Planning an astronaut space party

Birthday party time has come again.

Henry told me in February that he wanted an astronaut party. I have no idea where he gets his party theme enthusiasm. (Sarcasm.)

It started with the astronaut costume. The costume was very likely the reason Henry wanted a space party. Who can argue? He and I staged a little photoshoot to get an astronaut photo for the invitations.

I could die from this cute.

So, we had a theme pretty early. And since we knew it would be too stressful to worry about moving into the new house and throw a big birthday party, we decided to rent the pavilion at a local park and go a little lower key than normal.

Low-key in my world means:

1. I don’t have to clean my house. ($25 for the park pavilion is well worth it.)
2. I’m not serving a full meal. (The party starts at 3 and will be done before dinner.)
3. We’re not going overboard on activities. (We are at a park, so I would imagine the kids can find something fun to do.)
4. No gifts. (We’ll exchange gifts with just immediate family after the party. But everyone else just brings themselves. The hope is that this removes the pressure of opening everything at the party and the cost of bringing gifts and it also frees up the afternoon for Henry to play with his friends and family and eat cookies and cupcakes.)

But low-key doesn’t mean dull. On the contrary, a space and astronaut is a fun theme and we’ll add some cute touches.

And yes. I bought a huge 10×10 space landing moon backdrop for the photo and party. Which is probably not considered a reasonable low-key expense. But nobody asked you.

Moving on. Once I had a few awesome photos, I set to work at Tiny Prints. I love the full invitation packages – and Henry and I loved the Space Blowout. (Check out our vintage train invites last year and the tractor invites the  year before.)

This year we have the super rad rocket invites and matching star envelope liner, return address labels, customized wrapping paper (which I’m planning to use as our table runners), and custom postage stamps.

The invitations are always one of my favorite parts of party planning. I know that it’s totally acceptable to do an online invite. But there’s something about getting something awesome in the mail. And I love seeing his little picture on the invites each year.

We always get such positive comments about the invites, and many family members actually keep them each year. The addition of the personalized postage stamps blow people away. I would highly recommend adding them to your invites – I just think they are such a fun surprise for people.

Once the invites were mailed, we got planning. Henry has taken to scrolling Pinterest searches for space party ideas. Which is a terrible habit. (I know this from experience.) But it’s been really fun to plan this with my soon-to-be-four-year-old. He’s got opinions and he’s really excited about this space party. Here are a few of our inspiration and ideas …

Planets backdrop |  Personalized space blowout wrapping paper | Strawberry rockets | Planets plates | Space cupcake tower | DIY jet packs | Rocket piñata | Space blowout invitations | Planets cookies | Personalized rocket napkins | Rocket blaster water bottles | Planet mobile

Instead of trying to do everything, I’m focusing on a little decoration and a few sweet snacks, drinks, and favors for the kids. I think it’s going to come together pretty easily and our little astronaut will be happy with this space-tastic party.

 

And that’s what really makes it “out of this world.” Stay tuned for more party talk in the next few weeks.

 

Special thanks to my friends at Tiny Prints for providing us with these great invites and party must-haves! And thank you for supporting NewlyWoodwards sponsors to help make posts like this possible.