Monday 8 October 2012

There's no place like space for a great party.

Imagine having twin boys with very different passions and having to organize a party that both of them will love? Up to this year I think anything would have been fine for them and they did love their Lion and Crocodile party last year, but by 5 they very much have their own opinions and I wanted a theme that would thrill both of them. Mr C is at the moment totally obsessed with space - he knows all the planets, how many moons and rings they have and all sorts of facts that I do not even know at all.Mr L is still obsessed with everything with engines be it with wheels, wings or whatever. His ideal party would have possibly been excavators etc, but the promise of many rocket ship items the week that space was the theme for the week at school did it. And a space party was born.

We had the party at their pre-school - a brilliant idea. You can rent the school for a Saturday for a fee - it is cheaper than a party venue, has all that you need in terms of playground, tables and chairs etc and theirs even have a braai area as it is connected to a church. The school gets extra money for maintenance of equipment etc and you get a great party venue where the kids totally feel at home.

On to the decor/theme stuff:
The party packs were plain silver paper bags with each child's name on their rocket ship. Inside were some stickers, and "alien" to grow and bangles and rings for the girls and a slinky for the boys.

Silver paper plates and cellophane bags to take left over sweeties home in the party packs
A few balloons with silver stars on and CD/dvd's with silver pipe cleaners hung on the gazebo edge.

Mr C's Uranus cake. I swear I am the first mom in history to make a Uranus cake (yes, I did Google and found one bakery one). I was so stressed that he would not like it but he counted the moons, confirmed that 9 was indeed correct and gave his blessing. He loved it! (Chocolate oil cake with butter frosting)
Mr L's rocket ship cake. My, was that boy crazy about his cake! He totally loved it. (Vanilla hot milk sponge cake with butter cream frosting.)
I made some of my now (almost) famous colouring in table cloths for the tables. But due to the sunny weather not much colouring happened.
 For the first time ever I did a sweetie buffet in stead of sweets pre packed in party packs. The little aluminium containers on the left had names on and was used to dish sweeties in. Every sweet type was named something to do with space like "Space cadet vitamins" and "Alien faces". What was left at the end of the day was taken home (plus some just because). Amazingly the kids ate very little sweets, chose only what they liked so the waste was minimal and I totally loved that so many parents had some sweets and took party packs home for themselves.

Below you can see why a pre-school is the perfect party venue - lots of equipment, dressing up, sandboxes and yes, the ever popular jumping castle.


The kids just played and played until we gave them all a nice Boerewors roll to eat (Prego steaks for the parents.).

We then let them loose on the sweetie buffet. The only item that was totally finished by the end of the party was the sherbet. A total hit with all!

 Then we went on to make each kid's own little bit of space by making little mini space globes (snow globes). I used little plastic containers bought at the packaging shop, beads for planets, big stars and smaller stars and glitter for the final stardust touch. I then added water and sealed the lids with bostik. Most kids loved it, even the smaller ones.





 After a lot more playing and chatting we all dispersed just in time for us to tidy up and be back home just as the Springboks took the Aussies on.

I loved that the party had a relaxed atmosphere, I loved that it was relatively low intensity - I made everything before hand - to set it up took us about and hour, to tidy up less. Above all I loved that the boys declared it the very best party ever.

(BTW - I did not take many pictures - thanks to teacher Wendy for the ones marked "Captured by Cat" and Marcia for the rest - you two did a great job.)

19 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, what incredible "out of this world" fun! Great images of what was clearly a great occasion! Happy Belated to them!

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  2. I miss my kids being small for this reason! I loved kids parties! Wonderfully done Mom.

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  3. It really was a fabulous party and I'm glad the boys appreciated it :) Your attention to detail was just beautiful and it was so relaxing. Louisa and I had a lovely chance to catch up and I got to meet a few other people :)

    And please tell me where you buy those space capsule sweets - I ate them ALL!

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    1. They are called Tangy Tops and Mr Sweet makes them. Our local Spar has small packets but I bought the big container at the Makro

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  4. Such attention to details. The snowglobes look very nice. And the venue, everyone looked relaxed and it's obvious the kids had fun.

    Here's to many more years

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  5. LOVE LOVE LOVE. You are so creative! Love the cakes! And the attention to detail and I can just see how relaxed and chilled everyone is. What a clever idea to have it on the school grounds. Seriously my friend, you did GOOD. Well done!

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  6. Oh, that looks totally awesome! Love it, love the snow globes idea too and fantastic that fun was had by all!

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  7. Well done! It all looks amazing and looks like your two little men both had a fantastic party, what an awesome idea!

    Sue X

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  8. What a great party ! and well done for combining it into one theme that they both love! cool cakes :)

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  9. We had a lot of fun! And I'm pretty sure that you make it look much easier than it actually is. ;-)

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  10. Wow! You are so creative! Two boy parties with two cakes! I am impressed! Love that mini space globes!

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    1. I do feel that they each need to have their own cake - cupcake would be an easy way out though

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  11. Oh my goodness, looks like a prefect perfect party ... well done Mama :-) Hope you had a great time as well.

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  12. How did i miss this post?

    It looks absolutely amazing and i love everything! YOu can see the kids had an absolute ball.

    I would LOVe one of your table cloths please - a fairy/barbie theme one? It will be perfect for when Gem is here over Christmas xxx

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  13. WOW everything looked absolutely amazing! The best parties are the ones where you are relaxed and don't feel like a decapitated chicken.
    I would live one of those table cloths too...

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  14. A great party! Glad you all (parent included) have enjoyed it so much.

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  15. Wow, Cat!! You did such an amazing job on this party!!!

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  16. That looks like a great party - love the tablecloth idea and the craft project, too! What a wonderful place to get to have the party, too!!! How convenient to get to do it at their school - with lots of kid-friendly space they are comfortable in and affordable for you, too! Splendid!

    Hope they had a fabulous birthday!

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  17. Oh I love how it all came together! What a great party :)

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