Space Shuttle Party -4yr- Silver Air Tank Packs

For my son's 4th birthday, he wanted a "space shuttle" or "astronaut" party. 

We had the party in our basement. I decorated with glow in the dark stars hanging by fishing line from the ceiling and also a poster of the space shuttle being launched.   I cleared out almost all toys, except for those related to space and also had out my kids' extensive collection of space-related books. 

The only other toy was a set of wood building blocks.  I had printed several space related coloring sheets off the Internet, so as kids arrived, they had the choice between coloring or free-playing with the toys. 

Also, as each child arrived, they were given an "air tank" (silver spray painted plastic soda bottles with strings glued on to make them into backpacks).  

When everyone was here, I gathered all the kids (and moms who wanted to play, too)into a circle and told them  that we were astronauts and had entered our rockets and were headed off on our mission to the moon. 

Then we had a countdown and "blasted off."  When we "landed" on the moon, I told them about the effects of zero gravity and showed them how we'd be walking if we were up there and we walked around like that.

Then we got back into our spaceship (the circle) and took off for other planets. We had the countdown each time.

On each planet, I told the kids different things about the planet, for instance, it was a "hopping planet" and the only way to get around was hopping on one foot, or a crawling planet, etc. 

Finally, we landed one more time and then we went outside and "hunted for moonrocks" (wadded up tin foil balls that my husband had scattered throughout the backyard). 

Each of our astronauts was given a pair of kitchen tongs(from the Dollar Store, and they all got to keep these…something they all really seemed to enjoy, believe it or not!).  When they'd pick up a rock with the tongs, they'd bring it over to a bowl, drop it in and go back and find more. 

After the rock hunt, we went back inside for "moon golf," which was really putt putt (they putted into sand pails).  After that, we played parachute games, and then they went to the snack table and were given cheese cubes and pretzel sticks.  They were able to build "satellites" with these as they ate them. 

Then it was time for the cake, which was a space shuttle cake, then presents and then goody bags (space stickers, plastic astronauts, Martian bubbles, glow in the dark stars and glow in the dark bracelets).  It was a fun and age appropriate party and everyone seemed to have a really good time!