Rocket Party

I had such vision for this third birthday party. It was going to be awesome.

But from the cold, windy weather to the lack of electricity to a birthday boy who just wanted to cling to daddy, this was really anything but awesome. But it was still a celebration of my sweet, three-year-old. I’m going to share my intention with you so that, hopefully, you can have an amazing rocket-themed party.

Birthday Invitations

This is what started it all and actually one of the few things I was proud of. If you like the design as well as I do, you can purchase them in our Etsy shop!

Cake

I was practicing my tiered cake for this. I did a rocket topper made out of rice krispie treats covered in modeling chocolate. The flames were also modeling chocolate. And the smoke was a vanilla buttercream. In the process of getting the cake to the park, one of the fins fell off, so yeah, another slam dunk for the party. On the plus side, the cake was still good to eat.

Stomp Rockets

Not from my party, from here

This was one of the things I was most excited about for the party, but even this went wrong in a way. I followed these instructions to make a pvc launcher. The only problem was, no matter how hard we stomped, we were unable to get the rocket to fly very far…until part of it broke. When the cap came unglued without us noticing, then the rockets really took off. The only problem was that we didn’t realize this until almost everyone was gone. Yay for that.

Mini Rocket Popper Pinatas

I have been doing a pinata of sorts at each of Sebastian’s birthday parties so far, so when I saw this idea originally for a Fourth of July celebration, I thought they would work out lovely for this party. And this part actually turned out well. I stuffed the tubes with a bouncy ball and a rocket stamper.

Favor Bags

The favor bags were simple paper bags with printed name tags with the rocket from the invitation on it. Simple, but it worked. (And most of them were not this crumpled…I have been transporting this for a while trying to give it to someone who didn’t make the party.) The favor bags had Galaxy Slime and Lacing Cards.

Galaxy Slime

This was another one of my few successes. I made this galaxy slime using this recipe for glow-in-the-dark slime, substituting glitter paint for the glowing paint only because I couldn’t find any readily. Sebastian is still playing with this daily. He pokes it or holds it and declares, “Slime…oooh, slime!” All with a huge, cheesy grin on his face.

Rocket and Saturn Lacing Cards

Ever since Sebastian showed interest in lacing cards over this summer, I knew I wanted to include some in his favor bags. I made the cards by laminating the shapes that I had printed on cardstock. Then I punched holes around the border, and included two colored shoe strings. I was also pleased with this.

These were the things I actually accomplished. Here are some of the things I was going to do but ended up either scrapping beforehand or the day of because of what that day was.

Moon Bounce

I had actually purchased a small moon bounce because it was on sale and it was just as expensive as renting one for the day. I figured a moon bounce would be perfect for a Rocket party. But….no electricity. I was really bummed about this.

Rocket Packs

Not my kid, from here

I actually worked on this for a good while before I scrapped it last minute. I had all the bottles, flames, and straps mostly done, but when it came down to prioritizing what should be done, I picked food preparation over completing these rocket packs. My intention was for the kids to wear them and just zoom around the playground for fun.

Paper Lanterns turned Planets

I got some really cheap round paper lanterns, and it was my intention to decorate them to look like planets. But I never got around to it. In fact, due to the day being what it was, I did not get a single decoration up. I really wish I could have done better with that.

Cute Food Labels

This is something that again never got done. I was planning on making cute little names for all my food, like asteroid belt falafel or metorite grapes. And I was going to put Saturn rings on the oranges. Totally cute ideas. Totally never got done.

So, even though the party was pretty much a failure in my mind, Sebastian says he really enjoyed his party. So I guess it wasn’t a complete failure. Nevertheless, next time, I think I’m going to plan an indoor party at my house. Maybe then my party dreams can become a reality. 🙂

What’s the worst thing that has happened to you when you were hosting a party?