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Space Soiree |
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| There is nothing
wrong with your party plans-- We are in control! DO NOT adjust the
vertical. DO NOT adjust the horizontal. DO NOT fall apart. It’s birthday time again -- welcome to the OUTER LIMITS. An outer space party can be a real blast (pun intended) for kids of all ages. Keep the age of your group in mind when choosing among the following ideas. |
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Easy |
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| Buy party invitations with a celestial theme, rocket ships or other outer space motif. Many kinds are available and they’re easy to find. | |||
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Moderate/Go All Out |
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Use your computer! If you have publishing software you can make a side or tent fold card of your own. Use a picture from the clip-art gallery (planets, spaceships, Martians, etc.) on the front. Otherwise, cut crescent shaped moons out of paper plates (yellow or blue would look nice), and attach a loop of ribbon to the top. If you are really ambitious, glue a magnet to the back of each moon so the invitee’s mom can hang it on the fridge. Some sample text for your invitations might be: Please Join Us on the Launching Pad It’s Sam’s Birthday
and we’re off to Outer Space! 3—2--1 Blast Off! For Sam’s Birthday Date: Time: Place: RSVP: (Optional) We may get messy so please bring a smock.
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 Decorations |
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Easy |
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| Hang stars and planets on the walls or ceiling. They can be purchased or cut out of paper plates or construction paper. Or you can easily buy alien pennant banners, tablecloths and tableware. Another idea is to float “alien” balloons around the room and in front of the house. [Tip: this can also be a fun activity for the guests.] Attach a ribbon and blank nametag to each. | |||
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Moderate |
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| Just expand on the theme a little. Make a poster for the door welcoming the guests to “NASA” for their flight to outer space. Black poster board and neon markers look great. Your child can help by drawing planets and stars, or putting stickers on the poster. Set up a “mission control” area near the entrance of the house for nametags (for the younger set) or a simple craft. [See Entertainment/Crafts & Activities]. | |||
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Go All Out |
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| In addition to the above, cover the walls of the party room with black plastic tablecloths (the cheapest you can find at the party store or price club), black posterboard or craft paper using masking or painter’s tape. On the cloths randomly hang stickers and pictures of stars, planets, aliens, or whatever suits you. If you’re really organized, buy extra “alien” masks at Halloween season when they’re plentiful. Not too scary for the younger ones—for the older ones, as gross as you can get. Each child can take home a mask when the party is over. | |||
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Sleep-Over Hints |
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| If the party is a sleepover, or if it’s at nighttime, take advantage of the darkness by hanging glow in the dark stars and planets around the ceiling and walls (funtak works well). When the lights go out (be sure windows are covered and there’s no outside source of light) the glow will be awesome! For added fun (or torture depending on your outlook), have the guests paint their own aliens on the black wall covering using glow in the dark paint. However, use an alternative to plastic on the walls or provide separate pieces of black poster board/paper. The kids can get very creative dreaming up their own vision of aliens—encourage them to really use their imaginations. | |||
 Entertainment/Crafts and Activities |
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| Keep the length of the party, the age of the guests, and your child’s preferences in mind when planning your activities. [HINT: Always have an extra game or two on hand (they can be ones that don’t need much preparation). You can always eliminate an activity, but there is nothing worse than having a house full of youngsters with nothing left to do!] | |||
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Easy |
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| Use the telephone! Call a
party entertainer to play an
“alien” at your space station. The kids will love it. Even the pre-teens lose their studied air of indifference
(for a while anyway)! Or, rent a moonwalk if you have room in the yard and the time of year is right. Face painting is another fun activity. You can hire a professional, local teenager, or older sibling to turn everyone into aliens. You can do it yourself if you have some helping hands. Keep it whimsical, colorful and simple. [HINT: Have some activity organized for those who are waiting their turn [for example, look at “serving man” under Crafts & Activities]. This is crucial otherwise mayhem may set in. If any child is hesitant to have his or her face painted (there will usually be one or two) offer to paint a design on a hand instead, but if they remain reluctant just let it go. Other galactic games to play might include: pin the “eyes” on the Alien, relay races (outside is best), or alien freeze tag (the space commander must tag the Martians, once frozen a Martian can only be released when another Martian crawls through his or her legs). In fact, you can adapt almost any of the usual games to the theme. Just because it’s tried and true doesn’t mean the kids won’t love it. |
