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 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!