Kai’s Rocket Ship Birthday

Our little Kai blasted into year 3 with a darling rocket ship birthday party this last November as seen on Inspired By This. It was magical and when coupled with a bounce house and friends, made for some sweet memories. You haven’t had to wander by these parts for long to know I loooove kid parties. Planning them brings immense joy and it’s even better when they wake up excited on party day. You can see his modern race car party here and his most recent puppy party here.

The little ones usually pick the party theme except for those darling first birthdays and they’ve picked some fun ones so far. Cade’s 4th birthday was that sweet Penguin Party and Kai’s 2nd was the Brown Bear Party. When I asked Kai what kind of party he wanted he said, “Ummmmm, a wocket ship pardy.” You can usually only understand that kid 70% of the time but I got it…a sweet little rocket ship party. I kept the color palette light and ethereal rather than your typical bold colors. It added a magic touch to his special day.

November is a tricky time of year in New England for a party. Sometimes you get those fluke days when it’s beautiful out, other times it’s bone cold and you don’t want to leave the fireplace. Kai really wanted a bounce house and I really wanted it in our uninsulated garage that hubby had only recently finished painting the floors. Well it was cold, but space heaters worked and the kiddos bundled up and bounced. Some festive decorations like the moon balloons and the star balloons made it a magical space.

My friend Ashley of Miss Nibbit created the beautiful invitations, coloring pages, and signage. There really is nothing like beautiful invitations. In an age where everything is sent electronically, getting a pretty invitation in the mail is a treat. I had Ashley make coloring pages for the kid’s table and these space ones couldn’t have turned out any better. The kiddos loved them and it calms them down for 2 seconds so you can actually make them a plate of food.

KIDS TABLE

We bought these unfinished wood kids tables and chairs from Target. They’re so well made, sturdy and in a pretty unfinished light wood but I’m having a hard time tracking them down now days. Here’s a very similar table by the same brand and another slightly darker option by Melissa and Doug. I wanted decorations on their table that was spacey, not flowery and in vessels that wouldn’t tip. These bubble glass vases are a thick glass, bigger at the bottom then the top and are practically tip proof, here’s a similar style that’s still available. To be extra cautious I added museum putty under each vase so they wouldn’t scoot around. Filled with different colors of decorative sands and crushed glass I bought in bulk, they hold an assortment of space-themed goodies. I handmade the pom poms out of tissue paper, glued the paper planets to skewers, added these wooden stars and rocket ships to skewers and it couldn’t have turned out any cuter.

DECORATING THE CAKE

I asked Whole Foods to make me a plain vanilla cake, brought it home and decorated it myself. You end up saving quite a bit of money when you do cakes yourself and it couldn’t have turned out any cuter. I worked with A Cake to Remember, an Etsy shop, to have special watercolor wafer paper (edible paper) printed with food safe ink that I could cut into planets and stars for the cake topper. The wafer paper was easy to work with, like a cardstock and I used star hole punches and scissors to cut out shapes. Kara even has a gold wafer paper that is perfect for stars. Wafer paper can be tricky to work with because if it gets wet, it melts. That’s why coloring it yourself is hard. I did swirl some pearl dust I got at Michaels to give the planets a sparkle. I hot glued a wooden rocket ship to a skewer and used some gold sparkler star candles and a number 3 to decorate the top.

THE DESSERT TABLE

The dessert table is always my favorite to plan. It’s so out of the ordinary, a pretty table filled with yummy treats–a memory maker for sure. It’s perfect for parties and doesn’t take much to make them special. For Kai’s Rocket Ship Party I cut out large circles of cardboard and painted them to make the planets.  I bought different thicknesses of wooden dowels at Michaels, had my hubby cut them and then dipped them in glue and glitter to make the moon one. Super easy and a really cool effect. Moon Snail Creations made the wooden “Kai” for that planet grouping. The wooden rocket ship on the table was made by Happy Oak Toys. Similar one here or here.

I bought a blue chambray fabric from fabric.com that had some metallic threads. It’s not available at the moment but they have so many that would look wonderful. Like this one here. I bought about 6 yards if I’m remembering correctly because you want it to be able to completely drape over the 5′ folding table and touch the floor. The stars and circle banner jazzed up the front.

For me the highlight of the of dessert table were these absolutely stunning rocket ship and space cookies handmade by Eileen of Honey Lou Baking. The detail and color is so gorgeous they were almost too pretty to eat. Almost. I ate a bunch and the kids loved them.

In addition to the cake and the “Space Age Cookies,” were “Galaxy Pops” by Leccare Lollipops, “Moon Pies,” “Saturns Rings” donuts, “Meteorite Rock Candy” and “Moon Dust Macarons.” Nothing like some clever names for some sweet treats.

We kept lunch pretty simple. Make your own sandwiches for the adults and some peanut butter and jelly stars, cheese and crackers, fruit rocket kabobs, and chips/salsa. Easy peasy and not a ton of prep.

I love sending kiddos home with favors that aren’t filled with cheapo toys that’ll break in 30 seconds or a ton of candy. These little 4×6″ rocket ship stamped muslin bags are from the Etsy shop 1PixiePlace. We filled them with handmade paper planets that had seeds imbedded in them that the kiddos could plant, space tatoos, rocket blasters, space men and rocket ship crayons, star stickers and some galaxy slime.

Happy 3rd birthday Asher Kai! We hope you had a blast at your rocket ship birthday party. These beautiful pictures were captured by a sweet friend and talented photographer, Madison Rae Photography. I really do cherish these party pictures and love that the stress is off to capture every picture myself. Definitely my number one tip for a stress-free party day. Hire that job out and savor each moment with your littles. She even did the calligraphy on the wooden rocket ships for the place settings and chalkboard sign!

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