This Year's Event

This year's party was great! 16 kids in attendance, ranging from 3 1/2 to 7. Most parents stayed, but a few chose not to.  My main goal for the past week was to have everything seperated into laundry baskets in the order it was needed, that way, I could walk in with one basket, and then if someone showed up early, I could get things rolling.  Otherwise, I could have the buckets out, and take advantage of the kindness of my mom, her husband, my aunt, grama, and other relatives.  They've all seen how I run parties, and are AWESOME at playing along and helping out!

We started out with Lego Time at the tables. I searched out a great deal at Toys R Us (birthday coupon for $3, flier with $5 coupon, buy 2 get 3rd free, get free extra mini-set, 20% off one set... , I walked away with 3 large sets and a bonus set for about $22).

Knowing that not every kid is a lego building fan, some mazes and other idea starters were out on the tables as well, such as:
http://robotclub.ab.ca/articles/20/lego-and-duplo-printable-grids
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/space-exploration/printable/34168.html
http://www.printactivities.com/ConnectTheDots/astronaut-dot2dot-2.html
http://www.busybeekidsprintables.com/Space-Stationery.html

Next, we converted a game from Diane Craft's Active Play into a Meteor Shower. I carefully set it up with the kids, and they really take it from there. Basically, I had about 40 small stuffed "rocks" or Meteors for the kids. They don't want them on their side of the barrier, so they toss them over to the other side. There are kids over there throwing them back though. It seems like 6 years old is a little too old for this as a large group, but since it was a party, and not school, a little chaos is fun, right?

When the game was over, I challenged the kids to stuff all the meteors into the black hole... Just a coffee can with tissue paper hiding the label.. it was tough, and took a few minutes. Meanwhile, all my relatives were busy cleaning up the legos, and putting out the next activity (Did I say thanks? Thanks!).

We had 2 space ship options to create, with supplies for each child to do one of each. One was this flying saucer from Family Fun. The other was a pre-made kit, which I bagged individually.  I ran around with a sharpie writing names on saucers and baggies with spaceships, and I know at least one other marker was out there too!

When that started wrapping up, we played "Pin the Person on the Planet," a variation of the game we're all familiar with, right? Each munchkin picked a lego guy (there were about 30 options, and a few extra heads)and a flashcard that showed a planet (from the Target dollar bins). We made sure they knew which planet they were aiming for, then the blindfold, and you stick your lego person onto the lego planet... The "winner" prizes were to one side, and the "consolation" prizes were to the other side, so when the first 5 kids all won, we were able to just let kids pick whichever prize they wanted... no biggie!

Two guys on Mars

Next was the pull string Pinata. I found a lot of VAGUE directions like this...but that was enough to get me started... I used a diaper box, and had the hubby cut a bread crumb canister into 8 one inch sections using a razor blade, covered them in tissue paper, and stuck them on the "top" which was actually the bottom. For the pull strings, we did a whole bunch of ribbons, but one was looped through a few holes I'd punched in the "bottom" flap. I didn't follow these directions, though you could!

The only thing holding the box shut was a layer of tissue paper, and while only one of the two flaps would get pulled open, I counted on gravity and brute force to make all the candy fall out the open side, which it did! Since the theme was Space AND Lego, and the Pinata was Lego, it only seemed fair to fill the pinata with Spacey items... So SUNmaid raisins, STARburst, and MILKY WAY, along with glow bracelets were the goodies. The glow bracelets all cracked when they fell to the floor, which made for a neat effect (and hopefully not too many upset parents, for sending a TON of stuff home with their kids!). We did the "all pull at once" version, I should have made the strings about 3 feet instead of the 2, but it worked fine. Each kid had a baggie (no ziplock, just the cheapies) in one hand, with their name for collecting, we counted to 6 and PULL! I super curled the key ribbon so I could make sure it got pulled too.

Last was, of course, CAKE! We changed some of the directions from that website, NECO wafers are so hit or miss, we left them out entirely... I added Oreos to the filling layer. We talked through the beverages, but the easiest option was juiceboxes... at the last minute I decided to offer water as well... good thing.. it was about a 50/50 split for the kids!

He's happy here, I swear!

On the way out the door, of course, everyone received a goodie bag. Each one had Lego Crayons (made from the molds, which are tough to come by, at least in the US), a Space/Lego booklet, Lego Magazine, a space toy from a Space Toob, and a little lego kit, all in a brown paper bag, which was big enough to hold everything but the Flying Saucer...

Soundtrack to the party:
I am the Highway, Audio Slave
Why does the Sun Really Shine, They Might Be Giants
Airplanes, B.o.B.
Speed and Velocity, They Might Be Giants
Satellite, Dave Matthews
Bad Moon Rising, Creedance Clearwater Revival
See you on the Moon, Great Lakes Swimmers (off for the kids 3)
Spacegrass, Clutch
Why does the sun shine?, They Might Be Giants
Rocket Man (punk rock cover), Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
We are All Earthlings, The Muppets
Space Oddity, David Bowie
Blue (Da ba dee), Eiffel 65
Across the Universe, Jim Sturges (covering Beatles)
How Many Planets?,They Might Be Giants
Countdown, Rush
Rocket Man, Elton John
Fly me to the Moon, Matt Dusk (but Frank Sinatra would work too!)
I don't want to live on the moon, Ernie and Shawn Colvin on Elmopalooza
What is a shooting star?, They Might Be Giants




Items included in the activity booklet:
http://www.printactivities.com/ColoringPages/Space-Coloring-Pages/space-travel-road-signs.html
http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/Shape_Mazes/Astronaut-Maze.shtml  
http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/Math-Mazes/Space-CountingBy1s.shtml
http://www.printactivities.com/ConnectTheDots/Planet-Dot2Dot.shtml
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/devices/spaceshuttle/label/
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/space-exploration/printable/34168.html
http://www.busybeekidsprintables.com/Space-Stationery.html
http://creative.lego.com/en-us/parentscorner/activities/default.aspx
http://www.1800dentist.com/LEGO-Battles-coloring-pages
http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/07/free-printable-lego-bingo-game/
http://www.dltk-cards.com/doorknob/dk4-lego.asp
http://powerminers.lego.com/en-us/downloads/posters.aspx
http://robotclub.ab.ca/articles/20/lego-and-duplo-printable-grids