Recently my sweet boy turned the big F.I.V.E. I can honestly say I don’t know how we got here so quickly. And he must be so used to me saying that it has flown by, because on the morning of his birthday he said to me “It was like I was just born yesterday Mummy and now I am five!” Haha.
Happy Birthday Noah! You are such a gorgeous boy, inside and out. I am proud of you and proud to be your Mama. You have taught me so much, and I love you to ‘the moon and the stars and the planets and back’ as you say. xoxo
This year we went for a space theme to celebrate his “5th Space Mission”. Hubby and I put a lot of time and effort into a few of the party things – so I wanted the dessert table to be rather simple and straightforward.
Noah and I decorated some styrofoam balls from the craft store {ranging from .20c to .90c in price depending on size} with tissue and crepe paper to make the planets for our solar system. The sun is a small paper lantern, covered in tissue paper. {A styrofoam ball this size at our craft store was apparently $9.95! Hence I went with a leftover $1.50 paper lantern from the discount store!}
After they were dry, I tied fishing line to a sewing needle and poked this into the top of the ‘planets’ and to make sure these were secure, I put a dot of hot glue on to seal the needle into the planet. We then tied the planets onto removable 3M hooks attached to the ceiling.
I was really happy with how this turned out. It became the perfect backdrop for the dessert table and was pretty easy to make.
I did some space related treats up for the dessert table.
These are ‘black hole cookies’ – made using this recipe + method, just altered a little so we didn’t get a swirl.
I also made these ‘asteroids’ – just following the recipe on the back of the Kellogs Cornflake box.
And some rocket ship shaped ‘space dust bread’. Thanks to The Princess and The Pirate for the cookie cutter!
The cake was just a double layer sponge with grey icing and small silver cachous all over. Then I stuck a lego rocket on top, which Noah thought was very neat since he got to keep it afterwards!
But my most favourite part of the dessert table {ok besides the planet backdrop!} were these Rocket Cupcake Pops! I bought these push pop containers from The Princess and The Pirate. They are so easy to put together {literally takes 2 seconds} and then I just used double sided sticky tape and taped orange and red coloured crepe paper strips to the bottom of the containers.
I used double sided sticky tape so that I could pull the crepe paper off before washing as these babies are re-useable! Just give them a good clean and then store for another party!
I then baked up our cupcakes in our mini muffin pan as these are the PERFECT size to fit into these containers. Yep, no cutting cupcakes down to size, just pop them in. I put one in and then added a dollop of icing and then put another mini muffin sized cupcake in and then added a nice swirl of icing for the top. I used these Ikea Cutlery holders and a piece of florist foam wrapped in silver crepe paper to hold them in place for the table display. :o}
The kids had a ball eating these out of the push pop containers!
Hubby used a large cardboard box to do up our cubby house to look like a rocket. This was also a hit with the kids! We were going to paint it but decided that it probably didn’t need it and the kids might probably tear it down anyway!
We also made jet packs for each of them to use to fly around the back yard with.
There were made with an empty plastic bottle {we used coke, orange juice and soda water bottles} – it took us a while to collect enough! Then we spraypainted them silver and hot glued some red and orange crepe paper to the inside of the bottle neck opening. Using a box cutter we made a small cut to string some ribbon through. I then added a little label and we were done :o} I would advise against using curling ribbon – it was easy to tear. 
I made each kiddo a name badge which they were given when they arrived.
The badge holder and clip I bought overseas when we were visiting family at Christmas for less than $5 for all of them. I have seen them at Officeworks though if you are looking for some.
The kids did a mini treasure hunt for ‘moon grubs’. And can you believe I forgot to do the ‘stick the planet on the solar system’ game! I guess that is what happens sometimes when you have a bunch of kids running around all over the place and you’re trying to get ‘pluto pups’ {sausage rolls} and ‘meat-eorites’ {meatballs} out of the oven and onto platters to feed everyone :o}
But I don’t think they minded. I felt a little guilty about the lack of party games {Noah is not really into them but most kids are!} but in the end it seemed like the kids all had a ball just playing with each other and running around the back yard.
They all went home with a “Junior Astronaut Recovery Kit” which was made using a take out container and filled with “space pellets” and a small Thank You chocolate along with some glow in the dark stars, a bouncy ball, a finger puppet alien and a glow stick.
Hope you don’t mind ALL the photos! I thought I’d put them all together here in one post instead of separate posts. Over all I loved the end result for the table, and it wasn’t overly difficult and I liked the ‘less is more’ approach. I also needed to stick to a budget. 
The kids loved using the drinks dispenser for their water – and I had fun using my Christmas present from the kiddos! 
I did want to have tent cards to label all the food on the table but that is another thing I forgot to finish up in time for the party.
I will be a little quiet over the next week or so as I finish up some things in preparation for the start of the uni semester but please feel free to ask any questions in the comments or via email and I’ll answer them soon! :o} xx
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