Buzz Lightyear Outer Space -3yr- Decorate Spaceship

Theme:  Buzz Lightyear/outer space.  This year my soon-to-be 3-year-old told me that he wanted a Buzz Lightyear party.  This was difficult for me because I really would rather not do commercial-type themes for my kids' parties.  I tried to get him to switch to numerous other themes, but he was not to be bugded.  So, rather than doing a buzz Lightyear-Toy Story party, I decided to do a Buzz Lightyear-outer space party.  Besides Buzz, the only other Disney characters I allowed were the LGM's (Little Green Men-AKA Oooooh aliens) and Emperor Zurg. 

My son and I made the invitations.  I prepared all the materials, and he helped me glue them on.  I started with blank folded cards (about 4"X5") and envelopes that I purchased and used a card-making program on my home computer to print the inside.  I got the wording idea from another parent's Buzz party on this site.  The invitations read:  CALLING ALL SPACE RANGERS!  THIS IS STAR COMMAND.  BUZZ LIGHTYEAR AND SPACE RANGER JOSEPH NEED YOUR HELP.  MISSION:  Come join team Lightyear and defeat Emperor Zurg's nefarious plan to end all birthdays.  STAR DATE:  party date,  SECTOR:  our address,  TIME:  time of party, RSVP:  STAR COMMAND (our telephone number).  TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!  At the bottom in small print I added, "Siblings welcome.  Wear any Buzz Lightyear or outer space costumes/clothes you have!"  I wanted parents to stay for the party, since the kids were still little, so I thought I'd include siblings so parents wouldn't need to get a sitter.

I purchased several sheets of dark blue paper with little stars all over and cut them down to slightly smaller than the card face itself (about 3 3/4"X 4 3/4") and helped my son glue them to the front of the invitations. Buzz Lightyear has an official website, and part of that site is a page that lists all the characters of his Star Command series/movie.  I color-printed the first page of that list many times and cut out enough images of Buzz for the invitations, and also some of the planets (Saturn, etc.)  I also  purchased some large (1 1/2" diameter) glittery stars, Buzz Lightyear and Beyond confetti (It consisted of Buzz, LGM, and Woody images that were about 1 1/2" and some planets. 

I threw out the Woody images), and several sheets of Buzz Lightyear and Beyond stickers.  I helped my son glue the cut out images of Buzz to the center of the front of the invitations and then let him decorate all around Buzz with the cut-out planets, glitter stars, small planet confetti, and small planet and space "stuff" from the sticker sheets.  We stuck a Zurg or LGM sticker on the inside of each invitation and sealed the envelopes with a Buzz sticker.  They were so adorable that I even sent them to relatives who lived out-of-state and that I knew wouldn't be able to come!  I just wanted them to see how cute they were! 

On the day of the party, I decorated with orange, lime-green, and turquoise balloons and put the Buzz Lightyear tableware (tablecloth, plates, napkins), purchased from a party store, out in the backyard.  I also put out the supplies for our first craft:  Space ship/rocket name tags.  To prepare for this craft, I had cut out cardboard in the shape of a short, thick spaceship/rocket and covered it with aluminum foil.  I punched a hole in the top of each, and strung yarn through it so the kids could wear them around their necks.  I wrote each guest's name on the bottom of the rocket ship with permanent marker. 

When the guests arrived they decorated their spaceships with glitter glue, the Buzz Lightyear confetti mentioned earlier (Buzz, LGM's, planets, small space "stuff"), and the left-over planets that I cut out from the pages I printed from Buzz's official website.  After they dried, the kids wore them around their necks.  This way, even kids who didn't wear a space outfit or costume, had something on. 

The next activity was a Buzz Lightyear pull-string pinata that I filled with small plastic rockets (purchased on-line from either Oriental Trading Company or US Toys) and some candy.  After that, I had the kids give their pinata loot bags to their parents and come "Walk on the Moon."  For months I had saved bubble wrap that came in packages and before the party I had my husband lay it out, upside down, and tape it together.  While the kids were collecting pinata loot, he laid it out on the patio, bubble-side-up.  Now the kids were invited to "walk" on it (the moon), but they really went crazy jumping on it!  Believe it or not, this was one of the best activities!  The kids LOVED it! After that, we needed to calm down a bit, so we played "Pass the Space Rock."  Before the party I had prepared the "space rock" by wraping alternating layers of packaged rocket gliders (purchased on-line from either Oriental Trading Company or US Toys) and aluminum foil. 

