Buzz Lightyear Party -5yr- The Space Room

For my son's 5th birthday, he wanted a Buzz Lightyear Party.

We made invitations on the computer with a picture of Buzz on the front (from the colouring pages) and a balloon that said Greetings fellow space rangers. We have an intergallactic emergency in sector 12. Emperor Zurg has been sighted near Connor's house!" "Open this top secret document for further instructions… " Then on the inside a picture of Zurg and "Emperor Zurg must know that Connor is celebrating his 5th Birthday. Please join our space Ranger team that day to keep his sector safe" . And on the next page we put the details and a picture of Buzz flying and "To Infinity and Beyond".

We decorated our basement with coloured Buzz Lightyear colouring pages large cardboard stars pictures of planets and rockets and purple and limegreen streamers balloons and material draped over tables and above the food table. The food table was covered with half a Buzz Lightyear tablecloth as a skirt and green material and the kids table had the other half of the tablecloth. We put plastic down on the carpet of the room the kids ate in so that spills were a breeze to clean up. We made paper mache Buzz Lightyear heads as decorations to hang above the kids table and in the party room.

We also decorated one room as the Space Room.  We hung black landscaping material on the walls put cardboard on the window and hung up glow in the dark stars and spaceships and white stars. We put a blacklight in the room to make them all glow. We decorated a freezer box to make it look like a spaceship/rocket. We used egg cartons wide silver ribbon pie plates pop bottles for the engines and we put a long paper tube standing straight up with gold material draped over it as the "nose" of the rocket. We put all the toys we had that glowed or had lights in them inside for the kids to play with in the spaceship. We also put an old keyboard inside as the "controls".

When each of the 15 kids arrived they signed in on a sign in sheet decorated with Buzz Lightyear. They then received their Buzz Lightyear costumes. The jet packs were made of a white fanny pack (found at Liquidation World) on which I velcroed purple material straps that went over their shoulders and sewed to a green chest piece on which I stuck beads for buttons and Buzz's rocket symbol drawn on a piece of skyblue cardboard. The wings were made of paper tubes on which we stuck red electricians tape in a candycane effect cut a slit all the way down the tube and stapled purple material to the bottom. These we stapled to the outer pocket of the fanny pack. We also stuck a bead on the fanny pack. The effect was amazing. The kids were thrilled to wear these. We made wrist lazers by cutting the foot part off of old socks and stuck a red bead on and the kids wore these on their wrists. Each child also got a glow stick to take into the space room. The kids were then given time to explore the space room. Once all the space rangers were ready we got them all to go into the spaceship and they blasted off to their first planet. We counted down each time they blasted off and they loved this. We explained that on each planet there is different gravity so they would have to walk differently than on earth (ie. Slide walk hop crab walk backwards walk etc).

At each planet they also had a different activity. On the first planet they played pin the Buzz symbol on Buzz Lightyear and Mira. We drew large pictures of Buzz and Mira on large sheets of paper and taped them to a large piece of cardboard. Everyone had a turn on both Buzz and Mira.

The next planet they played the "Claw Game". We made LGM (Little Green Men) out of green balloons filled with flour and drew eyes on them. We filled a clear plastic bin with them and added small toy Buzzes and a Woody. The kids used a plastic toy "Space Claw" to try to grab a Buzz and if they were successful they could have another turn and try for an LGM. They all wanted to do this numerous times.

The next planet they played the Black Hole game. We took a large cardboard box cut 4 holes in it and pulled a black garbage bag over it cut holes in that and taped them to the box. We then stuck foam stars all over it. The kids threw 3 LGM and tried to get them in the holes.  The opening of the garbage bag was on the bottom so if they got them in we just lifted the box up and the LGM were under it. Again they wanted to do this over and over.

On the next planet they collected space rocks. We made space rocks by covering little plastic toys with a mixture of baking soda and a small amount of water to make a paste. We then baked them for 30 min in a warm oven until they were hard. We then set up a Space Laboratory (a plastic container filled with vinegar). Each child used the Claw again to pick up a space rock and take it to the laboratory where they put it in the container and watched it magically fizz and reveal a toy. We then rinsed them in water and they put the toy in their jet packs.

On the next planet they came out of the spaceship to find space eggs. They each picked up one and put it in a container of water and watched as they magically became sponges shaped as rockets and astronauts.

We then went to the planet where they had their space ranger snack and cake. Each child received a plastic cup with a straw. On the straw we made a paper nametag with a photocopied picture of Buzz's head. That way each child knew where their cup and place setting was. We had Buzz plates and napkins. The two cakes were both Buzz theme. The rectangle cake had a plastic toy Buzz standing on a planet and a coloured picture of Zurg standing on another planet with black icing in between with yellow stars. The other round cake I made a Buzz head. The kids then blasted off to another planet where they found blowouts with stars on them and had fun blowing these at each other.

Then they blasted off to the Parade Planet where they each got a musical instrument and marched around the pool table to a taped song of "It's Your Special Day Parade" which is an annual treat and the birthday boy gets to wear the drum major hat. Then they blasted off to the Present planet where there was a large moon rock which they passed around a circle to the music from the Buzz Lightyear toy spaceship and when the music stopped the child holding the rock was the one whose present was opened. Then it was time to go and each child took home their costume their blowouts sponge shapes plastic toys and goody bags.

The goody bags included a colouring book made up of Buzz Lightyear colouring pages a squishy rocket toy a small spaceship puzzle starburst candy "rocket" candy Mars bars and a small plastic toy spaceship. I had quite a few comments from the kids that they had "so much" fun at this party and all the kids have been enjoying their costumes and memories and I'm sure will for a long time to come.  It was exhausting but well worth the effort. My sons helped with a lot of the preparation (we started about 2 months in advance doing a little each day or so). It gave us a purpose to our crafts and the smiles and excitement made it all priceless. "