Blast off!

Let's do a quick review of Birthday themes past:
1st- "First birthday fiesta!" Alaina came out to Kansas, so we decided to throw an actual party, with mostly our friends, and their kids (if they had any, and many did not).  It was mostly about us, Mexican food and some cupcakes.
2nd- I will call this one "We were about to drive across the country for Christmas and our two year old didn't need a theme- theme party" We heated pumpkin pie up from the freezer for dessert.
3rd- "Dora the Explorer" complete with a giant Dora wall hanging and the tragic butterfly mountain cake.
4th- "Ladybugs? I think I can make a lady bug cake".  Turns out, I can't
With the exception of the first year, no other children or families attended the birthday party (Mary did, of course, but she is more supportive than even Stephanie, and they were both really enthusiastic about butterfly mountain), so I never really had to do it well. 
We decided to go a different route with year 5, and did a full theme birthday with neighborhood kids.  In Lawrence, we had some great neighbors, but only one child Stephanie's age.  All of her friends were from daycare, which was 40 minutes from home, where I worked, so there wasn't really a good way to invite her friends.  Out here, we mostly only know neighborhood kids, and most families with kids have a girl between the ages of 4-6.
Stephanie chose the theme "Space" which we could really get behind.  Alaina was planning on being here for her birthday, and also threw herself fully into the theme, taking responsibility for cake and photo booth.  I started cleaning and preparing weeks before I thought I needed to, because I always run out of time.  I did, of course, run out of time, but in a normal day of the party, I wish we had thirty more minutes kind of way.  We decorated with stars and planets, made a rocket-themed bean bag toss (giant, wooden bean bag toss that required jigsaws, spray paint, etc) and spent a good bit of time adding glitter glue to invitations and decorations.  In the end, we totally pulled it off.  Seven kids came and everything went smoothly.  There are certainly things I would do differently, but I would never have had the foresight to know what those things were (for instance, the incredibly popular balloon pop game would have worked better if I had hired a bouncer to keep the kids in line from cramming into each other [though Kevin thinks putting some tape on the floor to stand behind was the solution]). Oh, and I didn't even mention the weather!  Warm and sunny in mid December.  I had to get some extra T-shirts out for the kids because it was too hot to play outside in long sleeves!
A BIG THANK YOU to Alaina, as she provided some extra special touches (and a lot of help), and it wouldn't have been the same without her.

The balloon pop game was just so popular!

That evening, in her new space jams from Mom and Dad.

Alaina got the background and dress-up items for the photo "booth".  I wanted it so that I could include fun pics with the Thank You cards, but it turned out to be really popular with the kids and a great activity.