Space Alien Rescue Birthday Party

Thank you for coming, everyone! While we wait for the last guests to arrive, step in here and color your mothership calling device. I'll explain that later... 

Coloring noisemakers while waiting for guests to arrive.

Noisemakers to be used later to call in the mothership.

We have an emergency situation here. NASA will be contacting us on this special computer. They need our help!  They have 8 missions for us.  Are you ready to head outside and get to work?

Laptop made from cardboard shipping boxes.  Glow in the dark paint initials for deep space!

My son helped decorate the computer.  We printed the 8 missions  and slipped them inside.

The missions were numbered, but to aid in quick identification, I put them in rainbow order.

Outside, our alien rescue heroes await instruction.

Mission 1:  FIND ABDUCTED ALIENS

Aliens on an expedition to research planet Earth have been captured by an evil politician who has imprisoned them in tiny containers which are hidden in the backyard.  Can you be heroic by rescuing one alien prisoner each?

Alien babies captured in tiny containers, each individually marked.

Alien babies rescued!

 Mission 2:  FIND AND RELEASE ALIEN SPACE CRAFT

The evil politician has also hijacked the alien’s space craft.  Find the right spaceship by matching the symbol on top of your alien container to the symbol on the bottom of the spaceship.  Don’t touch the spaceship yet though, as the politician has set a trap!

Alien spaceships were distributed throughout the yard.  The boys needed to find the ship with the same symbol as their alien, then use a blaster to free the ship.

You will need to use the BLASTERs to destroy the holding mechanisms to safely release the spaceships.  There are 10 targets that must be neutralized.

Pre-filled with water, these blasters were ready for action.

Aim at the target! Blast it til the paint runs off, then collect your alien's spaceship!

Misson 3:  SEND ALIENS HOME

The aliens are almost free! Meet launch pad supervisor in front yard to blast the alien craft back through the milky way and beyond.  Watch out for asteroids (small bodies that orbit the sun)!

Sending the aliens home (frisbee toss the spaceships).

On the way, the spaceships passed through the asteroid belt (pop rocks) , the milky way galaxy (mini candies of the same name), and through the stars into deep space (starburst).

Misson 4:  SHOOT THE STAR

Particles of debris (sand or dirt) have flown off the alien saucers as they left the earth.  As these particles fall back to earth’s atmosphere (gravity), they burn up and cause what we know as a shooting star.  Meet in the driveway to see how far your shooting star can go...

Shooting stars were cardboard tubes sprayed gold with construction paper flames on one end.

The goal of the game was to toss the "shooting star" like a javelin and see how far it could go.

The boys enjoyed this game so much, they played it four times, taking turns to "shoot" their "stars."

The "particle" that caused the shooting star was a beaded alien zipper pull  made by my son and I. We wrapped it carefully in tissue paper and stuffed them inside cardboard tubes. The prizes weren't noticed until the very end!

Misson 5:  BLACK HOLE ENCOUNTER
Oh no!  We've just received transmissions indicating that the flying saucers are have encountered a black hole (a region in space time where gravity consumes everything, even light)!  Assist your alien craft by obliterating this space nuisance!

Obliterating the black holes... (chocolate donuts on string, try to eat with no hands).

 Misson 6:  DODGING COMETS

The flying saucers have landed on comets for a brief moment to repair their ships after narrowly escaping the black holes.… Can you guide them on zooming comets (icy solar system debris that leave  stunning, lighted tails) past any erratic asteroids?  Be sure to keep your comet’s tails from touching the ground!

Flying comets:  ribbon wands

The boys truly loved this game, too! They ran, and ran and ran...

until at least one comet stopped to rest!

Misson 7:  PROJECT DEEP SPACE

Thanks to your help, the flying saucers are now free and into deep space!  Want to go and have a look? Head inside (remove your shoes please!) and be sure to look out for other flying saucers, alien eggs, and shooting stars!

"Deep space" was a bedroom with dozens of stars illuminated by black light.

The boys gathered objects like glow bracelets and enjoyed the out of this world atmosphere!

Treasure included glow in the dark toys.

A rare find!  Alien eggs! (Splat throwing toys inside DYI ornaments shells decorated with  glow in the dark paint.)

*******INTER-MISSION:  CAKE, SNACKS, AND PRESENTS BREAK*******

Is anyone hungry after all that rescue work?  Head to the break room for cake and snacks!  We had build-your-own spaceship cracker sandwiches (circle shaped crackers, cheese, tomatoes, and turkey), along with assorted other snacks and cake.

Scrumptious Oreo planet cake!

Misson 8:  SUMMON THE MOTHERSHIP

The alien parents want to thank the rescuers but aren't sure where to land!  It is time to bring out your alien spaceship callers.  Meet in the front yard to see if we can summon the mothership!

swing the noisemakers to get a buzzing sound

spread out and make the sounds together

Our puppy Lilly had to add her own sound...

Success! The motherhip is coming!

Inside the pinata/mothership were parent aliens, puppets and candy.

And then the kids' own motherships (and fatherships) began to arrive... THE END!  Or was it?  I'm happy to report that one Mom says her astronaut is still playing...

Puppets used in this party were astronauts, alien and spaceship playsets, and aliens. Alien invitations are found here.

