Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Craiger's 7th Birthday Party - Space Themed

Craiger chose a SPACE themed birthday this year & boy did I have a blast putting that together for him.

He had a special request of funfetti cake, with chocolate (black) frosting.  He specifically wanted gold & silver somewhere in the black frosting like nebulas & then star sprinkles.  Amazingly enough, I figured out a way to do all that & add planets on top.  He was pretty excited.


He was very proud of his cupcakes.




Oh my goodness this kid!!!  I don't think he could possibly get any cuter.


Nancy sent all sorts of fun space stuff to decorate the table with.  It was all really cool.


She also sent some inflateable jet-packs for each of the party guests.  (Which they LOVED.)


And some rocket ship goody boxes to hand out at the end of the party.


I took Craiger to the party store to pick out a pinata & he totally went crazy over the SUN pinata.  He thought it was perfect for his party.

I also found a space Spot It game, some space shuttle gliders to race, & some galaxy sticker scenes.


Craiger built the lego space shuttle Mimi & Baba bought him for his birthday & used it on the table as a decoration.  He was pretty proud of it.


I love this kid so much.


The very first thing we did at his party was watch a youtube video about our solar system.  I have a good friend here in Mountain View who is a youtuber & he is the most amazing science genius I've ever met.  He makes science videos for kids & teens that are interesting, educational, & amazing.  (I'm an adult & I binge watch his videos.)  So, if you have kids & you love science, look him up.  His name is Mark Rober & he's AWESOME.

Here is a link to the video we watched at the party!


After learning about our own solar system, I let the kids create their own solar systems.  Some colored them, others painted them, & others cut out carstock & glued planets on their space paper.  I love how creative the kids got.  We had a Mario galaxy, a Zelda galaxy, a Unicorn Princess galaxy, & more.






After creating galaxies, we strapped on our jet packs & "flew" to the model space shuttle we have on base here.  The kids enjoyed just running in the open space.  Kids just need to get energy out sometimes & this was PERFECT.



They thought the space shuttle was pretty cool.




After running around for a bit, we headed off base to the Ames Exploration Center located just outside the base gate.  It's a FREE space museum for all ages.  It's small, but it was perfect for this small group of 7 year olds.  

The coolest exhibit in the museum was a REAL MOON ROCK from the Apollo 15 mission.  The kids thought it was pretty cool.


They also wanted to pose with the moon wall with their jet packs.


And again with the astronaut friend they made.  They were eating this science stuff up.  I love when kids LOVE to learn.


And then we "flew" back home again.


By the time we got back home, the kids had walked/ran for almost a full mile so they were hungry & thirsty.  So we did cake & ice cream.





I found some freeze dried ice cream in my food storage (random I know) so I opened it & let the kids try ice cream the way the astronauts eat ice cream.  Most of the kids loved it.  I thought it was disgusting.  I think it was a texture thing for me.  It tasted like ice cream, but it wasn't cold & it was crunchy so all my senses told me it was WRONG.



The kids loved the cupcakes, astronaut ice cream, & real ice cream.  They all pretty much had black mouths & teeth after that.





After cake & ice cream, we allowed them some free time to explore.  They put together galaxy sticker scenes,


played Space Spot It with each other,



and raced space shuttle gliders in my living room.


Finally it was time for our sun pinata.  Why do kids love pinata's so much?




Craiger had such a great group of friends come.  They are so fun.  We love our kids' friends so much.








We had such a great time at this party.  It was definitely OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Craiger's School Birthday Celebration

I absolutely adore Craiger's 1st grade teacher.  She's adorable & I just love how much she cares about each of the kids in her class.

For his birthday, she dedicated an entire Friday afternoon to Craiger for his birthday.  I brought some SPACE goody bags for all the kids in his class.  First the class sang to Craiger.  He got to choose 7 friends to stand up at the front of the class with him while they sang to him.  They were his 7 candles.  After the Happy Birthday song, he got to "blow them out."  It was darling.  As he blew each friend, they fell like a candle being blown out.




After the song, we handed out the special bags to the whole class.  Each bag had a space sticker, a galaxy sticker scene each kid could build on their own, a glow stick, & a space rock candy sucker.



Once everyone got settled with their bags, his teacher let Craiger plan out the last hour of the day.  They played board games, danced with their favorite online learning games, & drew pictures.  He felt SO special being able to choose what activities they got to do.  And the kids had a blast too.



Happy birthday little guy.  You're the best.