Owen's 4th Birthday Party

For Owen's 4th birthday, we went a little overboard as I tend to do anytime there is any special occasion to celebrate with my kids. But you know, Owen really deserved a big party this year. He's had a lot of adjustments (two in particular) this year and handled it all so well. I could not be any more proud! Plus this year we had FRIENDS to invite!

The theme was easy - SPACE! He is nearly obsessed with spaceships, astronauts, and planets. It took us a while to decide on a place since our house is just too small for that kind of a gathering. CMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville) ended up being a great choice. The kids all seemed to have a good time. Owen was on cloud nine. I loved that I got the chance to make him feel so special.

For this party, I searched online for good space ideas. I tried to make a moon cake like the one I found on FamilyFun.com, but it didn't turn out like the picture they showed. When Owen saw it, it was like he was trying to protect my feelings by not saying that it was ugly. He goes, "Is that how it's supposed to look?" I had to laugh. We used it as our "practice" cake and ate it ourselves.

Another idea I got online was to create a space station using odds and ends and some foil covered insulation board. I never would have been able to take on this project if it weren't for my parents coming to stay for the weekend. Mom watched the kids while I duct taped and duct taped and duct taped. It took quite a while to put together, but we had a lot of fun with it for the $11 that it cost us.

Tim had not been hands on for much of the party planning, but when he saw the space station, he got inspired and created this circuit board with a working switch that blinked Owen's birth date. It was pretty cool. (By the way, he didn't plan much of the party because he was busy getting our driveway redone with new concrete! When Owen's friend Sam came over a couple of days later he was so shocked that Owen's dad got him a new "parking lot" for his birthday.)

Here's a picture of Owen with "Tiny", the last Planet Hero that we had to collect. We now have a complete set, which is pretty cool.

In the favor bags was a box of crayons, a mini "Owen's Birthday Bash" coloring book, and a Milky Way. We decorated the Donut Bank cupcakes with toy aliens (not a bad back up plan - thank goodness you only have to order from Donut Bank a day in advance). We had our special order astronaut plates, Alien Goop hand sanitizer, and "Tang".

We had a toy table filled with some of Owen's rocket themed toys. It was such a huge hit, we probably could have done just that and the kids would have been happy.

The party host from CMOE was fabulous. We made a special request that the craft that she provided (as a part of their birthday package) be space themed. She came up with creating rockets out of foil and cardboard tubes. Each kids made one and got to take it home. My dad (in the doorway in the picture above) made a game out of Owen's stomp rocket. A few of the boys hung out with him for most of the party blasting off. After ALL of this, we still got to visit the museum and played until it closed. We had such a great time, and it made it all the better since Owen is the kind of kid that really appreciates it. Can't believe you're 4 little guy because it doesn't seem like that long ago when you were just a baby. On the other hand, I can't believe you're only 4 because you are smart, talented, and perceptive beyond your years. Love you Space Man!