  I had identified 8 balloons with different symbols (black dot, red triangle, blue square, etc.) and each kid was given one of the symbols and told to find the balloon with their symbol.  Once they found their balloon they were to sit on the balloon to break it and put the paper which had a number on it in their spaceship/loot bag.  The number was the order for the pinata which came later in the party. 

The second game was Save the Alien.  At each hole in the refrigerator box was a piece of cardboard with a string attached.  The string was wrapped through the holes creating a web.  The idea of this game was to follow the string and save the alien (a keychain with an alien).   

Once all the aliens were saved we went upstairs to play "Find the Moon Rocks".  Hidden throughout the house were silver painted rocks. The kids were told to find 5 rocks each and put them in their space ships.  Crop Circle Toss was next.  A target was cut out of bristol board and placed on the floor.   Each kid  was given flying saucers (ends of frozen juice cans, decorated with stickers (stars, aliens etc.)  The idea was to toss the flying saucer onto the target and whichever team got the most points won.   I had planned cake and ice cream next but they demanded to do the Pinata which worked out well.   They were told to find their number from the Hatch the Alien Egg game and that would be the order for the pinata.  I wanted every child to have a turn and determined the order based on my perception of how strong they were and their chances of breaking the pinata.  

The pinata was in the shape of an alien head (green with black eyes, mouth) and filled with mini mars bars, gum, starburst candy.  The candies were wrapped in green alien stamped tissue paper packages so there wasn't as much fighting over stuff.  However, I must have made the pinata stronger than I usually do and by the time they broke it, they also broke through the tissue wrapped candy.  Zip lock bags might have worked better.   We then had cake and ice cream.  Since the boys are twins I make one regular cake and one ice cream cake.  The regular cake was a sheet cake cut into the shape of an alien, decorated in green frosting and jelly candies.  The ice cream cake was ice cream shaped in a bowl and had a rocket and astronaut figures on it - a moonscape type idea.

Hanging from the dining room light were saturns that we'd made (old CDs with a styrofoam ball cut in half glued to either side and decorated with glitter paint).  On the table were rockets made from paper towel tubes and decorated.  All plates, cups were silver and everything was on a dark blue cloth with silver confetti stars on it.  Opening presents was next.  To help control chaos with all kids wanting their present opened, I had them sit in a circle.  They had to pass a moon rock (foil wrapped ball) and whoever had the moon rock when the music stopped got to hand their present to the birthday boys.   

The last activity was an Alien Autopsy.  The alien that the kids had their photo taken with was put on a table.  My husband wore the alien mask and the top part of the black tube covered his shoulders.  He was sitting on a low stool at the end of the table so his masked head was even with the table.  The rest of the tube was lying on the table in front of him.   Part of the seam had been opened up and a roasting pan filled with wet spaghetti, cherry pie filling and jello was put inside.  The body was draped with green sheets (opened up green garbage bags) and each child was given a surgical mask (like doctors wear).  They were told to put their hands inside the alien and find any strange pieces that didn't belong.  In the pan of spaghetti was a package - one per child. 

The package contained stuff for their loot space ship: space/alien stickers, alien pencil, light sticks and other alien/space related stuff.  All the loot was wrapped in green tissue paper decorated with stars and stamped with alien pictures so the boys couldn't see what was in the bag.  Each package was in a zip lock bag for protection, which was thrown out once their package was retrieved. Some of the boys were hesitant about putting their hands in the alien but once they saw there was a prize it was no problem.  Near the end of the "autopsy" was husband suddenly moved and shouted out.  None of the boys had clued in that he was there so they were definitely startled.   The party lasted two hours and was for 8 kids. It was fun, action packed and very different from any party they'd been to.   It was also relatively inexpensive since my boys and I made most of the games and decorations.  Most boys did not want to leave once their parents came to pick them up but continued to play in the space area!!