Alien Birthday Party Invitation

Strap on your spacesuits and blast off to an Alien Birthday Party!

First step:  Make an invitation to be played with, showing how exciting the party will be!  Of course, you don't have to have a party to have fun with this paper craft...

alien spaceship invitation

Trace the spaceship pattern onto black cardstock, the cockpit onto clear vellum, the trim onto gold cardstock, and the spaceship front onto dark gray cardstock.  Assemble and glue (leaving space for alien to fit inside), then attach cockpit with a small brad.  Copy aliens onto green paper. Paint or glue on eyes (I used white hole punches) and sequins for decoration, if desired!  Add party details on the back (I printed them in text boxes then glued on).

Join us for an

OUT OF THIS WORLD ADVENTURE

 to Celebrate (name's) 8th

Trip Around the Sun

Tuesday, January 22th

1:30-3:30

(Last Name) Galaxy

Our address

RSVP our phone

 Our email .com

I'm happy to say the spaceships were happily received!  My favorite response was from a mom who reported that her whole clan of boys (including Dad) were seen to be playing with the invitation. 

I made several extras and a couple of new alien guys to use as decorations for the party.  

aliens and spaceship fun

Aliens and Spaceship Pattern by C.A. Leu

Ninja Party: Putting it All Together

Ninja madness struck our home this year as our soon-to-be 7 year old decided that this was his theme of choice for birthday celebration this year.  Lego Ninjago was obviously behind this fascination! After spending some time on the Lego Ninja homepage, I realized that the story line would be a bit complicated unless all the guests were Ninjago fanatics. By broadening the theme to NINJA we could have fun that appealed to everyone.  We found some great books and even a documentary on Ninjas at our library to get us in the Ninja mood!  We created a knife ninja-tation to invite our guests and whet their appetites for fun...

We decorated the house with plenty of red ribbon, Asian style tassels, ninja throwing stars, and ninja faces...

We started the party by giving everyone homemade ninja masks and a belt.   I looped the belts through a small dragon bag from Oriental Trading  so the Ninjas could store their masks when they weren't wearing them. 

I shared the "story" of the party with each of them while we were getting settled, that first we would learn about traits of a Ninja with a craft project, then we'd practice using our minds like a sensei, and once we'd mastered using our body strength like a ninja, we'd move on to weapons practice.

  

PART ONE:  Asian Scroll Craft Project

We turned our garage into an art studio and made Asian style calligraphy scrolls, because the pen is the ultimate ninja weapon!  I wasn't too sure if the weapon-wrestling crowd would be interested in this activity at all, but the boys really had fun with this, especially showing their creations to their parents at the end of the party.

PART TWO:  Think Like a Sensei Games

We played two games based on the mental powers of a ninja master. One, "tip the hat off the blindfolded sensei," didn't work very well indoors... it was raining so we had to cram into a small room.  There wasn't enough space between the blindfolded person and his attackers for the sensei to ever develop a baseline sense of peace before the onslaught began.

Luckily, the other sensei game was a big hit...   I dispersed four Chinese coins (Oriental Trading) to the kids while Sensei was in the middle with his eyes closed. Once he opened his eyes, the kids had to "switch", pretending to hand the coin to another boy if they didn't really have one or actually transferring the coin if they did. The sensei got four guesses (switches) to find the coins.  Everyone wanted a turn!

PART THREE  Body Strength Games

We used our bodies, martial arts style... first, cracking foam boards with hands,

then another board with feet (thanks to Target for the foam pieces).  The ninjas were good sports about picking up the styrofoam pieces before we moved on to the next game!

 Lastly, the ninjas smashed a kick bag pinata. 

Inside the pinata were starburst candies and stuffed ninja throwing stars.

PART FOUR  Ninja Weapons Games

We divided the boys into two groups, one played skeleton bowling (an obviously Ninjago inspired game here!) with foam nunchucks in our hallway. 

The other group played Pagoda Towers, where teams built towers out of boxes that I had covered in red or black wrapping paper and then tried to knock each other's down with the stuffed ninja throwing stars. 

Next, we knocked down lollipops with foam launching missiles (this was supposed to be a dragon game but I didn't get that part figured out....) The lollis were stuck in a thin foam board.  More fun than that was using skeleton boxing pens to knock ping pong balls into the (lego) pagoda. 

Lastly, the ninjas crawled under a hallway of flames (we were supposed to knock the flames down outside with the nunchucks but the rain! I already had the flames made, thought they might be able to battle them in the hallway, but then when I saw how wild the boys were, we just had them crawl under!).  The "flames" are paper tubes hung from 3 expandable curtain rods that criss-crossed the hallway.

PART FIVE  Cake and Presents

No explanation needed here! A simple ninja mask cake was tasty rather than fancy: homemade triple layer chocolate cake with lemon buttercream frosting in the middle and chocolate on the outside... Yum!

PART SIX  Sword Fight & Take Homes

We were supposed to have a sword battle outside (with balloons) while we waited for parents, but we ran out of time... the boys took their swords home. However, ninja battles are a common scene in the neighborhood!  The swords attach to the belts through a loop.

Party favors included costumes and props from the games as well as a handful of sensei and ninja finger puppets.