May The Fourth Be With You!

 Funny story... we asked Austin what kind of birthday party he wanted for a couple of weeks at the end of August. We figured that would be enough time for us to get all the stuff together and send out invitations, and we knew toddlers were fickle, so we waited until his answer was actually consistent. He said he wanted a space party. So we went with a space party. We sent out space party invitations, bought planets and stars to hang from the ceiling and ordered a cake that was decorated like the planet Earth. We thought of some fun outer spacey things for kids to do and were really pleased with how things were coming together.

And then, about four days before the party, he said he wanted a Paw Patrol birthday party. And he said this over and over and over again, and I just sort of muttered every time, thinking "nononononononononononononononono." That, and "F- you Nickelodeon," who advertises their Paw Patrol party crap during all the episodes we've dvred. So, when it came to decorate, I was a little concerned.

 I shouldn't have been. We had a bunch of decorations up when he woke up the morning of the party, and I could hear him taking Daddy around and showing him the stars and the planets. It was totally fine. And he was stoked to help decorate when I gave him all the space toys I'd rounded up the day before.

Yup, the Daleks came. They don't get invited to many parties.

This astronaut is investigating the Trix treats I made, which looked awesomely otherworldly. They were also completely disgusting. Ah well...

R2 was invited, of course.

The nice photography studio down the street saved us this box! Austin wouldn't let me make it into a space ship, insisting it was a train.

A space train ;)

We made Austin's room into another world with a black light and some fun accessories...

Water beads, fluorescent Hot Wheels and submersible LEDs

We have an awesome bakery to do the cake. I did the rainbow though.

I am so glad I've been doing these big cards! Some of the kids were able to actually sign this one, so it's cool to compare the one from last year to now :)

The stash of presents under the table did not go unnoticed ;)

Pretty proud I've done cascarones at almost every birthday! These were meteors...

It's full of stars!

Meteor shower!

The aftermath

Sophie is still not quite clear on the concept.

These were our favors... I wrapped little toys and stickers in layers of crepe paper until they were roundish, then gave them tinsel rings. I got the idea here: http://honestlywtf.com/diy/diy-surprise-balls/

We also gave out astronaut ice cream.

Of course I did enough for Sophie and Austin to have one too.

That's a lot of crepe paper.

Space geckos (in memoriam)

Post party sugar coma

First Birthday Party!

You know what's great about 1 year olds? They have no idea when their birthday is, so when everyone gets sick, it's not a big deal to shift that party to the next weekend.

You know what else is great about them? They have no idea what presents are, so when their 3 year old brother is completely losing his marbles about festively wrapped packages he's not supposed to touch, you can relent halfway through the party and let him unwrap everything while she sleeps in a cake coma.

That about covers it. Oh yeah, they're pretty cute too.

even when they have chocolate all over 'em

and especially if I'm not holding them. (Thanks, Mere!!)

90% asleep

The unwrapping

100% asleep

The table of snacks and cake. We had a polka dot theme. A whole platter of candy dots, a jar of M&Ms...

Plus Kix and Trix and Rainbow Chex Mix, which was astonishingly easy to make and came out beautiful and delicious! The polka dots on the cake are more M&Ms...

#Pinterestwin!

Note that everything has now been crammed together in the middle of the table. It was very very hard not to touch the cake. Very hard.

Why is everyone looking at me?

I wonder what the neighbors are doing?

Polka dot cascarones

I was super proud of my balloon chandelier, so I took way too many picture of it. I got a huge crochet hoop at Goodwill a while back, (like, 18 inches in diameter maybe?) and that thing has been great fun. It was the crow's nest for Austin's pirate party, with some black cloth and skeletons. For this, I tied ribbons all around the inner hoop and then tied balloons on the ribbons and then slid them around until it looked dense enough. Then I put the outer hoop on and suspended it from our chandelier over the table. Very easy! And when Daddy took it down, he put the balloons to good use in the play pen.

The fungeon