Outer Space/Rocket Party -7yr- Deep Space Game

INVITATION:  For my son’s 7th birthday party he chose to have an outer space/rocket theme.  I made the invitations on my computer and saved them as jpegs, then sent them off to be developed as 4x6 photos.  The invitations read:  You are invited to ___’s OUT OF THIS WORLD 7th birthday party!  Mission Date: ____, Lift off: _____, Mission Complete: ____, Launch Site: ____.  I added planet and star graphics and then the countdown across the top with his age (7) in a different color and in a larger font (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF).

DECORATIONS:  Decorating for this party was so much fun.  I used the colors lime green, dark blue and orange with a LOT of silver/foil!!  From the ceiling we hung round paper lanterns to look like planets (added tissue paper to resemble Earth, foil ring around one to resemble Saturn, and various strips of colored tissue to resemble Jupiter).  We also had some silver swirls leftover from a New Year’s party that we hung in between the planets.  

Using heavy-duty foil, we made body casts of my two oldest children.  With the kids lying on the floor we molded the foil to their body starting at their feet and doing their face last.  We then used masking tape to put them on the walls.  They really looked awesome sticking out from the walls and turned out to be a great effect for not much time or money!  This could also be an activity during the party where you make a imprint of each child in another room then see if they kids can identify them!  

My husband took over the fireplace/hearth area of our living room and converted it into Mission Control!  He placed a TV in the actual fireplace and then we dvr’d the NASA station with actual Mission Control footage to run during the party.  He put colored Christmas lights around it, and then covered them with a blue plastic tablecloth so just the lights would show through faintly. He also used dryer duct, rope lights, and a shop-vac hose covered in foil to add other components to the Mission Control Center!  

The lamps in the living room also got a space-age makeover by covering the lampshades with foil and sliding dryer duct over the stand of the lamp.  Behind the dessert table I created a backdrop using purple rope lights that I arranged in a swirl pattern. I then hung white Christmas lights in front of that.  I placed a blue plastic tablecloth in front so that the lights could be seen through like stars in the night sky.  The effect was really neat.  

I made a bunting that said 3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF to hang in front of the star backdrop.  The bunting was made to resemble rocket engines.  I covered ice cream cones (the type with a flat bottom) in foil, printed out flames with the letters and numbers on them, and then inserted the flames into the ice cream cones.  I strung these all on a silver ribbon.  Above the backdrop I used cheap silver star garland (dollar store) to add a little more sparkle.  We also used silver emergency mylar blankets (found in dollar section) to cover the coffee table and buffet table.

Small battery-operated tea-lights were covered with neon balloons and looked like little glowing orbs.  We placed these on an existing shelf that we lined with foil.  Our existing artwork was covered in foil and then we added space themed wall clings to the foil.  My son has a lot of Imaginext Space Toys so we also placed these around the living room as decorations.  These toys were also great for the guests to play with while we were transitioning between activities or setting up a new game.

ACTIVITIES: When the kids arrived they each received a small blue tote bag.  Using glitter glue and various space-themed stickers, they decorated their bag.  We put these aside to be used later on in our Deep Space game.  Other activities included making Meteor Mix (trail mix) using Fruit Loops (Saturn’s Rings), Raisins (Asteroids), Cheese Balls (Comets), Teddy Grahams (Alien Bears), Bugles (Rocket Engines), and M&M’s (UFO’s).  I put each ingredient in a tin foil container and labeled each with its corresponding space name.  Kids then got a clear bag to fill to their hearts content!  Later on, each child also received a small blue tin bucket to fill at the Galaxy of Goodies.  Here they chose from Milky Ways, Starbursts, Star Crunch, red and yellow licorice (rocket flames), chocolate covered marshmallows dipped in lime green sprinkles (Mars-Mallows), and Pixy Stix (Shooting Star Stix).

GAMES: There were so many ideas I found for space games that it was hard to narrow it down!  I ended up with three main games.  The first was a Moon Walk where we placed over 100 white and silver balloons on our trampoline and just let the kids bounce around in them.  This was a huge hit!  

Our second game was called Deep Space.  Before the party, we painted a bunch of small rocks with glow-in-the-dark paint and I made a batch of glow-in-the-dark slime and put it in small containers.  In my son’s bedroom we covered his window and one whole wall with black plastic.  The black plastic was then covered in glow-in-the-dark stars and aliens. My son’s room is decorated in a space theme already so his bedding and artwork is also glow-in-the-dark!  We placed the rocks and slime (my husband had a bright light shining on them up until right before the game) all around my son’s room.  We told the kids to be extra careful in deep space because there would be moon rocks and alien slime all over!  They took their decorated tote bags in the dark room to collect their items.  We told them how many rocks they could each collect and that each child could have one slime container.  The room was pitch black except for the glowing items!  It was very cool (even for me!).  

Our last activity was pull-string rockets.  I found the directions online to make rockets out of toilet paper tubes.  Each rocket contained confetti and some pieces of wrapped candy.  These were hung from the tree branches outside and each child got to choose 3 rockets to pull!  I really liked this activity better than a piñata because each child had the experience of the candy falling instead of just the one child who breaks the piñata.  In addition, there was no mad scramble for goodies because each child’s rocket had it’s own goodies just for them!

PARTY SNACKS: After our first game (moon walk on trampoline) the kids were in need of drinks and snacks!  So we came in and hit the Galaxy of Goodies. Along with the items listed above, there were also rocket sugar cookies, Gatorade (with a label that read Rocket Fuel), and water bottles (with a label reading Liquid Hydrogen).  The kids got to eat a few things from their tin buckets and then go back for a refill of goodies to take home!  I had hoped to make a healthy snack for the kids, but ran out of time (Rocket Fruit Kabobs: Watermelon triangle at top, grapes and banana in middle and cantaloupe at bottom).  Instead I was able to enlist my mom’s help after the party and we served them when just our family came over for a birthday dinner.   I also served Rocket Dogs at our family dinner (hot dog on wooden skewer with breadstick wrapped around and topped with a triangle of cheddar cheese).

CAKE: For the birthday cake my son really wanted a 3D rocket that was standing up!  I worried about frosting a cake like this so I convinced him that half of a rocket cake would still look 3D and we propped the cake board up so it looked like it was blasting off.  I used gray marshmallow fondant covered in silver luster dust for the body of the rocket and used blue, orange, yellow and lime green fondant as accent colors.  I covered mini ice cream cones with the gray fondant as the rocket engines at the base and blended orange and yellow fondant as the flames coming out of the engines!  The flames were on skewers inserted into the cake so they actually looked 3D!

FAVORS: In addition to their Meteor Mix and Galaxy of Goodies buckets, I made simple loot bags from lime green lunch sacks and attached a tag with rocket clipart that said, Thanks for Coming!  It’s Been a Blast. Inside were various candies (Milky Way, Starbursts, Orbit Gum), a space sticker sheet from OTC, glow straws and various other space trinkets that I picked up at dollar stores. At the end of the party, while we waited for parents to arrive, the kids went back out to the Moon Walk on the trampoline to jump in the balloons again!