Last week my older son, Layne, turned 5.  (This is me taking a deep breath.)  Am I really old enough to have a 5-year-old?!  Um, yes, I am.  Get it together, Dana.  At any rate, it didn’t take long for Layne to decide that he wanted a ‘solar system party’.  Ever since we got him a book about outer space for Christmas, he’s been rattling off random solar system facts left and right.  The kid doesn’t forget anything.  So began my quest for space party decor. 

I knew I wanted things that we could reuse either in the kids’ bedrooms or for other parties in the future.  I knew I wanted the sunroom to serve as Mission Control (i.e. party central).  I searched the web for some inspiration and quickly found this inflatable solar system.  At $34, it wasn’t exactly cheap but I figured we could recycle it as pool toys, kids’ bedroom decor or even a future school science project.  I was sold…and so was it.    

Next, I browsed some web images of real birthday parties and was delighted to find another reusable decoration.  Fabric garlands are all the rage for their ‘green-ness’ and ease to assemble.  And they look adorable!  Here’s the one that inspired me…

I knew the pink wasn’t going to fly with a 5-year-old boy.  I started thinking blues, greens and yellows…the colors of earth from afar.  After I had a color scheme in mind, I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought a bunch of scrap fabric and 10 yards of heavy-duty cotton ribbon.  Then I used a rotary cutting tool and self-healing cutting board to cut triangles out of the fabric.  I made sure that each triangle had a match so the garland would be two-sided.

Then I simply paired up two triangles of the same fabric and sewed them onto my white ribbon.  I contemplated using fusible interfacing between the two triangles to beef them up but that stuff is expensive!!  I also decided not to finish the edges of the triangles because 1) I was running low on thread and 2) I liked the idea of it looking a little ratty, imperfect.   

I had some scraps left from cutting the triangles and tied them to a strand of twine.

At this point, Handy Hubby must have liked what he saw and kindly offered to help out with the party planning.  I gave him the task of whipping up a homemade Mission Control station that the kids could play with.  I suggested he cover cardboard boxes (we had plenty in our basement) with foil to make it look space-agey.  Well, he went above and beyond the call of duty!

Mission Control turned out so great that even I wanted to play with it!  Handy Hubby used lids and an empty yogurt container for the buttons and dials. 

The mouse is a deck of cards covered in foil and attached with a string.

There’s a video screen of the ‘launch pad’…

…and a speaker to communicate with the astronauts.

Awesome, right?!  Isn’t Layne so lucky to have such a cool Dada?  After all the decor details were in place, I moved on to the birthday cake.  Warning:  amateur baking and cake decorating ahead.  I had the grand idea of making a rocket cake complete with boosters.  I cut a rocket shape out of a store bought box mix carrot cake.  (While cutting, I had horrid visions of what shape might come out if I wasn’t careful…but I tried really hard to keep it G-rated.)

Then I added Ho-Ho boosters, cream cheese icing and “NASA” in black icing.  I am nooooo baker or professional cake decorator.  My icing is far from smooth and I discovered it’s difficult to write with icing.  I used the negative space cake (the parts I cut away to get the rocket shape) to make a little square cake atop a cakestand.  Star sprinkles finished it all off nicely were a diversion from all the imperfections.  Success = Layne knew it was a rocket.

In the end, the party was a blast! (pun intended) 

It took some work, yeah, but it was fun.  And I’m super-duper happy that we can reuse/recycle everything…well, the cake is gone.  It tasted better than it looked.