A Blastoff Birthday Bash

Children love birthday parties that cater to their special interests and parents often have a lot of fun planning a themed bash. This year, while homing in on a birthday party theme, consider helping your child learn about an inspiring person or historical figure related to their interest and planning a party theme around that interest. You can make memories while fueling their fascination with learning.

An astronomical party

Since April is Global Astronomy Month, we thought we’d dive into some stellar party ideas to get your creative party-planning engines humming.

If your kiddo loves learning about the cosmos, there are plenty of heroes in the field. Your budding astronomer might even share a birthday with one of those leading minds. Here are a few of my favorites to give you a place to start.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (born Oct. 5, 1958) is an award-winning astrophysicist, author and science communicator. Director of the Hayden Planetarium, he works to make science approachable. He narrated the acclaimed television documentary series “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” and voiced Waddles on Disney’s TV show “Gravity Falls.”

Nancy Grace Roman (born May 16,1925) is another award-winning astronomy rockstar. She loved space so much that she started an astronomy club that met weekly when she was only 11 years old. She made exciting discoveries about the speed of stars and became an executive NASA astronomer.

Ibn Al-Haytham (born July 1, 965) is known as the father of modern optics, experimental physics and scientific methodology. He contributed to those fields and many others, including philosophy.

How to set up a space party

Now that your child has chosen and learned about their favorite figure, how do you throw an astronomy-themed party for your little stargazer? You planet! In all seriousness, birthdays are a great opportunity to nurture a child’s curiosity. With a little imagination, you can give your little one a celebration they’ll never forget. And if you want to get your budding astronomer hyped, you’ve got to set the scene.

How to decorate for a space birthday

With so many options for a perfect party, not even the sky’s the limit. Paper cutouts of rockets and moons are a great start, but I love glow-in-the-dark stars. Tape the rockets, moons and glowing stars on different lengths of string and hang them up around the party room. Avoid holes by using Fun-tak to put stars and pictures on the walls. You can find moon lamps or ones that cast the cosmos on your ceiling for under $20. These or other affordable projectors coupled with blackout curtains turn any home into a planetarium.

If you really want to make the party pop, don’t forget the soundtrack. Use spacy instrumentals, sci-fi themes or your favorite educational songs. For spectacular visuals, try playing Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” in the background.

What do you serve at a space party?

For sweets, frost your cupcakes in a purple-blue swirl, sprinkling on edible glitter, cake pearls and edible stars. The cake can match or have a galactic glaze. Recipes and instructions abound online, like this one showing how to make a mirror glaze galaxy cake. Add planets with gumballs or a Jupiter jawbreaker. Space cookies are easy since many cookie cutter sets include a star and a circle. A brownie-blondie swirl bakes quickly enough – separate the blondie batter in half, making one blue and the other purple. Combine partially and bake. Add stars and sprinkles for that wow factor.

Rice Krispies, popcorn or cereal balls make great moon rocks. Cantaloupe crescent moons and pineapple stars shine. Mix melon balls with grapes for a bowl-of-planets fruit salad. Try mini marshmallows and pretzel sticks to let children build edible constellations.

Spacy and savory, hummus makes a good moon dip and ranch is a milky way to accompany any veggie platter. Star or rocket shaped pasta makes a great pasta salad. Add vinaigrette, cherry tomato planets, olive black holes and crumbled feta stars to bring some nutrition to the party. Add herbs for a space-thyme salad. And if you’re an omnivorous family, spaghetti and meat-eor balls is a fun supper.

Fruit-soda is a great way to avoid added sugar without losing joy. Grab a couple of bottles of soda water and various flavors of 100% juice. Tape on labels like Rocket Fuel for the soda water and Orbiting Orange, Blastoff Berry and Planetary Punch for the juices. Kids can invent their own soda. (You can always relabel traditional sodas and punch, too.)

Space party games and activities

Party games aren’t rocket science. Try mixing active games with sit-down activities. Alternating lets kids recoup. Toss-a-ring-on-Saturn is made with any ring toss game and a small enough yellow-brown ball. Gravity Ball is a great indoor or outdoor game. Just blow up a balloon, bat it around and don’t let it touch the surface of the moon (your floor). And a relay space race in the yard is another way to burn energy and build memories.

Science fact scavenger hunts will keep little hands busy and minds engaged. And what kid doesn’t want to fly to the moon in a cardboard rocket ship? Collect some appliance boxes, supply duct tape and poster markers or paint. Kids can collaborate on a rocket and let their imaginations blast off. And if it’s hot outside, soaker balls and sprinklers make a super game of meteor showers.

Sit-down activities can give kids something to take home. Print off coloring sheets, crosswords and word finds (which can be found online for free). And educational board games about space are so fun.

Themed parties are a great way to share a passion with the inquisitive little mind(s) in your life. It tells them that they matter in a meaningful way that stays with them and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Whatever they love, all it takes is a little research and you can help your little one shoot for the moon. You’re sure to have a blast.