For the game, the kids sat in a circle on the grass.  I sat by a DVD player.  When I played the music, the kids passed the space rock around the circle and when the muxic stopped, whoever had it in their hands unwrapped one layer of the "rock" to reveal their prize.  Amazingly all the kids stayed in the circle for the entire game!  Our final activity was "Universe in a Tube."  I had purchased some plastic display tubes on Ebay and glued the cap on one end. I also purchased some star-shaped plastic confetti, small swirl-patterned beads in a variety of colors that looked a little like planets, and glitter (including some star-shaped glitter) from a local craft store.  The guests filled these into their tubes, along with some of the left-over large glitter stars that we used on the invitations.)  We then filled the tubes with blue-colored water and a small amount of baby oil and sealed the cap on the other end.  The kids could shake these and watch everything swirl around.  They turned out really pretty! 

Now it was cake time.  I made a really wonderful cake.  First, I baked a large sheet cake and frosted it with dark and a lighter blue frosting in a swirl pattern to look like space.  I then sprinkled blue edible glitter on the swirls.  I also baked 2, 1/2 sphere cakes.  I frosted one to look like the moon, with gray frosting and made "craters" all over it with a melon-baller.  I put this 1/2 planet on one corner of the sheet cake.  I frosted the other 1/2 planet in smooth orange frosting.  A day earlier I made rings out of the meltable chocolates you can buy to pour into candy molds.  I used blue, yellow, and purple, and poured them on a piece of cardboard covered with wax paper. I put them in the refridgerator to harden. 

Now, I put them around the orange 1/2 planet, on an angle, and put this "Saturn" cake on the corner of the sheet cake, diagonal from the "moon."  Finally, I had purchased a Buzz cake topper set on-line that consisted of a Buzz figure, 3 picks (2 LGM's and Emperor Zurg), and blue and white star sprinkles.  I put the Buzz figure and 2 LGM's on "Saturn" and Zurg on the "moon."  I wrote a birthday message for my son on the cake in lime green frosting and piped shells around the sides, also in lime green frosting.  Finally, I sprinkled the blue and white star sprinkles all over the cake.  I have to say that it was a beautiful and wonderful cake!  I can't believe that I thought of it and made it myself! 

The guests ate their cake off of the Buzz plates I had purchased and drank blue punch out of Buzz cups.  Also, I served Buzz Lightyear ice-cream sandwitches that were small in size and filled with blue and lime green vanilla ice cream.  After cake, we opened presents and then the guests went home.  They took their rocket nametags, "Universe in a Tube," rocket glider(from the "Pass the Space Rock"game), and pinata loot home with them.  Additionally, I filled small loot bags for each guest to take home with Buzz, LGM, or Zurg straws and a glow-in-the-dark plastic star(purchased at a local party store); a rocket-bubble necklace, rocket shooter, and galaxy ball (purchased on-line from either Oriental Trading Company or US Toys) and space/planet stickers (purchased on-line from SmileMakers.com.) 

This party was a lot of fun and great success! The next day, my son took cupcakes to school.  I frosted them in lime-green and turqoise frosting and put Buzz/LGM picks on them. I made with some lime green polka-dot paper, wooden skewers that I cut in half, and Buzz/LGM confetti that I set aside before the party for this purpose.  I glued the Buzz and LGM confetti pieces (that were at least 1 1/2") onto the green paper and cut them out into rectangles.  Then I glued 1 Buzz rectangle back-to-back to a LGM rectangle with the skewer in the middle.  I put 3 of the small plastic spaceships (that I left out of the pinata) around the pick on each cupcake.  He used left-over Buzz napkins and took juice boxes.  This was a good "school" celebration, and his class mates took the 3 spaceships and cupcake picks home to play with.