DIY Alien Cups for a Space-themed Party

Life is Good: I channeled MacGuyver's mom!

Yep, more birthday talk! Recently, our big kid turned five and we celebrated with a space-themed party.

We had a ton of fun planning all of the activities and games for his friends together. We made decorations and conceptualized the goody bags. I loved watching his creative wheels turning and I cherished the time we spent together prepping for the party. It was a great way to teach him to plan ahead and talk about hospitality, sharing & generosity, and enjoying the experience of a birthday rather than focusing on the gift giving part.

As the party date got closer, we talked about our decorate-your-own cupcakes activity and he requested apple juice (a treat in our house...the rest of the time, it is water or milk). Fine. In "alien cups". Okay...

That seemed benign enough. Until a trip to Party City and Target proved that unless you are into Toy Story, alien/space/robot/planets cups are not gonna happen. So I put my creative problem-solving cape on and asked myself, "What would MacGuyver's mom do?".

The answer involved "alien green" paper cups from Party City...

Silver circle stickers that are supposed to be used with my monogram embosser...

A hole punch...

 And a green chenille stem (pipe cleaner to you old schoolers).

 I considered drawing black slits for "eyes" or adding googly eyes, but Coco Chanel once said that you should get dressed and then take one accessory off, so I likened skipping the "eyes" to that.



Take us to your leader!

Space Party Cupcakes

Life is Good: We have a five year old!

Recently, our big kid turned five. (*Holds hands to cheeks, shakes head.*) The time has flown by. Indeed, the hubs and I agree that these have been the best five year of our lives!

Since our oldest is silly for space, nutty for Neptune, and mad for the moon, of course, we threw a space-themed party!

I love a party! I mean I lovvvvvvve a party. And the prep is just as much fun as watching our guests enjoy it. This year was especially thrilling because the big kid and I did a lot of the party brainstorming and preparation together.

Baking with my grandmother was a wonderful thrill of mine as a child, so I have been including our big kid in (eggless, due to allergies) baking since he could dump a cup of flour into a bowl. He and I made these blueberry muffin cupcakes for the party. We talked about the different ways that I could decorate the cupcakes---like astronauts faces, maybe with a rocket shooting off of the top, or perhaps an alien? Then I made the mistake of suggesting suggested that it might be fun to let everyone decorate their own cupcake as an activity for the party. The birthday boy jumped at the chance. And as far as party activities go, it was a great idea! (I was just a little bummed that I didn't get to try my hand at decorating them myself...)

The prep was pretty simple. I purchased takeout containers to house all of the decorating supplies. I made different colors of frosting using my Grandma's recipe. Guests could also use chocolate chips (my kids have egg and nut allergies, so these were a blessing to find!), marshmallows, craisins, and fruit snacks that I cut into inch and a half-sized pieces.

The birthday boy thought the fruit snacks looked like alien antennas and asked if we could make the marshmallows look more like eyeballs. That's my kid! So I dipped a toothpick into black food coloring and dotted some marshmallows in the center. Voila!

I threw a plastic tablecloth over the dining room table so that when all of the guests had jumped into their rockets and zoomed home to planet Earth, all I had to do was pull up the sides of the tablecloth and throw it all in the trash!