Outer Space Party -3yr- Black Light Moon Walk

Outer Space Party  Invitations For my son's 3rd birthday party.

We began by creating rocketship invitations out of toilet paper tubes covered with foil and topped with a cone of Mylar.  Three slotted triangles hot-glued to the bottom made legs.  Then we sliced a small slit into the side of the rocket and slid in a long thin strip of paper on which was printed the invitation ("Come to Hunter's OUT OF THIS WORLD 3rd Birthday Party, April 18th at 10:00").  About an inch of the tab was left sticking out and I wrote PULL on it. 

Decorations Inflatable astronauts, planets, aliens and rockets from alltherightstuff.com. Also used die-cut black and yellow stars (our library had a die cut machine which we could use for a small fee), yellow and black streamers and balloons.  Purchased a black plastic table cloth and drew small stars all over it with glow in the dark fabric paint.  Decorated black cups with star stickers.   

Food Made space-themed chocolate lollipops from a Wilson mold.  Used the Wilson round mold to make the moon and also a rocketship cake made from a 9x13 cake cut to look like a rocket with an astronaut candle  -- stuck sparkler candles out the back so it looked like it was "blasting off".  Tang juice boxes to drink. 

Activities LAND ON THE MOON: I took our very large metal bowl, pounded two small holes in the rim to mount it to the wall and covered it completely with Grey clay -- making impressions in it with small and large bubble wrap to look like craters on the moon.  Then made rocketships by putting rocket stickers on cardboard and cutting them out.  Each child was blind folded, spun and tried to land their rocket closest to the flag.

MOON ROCK HUNT: Spray painted small rocks silver and then drizzled on glue and sprinkled on glitter.  Hid them throughout the yard.  The kids needed to find enough moon rocks to fill a bucket attached by string and pulley to a milk crate (also painted silver)to free the rocket ships trapped inside.  The rocketships were Popsicle's made from rocket molds from Williams Sonoma.

WALKING ON THE MOON:  We had just finished our basement so it was relatively empty.  We replaced 4 recessed lights with black lights and had blown up 100 balloons along with the inflatable planets, astronauts, aliens and rockets (many of which glowed in the dark).  The younger kids enjoyed just playing around for a bit after the organized games. 

Goody Bags The goodies included Astronaut ice cream and cheese pizza, space pencils, space yo-yo's, alien straws, space stickers, UFO's with gum and inflatable space shuttles.  There were two cousins who were newborns in attendance, so they got the Good Night Moon board book and the Ambi smiling suns rattle and a small rubber earth ball. 

All the goodies were stuffed into two foil pie plates which were hot-glued together and decorated with stickers (stars and circles from CVS). 

Then atop each foil space ship, I hot-glued the clear plastic container that you get little prizes in the gumball machines.  Inside the plastic bubble, I placed a cut-out face from a photo of each guest -- it looked like each person was flying a space ship and helped us identify which treat was for which child. 

I had so much fun putting this party together for my son and he had a great time playing with his buddies!  I hope he never outgrows our homemade parties!