Just a friendly reminder that you can enter to win the HGTV Dream Home 2010 up until 5:00PM today.  Although I’m not sure if that’s Eastern time or what?  I know it’s a looooong shot, but I’m entering anyway.  Keeping my fingers crossed…

No, that’s not my hand.  And, yes, that hand has some extra digits.

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.