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Moderate |
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| Have the kids play “feed the alien.” On a
large piece of posterboard, draw a large colorful alien with colorful
permanent markers (you may choose the planet of origin). Cut out a large
hole where the mouth would be—these are aliens so it doesn’t have to
be at the “bottom”. Then, attach it to a sturdy carton so it will
stand up (make sure the carton doesn’t cover the mouth opening) or
attach a string to the top and suspend it from the ceiling or a
doorframe. The suspended version is more difficult since it is not
anchored and would be better for older children. Now, what do aliens
eat? Anything you want - tennis balls, koosh balls, beanie babies—you
get the idea. Yet another alternative, how about “serving man” for lunch (forgive me Rod Serling). The kids can make their own beanbag humans and then feed them to the Alien. It’s a relatively easy activity that will keep them occupied for a while (good to work on, for instance, when waiting for face painting) and they can take them home when the party is over. Do some advance preparation and this will go very smoothly. First, make a pattern of a human figure (verrrry simple, like a gingerbread man but with a longer torso) out of some cardboard. Trace the outline of the pattern onto colored felt. You will need 2 pieces of felt for each human. The day of the party, set out the felt pieces, needles, thread, and bowls filled with dried beans such as kidney or northern white. [HINT: stick with a larger type bean, rather than lentils or peas, as they’re less likely to leak out if your little stitchers are no Betsy Ross.] Have each child sew two pieces of the felt together all around the outer edge, leaving only a small opening. Leave the needle and thread attached. [HINT: show them how to stitch by going over the edge and always coming through from the bottom as this has less of a tendency to spring leaks. However, if a child is not comfortable with that, or insists “I already know how to sew,” then up and down stitching will work fine.] In either case, check frequently that stitches are kept close together. Use spoons to fill the bags with the beans, then sew the opening closed with the remaining thread. The kids will get a real kick out of “serving man” to the alien! |
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Go All Out |
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Play “pass the UFO.” The game is as easy as playing musical chairs or freeze dancing. First, to make the UFO using a variety of small prizes, one for each child and perhaps one or two extra to cover any mistakes. Some items to use include alien key chains, alien kickballs or glow in the dark alien goo (the last two items are available from a well known "Trading” catalog for $6.00 and $4.80/doz., respectively). You can also check out party supply and toy stores for other novelty items. Perhaps little “Lego” aliens or alien lollipops. See the suggestions listed under Goody Bags; most of the items make great prizes as well. [HINT: Halloween is a good time to stock up on creepy, alien items.] The only other items you’ll need are wrapping paper (in a variety of designs), paper lunch bags and tape. To begin, place one of the small gifts in a bag then scrunch it up and wrap in gift paper. Place a second gift item in a bag, scrunch it up and wrap it up TOGETHER with the first. You will now have ONE package containing two gifts. Continue in the same manner, adding a gift with each successive layer, until all the gifts are wrapped. Don’t worry if the shape gets wacky—have you ever seen a UFO that didn’t look wacky? (If you have, please contact the FBI not this website!). That’s it, you’re ready to play. Come party time, have the kids sit in a circle and have the birthday child hold the UFO. Have the tape player ready with some music, the stranger the better. When the music starts they pass the UFO around the circle; the child holding it when the music stops gets to peel off the first layer and find a prize. Continue playing until each child has had a turn (HINT: you’ll have to keep an eye out to make sure you don’t stop the music on the same person twice—that’s why I suggest a couple of extra layers just in case!) Kids love a treasure hunt, so how about a space search? For younger children it could be as simple as hiding stars (plastic or stickers), keeping them low so little arms can reach, and setting the kids loose to find them. Give children a bag (paper, sandwich) to hold what they find. At the end, exchange stars for treats or prizes. For older children, you can make the hunt more complex. For a large party, you may want to set up two teams, assigning each team a color. Send them off looking for clues coded in their color. In this way each team works together to find their ultimate goal, rather than competing against each other. Clues can be relatively simple such as “find the time” (the clue would be beside a clock), or more complicated and cryptic such as “look for a face with no eyes and hands with no arms” or “look around, look far and wide, when you get real hot it’s cold inside” (the clue would be in the refrigerator or freezer). I’m not too good at cryptic, but you get the idea. The older the kids the more complicated the quest. There will be one set of clues for each team –NOT THE SAME CLUES. [HINT: as much as possible vary the clue locations so that both teams are not in the same part of the house or yard at the same time. Thus, the first clue for the BLUE team might lead to the kitchen while the first clue for the green team leads to the backyard. Of course, depending on the speed of deciphering they may still end up in the same room at sometime, but you tried! When each team has found their ultimate treasure (it could be any item relating to the theme) they trade it in for prizes. The prizes can be key chains, comic books, or gift certificates for a video rental or a movie theater. These items then add to or become the party favors. For other suggestions take a look at the Goody Bags section below. |
