Blast Off to Adventure with a Kid’s Outer Space Birthday Party

I’ve always had a tendency to go a bit overboard when it comes to my boys’ birthday parties. It’s partly because I like choosing a theme and seeing what kind of creative ideas I can tie to it. It’s partly because I love seeing how impressed kids are with the food, games and decorations. But mostly it’s because when the party is over and everyone has gone home, I get to see the look of utter contentment on the face of my children.

outer space birthday party

space blast balloon cluster

This year, my oldest son turned nine and we decided to have an outer space birthday party. I started with the Space Blast Ultimate Kit from Costume SuperCentre to take the pressure off of decorating. With themed plates, napkins, cutlery, streamers and a fun balloon cluster, it had the outer space look I wanted at a great price.

hot dog rockets
Simple hot dog rockets made with puff pastry, muffin cups and cheese!
planet sugar cookies
Themed sugar cookies have become a bit of a birthday tradition. I love how these planet cookies turned out!

After that it was time to move on to the food. I turned hot dogs into rockets with a simple swirl of puff pastry, a triangle cheese top and a cupcake liner bottom. I also made fruit rockets with pineapple, watermelon and strawberries. Chips, vegetables and dip rounded out the table. And for extra fun, I couldn’t resist making a batch of sugar cookies decorated to look like planets!

outer space party food
I love how colourful the party table looked when all the outer space food was done!
space party moon cake
This cake baked up so easily in a bowl. Pressing small plastic balls into the icing worked great for making craters!

For the cake, I stayed fairly simple with a cake mix baked in a round bowl to create a half moon. But since the cake was already in a great shape for hollowing out, I decided to cut the centre out of the cake and fill it with candies! Then I used a whipped buttercream frosting to simulate the surface of the moon. An alien on top provided the perfect finishing touch!

trampoline bouncing
Bouncing on the trampoline is always a hit with kids!
moon rock sandbox dig
Digging for moon rocks was more challenging than I’d expected. The boys never did find all ten!

With the food planned, all that remained was the games. Having a trampoline in the back yard came in handy; I simply renamed it the “Moon Bounce” for the day. I also painted ten rocks with metallic colours and then buried them in the sandbox so that the kids could dig for moon rocks. Because the weather was chilly at the last minute, I cut out a large paper circle and printed an astronaut figure to create “Pin the Astronaut on the Moon” in case the boys wanted to come inside for a while.

bottle rocket launch pad construction
After a trip to the hardware store, I was ready to start the bottle rocket launch pad!
bottle rocket launch pad construction
Constructing the launch pad!

But the highlight of the Outer Space Birthday Party was one that Zackary himself requested just a few days in advance…water bottle rockets! I foolishly assumed this would be a fairly simple addition to the party but soon learned the project required constructing an actual launch pad!

Luckily, the NASA website came to the rescue with downloadable Water Rocket Launcher plans and a detailed shopping list!

http://instagram.com/p/3SYELeOPmw/

boys at water bottle rocket launch pad
The boys couldn’t wait to start launching rockets!

The rocket launcher took some trial and error to get just right, but with the help of my ex-husband we managed to get it shooting into the sky with impressive results. While a bicycle pump will work for creating pressure, an air compressor makes the job of pumping the bottles with air much easier. Watching the boys chase the bottles as they launched was one of the highlights of the day for me!

plates and outer space food
The Space Blast plates and accessories were the perfect choice for all our outer space food!

The Outer Space Birthday Party ended with treat bags for the kids containing Meteor chocolate bars, sour candy and “Space Blaster” water guns. And when the parents arrived to pick up the kids, we couldn’t resist sending a few more rockets up in the air for them too! Overall it was the perfect party and surprisingly easy to put together, aside from the water bottle rocket launcher.

And since I’ll be able to use that for years to come, the work was worth it in the end! Thanks to the Space Blast Ultimate Kit, which you can learn more about when you follow CSC on Twitter, easily prepared food like the hot dogs (which I actually prepared the night before) and simple active games, Zackary’s outer space adventure with his friends was a hit with everyone!

mommy kat and kids RP

47 thoughts on “Blast Off to Adventure with a Kid’s Outer Space Birthday Party”

  1. WHat a great mixture of various goodies on the table! I am really loving those hot dogs and fruits!

  2. You did an awesome job of the theme and I think you are very cerative with your ideas.It looks like they had a wonderful time too.Your cookies and cake look very good too.Nice job!!!

  3. I loved your theme!! and by all the pictures you did an awesome job and it looks like the boys had ton’s of fun!! I used to love doing themed birthday parties when my girls were youing, so much fun and the best part you get all bragging rights..lol.. I’m happy your rocket launcher worked I can just imagine the boys reaction to it!!

  4. Elizabeth Matthiesen

    what fantastic ideas embedded in this post, marvellous. I especially liked the water bottle rockets, cool!

  5. kristen visser

    water bottle rockets!! absolutely love that idea. and love the theme too. looks like it was a lot of fun!

  6. You are so creative thanks for sharing!! I know what theme I will be copying for my step sons B-Day this August!

  7. I really like the idea of a kit to take care of the ‘set the stage’, but your cookies and moon cake finish it off. Love seeing the picture of them digging in the sand.

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