Astronaut Birthday! 3... 2... 1...

Blastoff!

Since this blog is ABOUT & FOR Gabriel, I thought I'd revisit his 3rd Birthday Party from last month, originally blogged on DeLish:

Now I do not have the typical 3 year-old. And I am so thankful for that. Why? He never asks for anything in any store, not the grocery store, not candy, nor…the toy store. Seriously. Yes, he loves his toys. Yes, he has his favorite snacks. But he is seemingly content with what he has. And, on the same token, he didn’t make any specific birthday requests. Don’t get me wrong, he loves Sesame Street & Donald Duck, to name a couple of popular kids’ themes but he is also adventurous. He has fun at the aquarium, the zoo, the farm, the science center… just about anywhere we take him.

So with that in mind, so far I can create a birthday out of an amusing idea & turn it into a wonderland. For Gabriel's 2nd birthday last year, I created a Blue Bird theme to coincide with his love of birds & nature. This year, for Gabriel’s 3rd, we blasted off to the Planet G…, Gabriel’s Aeronautic Space Academy was a one-day astronaut training camp for his little cadet friends since he loves stars so much.

uniform 

Every birthday boy needs the perfect uniform… I made his tee (there’s also a dangling “3” sewed on beneath the astronaut body) Gabriel did not want to take this off that night!!!

 

Rocket Booster!

Rocket Man

 

the invitation

And Jen from Jar of Designs, created his awesome invites, once again. She is the “go to” if you want to set the perfect tone for your event! Remember the invitations are very important! Just look at these!!! And, because we made up the Planet G (well, it took Pluto’s place ;) ) Jen also devised the beautiful round stickers to apply to the envelopes! Just add a flag stamp & perfect!

Signage

  I am always saying I get lost in the details & yes, again I did. I want the children to have a good time & remember it. What I do remind myself (constantly), is kids do NOT look for perfection. And I am very thankful for that… Here is some of the signage I whipped up… Thank you to Hostess {with the Mostess} for the paper plates as a wall hanging background idea. All else was from the deep black hole that is my mind! Ha! All crafted by me. The Space Shuttle signs are printed from NASA's actual web-site & the GABRIEL banner is from Oriental Trading Co.  

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabriel!

A friend has a latex allergy so a little smattering of balloons was perfect for G… Every child’s party needs some balloon-age!

  Potties

Space capsule

I asked the guests to sign inside this book as gabriel's "space" time capsule

Food!

I printed out Name tags & affixed them to Giant nut & bolt robot erasers I found to match my theme & color scheme (love when that happens!)

The Moon Cake

Cookies & Cream Cake

So for the cake I created a moonscape, complete with a little astronaut G, a shuttle, American Flag & Planet G flag + 3 candles (a “3”, a star & a “G”) & oreo cookie craters. The cake was shared with family later but for the party, we used it for “happy birthday” & to blow out the candles then…. And this was my hubby michael’s brilliant idea… swapped it out for carvel flying saucers!!! They were a huge hit. Huge.

flying saucers

 

Asteroids

Cake batter rice krispie treats

area 51

marshmallow pops w/ googly eyes!

 

Tang station

What is a space training party without tang?!

And wow, was it a huge hit!!! We had to buy more because my hubby wanted it!

Food served but NOT pictured:

Rocket Fuel

Soda & apple juice boxes

Planet Pizzas

We ordered a bunch of pizzas, freshly made & delivered from a local pizzeria. YUM.

Vegetation

Carrots, celery, broccoli & cauliflower served with hummus to dip.

Space junk

Chips & pretzels

Birthday boy traveling on an Inflatable space shuttle!!!:

Games & Fun!

The kids were greeted with their space folder (confidential!)…

It contained An astronaut name badge & a space shuttle coloring book

They were immediately pointed to a craft table for:

 

Space Crafting

Creating their own planet

Coloring

Getting glow sticks

Grabbing a “telescope”- a repurposed paper towel holder

Shooting Star Toss!

I drew this game on foam picture-board then cut out the holes. Bought yellow & orange bean bags separately. The kids had tons of fun throwing the bean bag “stars”

 

Space shuttle pinata

 

Piñata swag

Includes milky ways, glitter star bouncy balls, flag mints, plastic paratrooper men, robot finger puppets, robot pencils, lollipops & more candy!!!!

Games not shown:

Tandem Planet jump

I affixed colored, cut planet printouts to foil stars, swapping Pluto with the planet g & had the children two-legged jump from planet to planet. Again, this easy game went over so well, the children lined up two & three times to do it!

 

Alien hunt

Guess the number of rubber aliens in the jar

I just forgot to take out the jar. Oops. 

These Area 51 guys:

Photo id

We didn’t get a chance to hang it, nor the time. Oops.

 

Completion!!!

Checklist

 

Favor

Giant robot eraser

Foam space shuttle glider 

 

Certificate of completion 

 I am pretty sure everyone had a great time!!! We sure did!!!

And wow, Gabriel received the most throughtful gifts. What an amazing birthday!!!

Thank you all for looking!!!

<3 Lishie

I Heart Gabriel

I have a nice walk once my commuter bus from NJ~NYC drops me off... It's about 1 mile from the new WTC site, across Canal Street, through SOHO (South of Houston) & then across Houston (that's House-tun for you non-New Yorkers ;))& finally into the "Village", where I work.And then I do the same walk in the afternoon to launch me home. It's about a mile each way & a great time to think, let my creativity flow. So I came up with this tee shirt idea.

I don't know about you, but I am pretty over the buy a new shirt for every holiday trend for children. Especially when they are so easy to make... & Especially when creating one makes the item one of a kind. So as I walked & passed by some of the more touristy-item vendors I of course, kept seeing those "I <3 NY" tees. You now, the ones with the hearts? I would display a jpeg picture here but that is an actual logo that is COPYRIGHTED. Imagine? So I'd rather not... But I can say that I looked up the font & it's pret-tee close to the American Typewriter type. At first I wanted to do "I <3 MA" but was told it looked like my son was a Massachusetts lover, rather than a mama lover, lol... So I used American Typewriter Condensed for the bottom line, changing "MA" to "MOM".

Mother's Day Tee Shirt



Materials Needed (+ red food coloring, not pictured here, but below):

First, we created the picture we wanted to trace, then placed it on cardboard backing:

Took the blank tee & placed the piece of cardboard, with the picture on it, inside, between the front & the back of the material:

Then, I began with the writing. Using craft fabric paint, I traced the letters... 
I M O M 

Allowed it to dry...
~~~
Then, I took a small bowl with a little water mixed with a couple of drops of food coloring & A heart-shaped cookie cutter...

& allowed Gabriel to dip the heart into the bowl & "stamp" the shirt...

(BTW: This was the paper underneath:)

Allowed the tee to dry, hanging...
~~~

Didn't it come out beautifully? Looks very street chic to me~ almost like graffiti art.
Unique~ One-of-a-Kind, like G!
I <3 my little archangel more than he can possibly know...


<3 Lishie & Gabriel


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