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Sleep Over Hints |
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| Use glow in the dark stars and perhaps alien paint (see Decorations and Activities). Most importantly, rent some good movies. With your child’s help, select titles related to the theme and age of the guests. The original “ALIEN” (remember, with Sigourney Weaver) may be fine for a group of 12-13 year olds, but too gruesome for a group of nine year olds. Some other movies to consider are: E.T., the Extra-terrestrial, Star Wars, Space Camp, Spaceballs (my kids love this one), Galaxy Quest, Apollo 13, and Godzilla. | |||
 Food |
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| Personally, I keep the food as simple and easy as possible (i.e., pizza or, if you’re really ambitious chicken nuggets and fries), particularly when the kids are on the younger side. The exception is of course THE CAKE. Spending some extra time (or money) on a unique and special cake makes a great impression and is well worth the effort. Depending on the time of the party you may not need to serve a lunch or dinner, just snacks, cake, and maybe some ice cream. Whatever your inclination, here are some ideas to use as a jumping off point. Have fun and let your imagination run wild! | |||
 The Cake |
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Easy |
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| Call a bakery!! You should have no trouble buying a wonderful theme cake. However, if you prefer to do it yourself, no problem! Creature cupcakes are a fun and tasty treat. Use a store bought cake mix (yellow or chocolate) and bake in paper liners in a muffin tin. When cool, cover with green frosting (or whatever color you prefer your aliens to be). Slide small gumdrop type candies onto toothpicks to use as antennae. For the rest of the faces just use your imagination—and remember all Martians do not look alike. How about jellybean eyes (3? 4?) and a red hots rash? | |||
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Moderate |
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Tell the kids that the
moon is not made of cheese—it’s made of cake! Using an old aluminum
or stainless bowl with a round bottom as a cake pan (8-9”) bake your
favorite cake mix. [HINT: be
sure to grease the bowl and line with some buttered parchment paper—it
will make unmolding the cake much easier. And don’t worry about
surface irregularities-it’s what you want.] Due to the odd shape, use
a tester in several spots to check for doneness. (You may be able to
find a specialty cake pan for this purpose at a store that sells Wilton
baking products (such as some party supply and crafts stores). |
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Go All Out |
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| How about a
Cape Canaveral Countdown Cake?
It’s easier to make than to say. Bake, or even buy, a rectangular
sheetcake with filling of your choice. Frost the cake with green
frosting or, better yet, frost in white and then cover entirely with
shredded coconut that has been dyed green (shake coconut in a plastic
bag with a few drops of green food coloring). For the rocket use a store bought pound cake such as Sara Lee. Trim off the short ends of the cake, then, holding it on end vertically, trim it into the shape of a cylinder about 2-3” in diameter and 4-5” high. Push two bamboo skewers about halfway into the short end of the cylinder, frost in white, and then set it into the center of the sheet cake skewers side down. This will serve to anchor and stabilize the rocket. For the rocket’s next stage you can use a Yodel (the eating kind not the singing kind). Place a skewer through the short end so that it comes through the other end slightly. Anchor the Yodel into the first cylinder with the longer part of the skewer facing down. The tip of the rocket can be made with mini-marshmallows. Place one marshmallow on the end of the skewer sticking up through the Yodel. Then, slide 3 or 4 marshmallows onto each of 5 or 6 toothpicks. Place the toothpicks on top of the Yodel teepee fashion (one end of each rests in outer edge of Yodel while top ends meet in the center; use a little frosting glue if needed). At the bottom of the rocket, where it meets the sheet cake, place 4 right triangles of chocolate (any square shaped ones, cut in half will do), one on each side. Place them so that one shorter edge butts up to the rocket and the other shorter edge rests on the sheet cake (use frosting glue if needed): [see illus.] Voila! Just light the candles and you’re ready to blast off. |
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 Goody Bags |
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| A number of items have already been mentioned above, such as alien key chains, alien kick balls, alien slime, masks, video or movie theater gift certificates and theme related comic books. Also consider paperback sci-fi books (appropriate to age level), “antennae” headbands, stickers, alien gumballs, a solar system mobile kit (glows in the dark), alien pencils, alien gliders or even alien water bottles. These items, and many more, are available at party stores or through catalogs. One catalog even sells a complete alien party treat bag for the very reasonable price of $2.40 ea. | |||
| Partying Words | |||
| I’m not sure whether it’s the final frontier or the twilight zone, but this can be a fun party that’s not too tough on mom. Since this is a perennially popular theme there are many items out there that will make life easier--take advantage of them. Good luck. Live long and prosper. | |||
