Toby's Rocket Party

I cannot believe my little Toby boy is 3!! You know how people always tell you that it goes so fast? I never really realized how true it is.....it feels like no time since we had his 1st birthday party (sock monkey party)!! 

This year, it was a rocket party. Or, in Toby's words, a "wocket" party!

He had a BLAST! (sorry, I just couldn't resist the cheezy pun ;) I'm kind of all about cheese, when it comes to kids' birthday parties. I'm not talking about swiss cheese here...I'm talking about all the cheesy little details that I always tend to go overboard with. Whatever. Kids love it. And so do I :)

Here's the invitation that Toby and I had fun making. (read: momma had fun making, while Toby cut some coloured paper into a million little pieces on the floor) :)

I made one of these little cuffs/wristbands for Toby a while back and he was loving it...flying his "wocket" all around the house....so I decided they would be a fun addition to the loot bags. They're really easy to make....just a couple quick lines of stitching on a sewing machine and then a bit of hot glue-gun magic on the rockets and initials. I found the little felt sticker-backed stars at Michaels (have you ever tried cutting out a star shape? very hard!). 

Another "Toby and Me" project was making the paper rocket cut-outs. It always resulted in a colossal mess of paper scraps all over the floor, but nothing a broom can't handle. These were done with a combination of poster board and scrapbook paper. For the numbers I used stencils that I found at Michaels, and coloured them in with a black marker.

I happened to find an old vintage (80's) rocket ship wallpaper boarder at the thrift shop a month or so ago for $0.25....and I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for....but this worked really well and was so easy to do. I used the same set of stencils and black marker as before, and stenciled "Toby is 3" into the back of small paper plates. Then I stapled them to the wallpaper border and cut the ends to look more like a banner/ribbon. I tied it to my curtain rod with two thick ribbons, but that was NOT working...major sagging in the middle. A few little pieces of twine did the trick to keep it more level. 

I found these little rockets at Michaels as well (wow, this is a real plug for Michaels here!)...they came as a little kit that you're supposed to paint, etc. I had to glue them together, which was a bit of a pain. Organizing crafts at a party is not my forte....I got totally distracted and almost forgot about them....but they were fun to decorate none the less. I thought paints might be a little too messy for the occasion, so we used markers/crayons/stickers.

I came across a bunch of photos of Toby that I'd long forgotten about, so I hung them on a string with little mini clothespins.

The rocket cake! I know....I shouldn't have attempted this, but I was lucky that it turned out ok. Food colouring and Toby do NOT mix! It makes him go crazy...literally. So, this is why I made my own cake. This cake is food-colouring free :) I used an organic Dr.Oetker chocolate cake mix and made my own vanilla butter icing. (good tip I found online: do a crumb coating if you're ever making a cake like this. It's essentially a thinned down icing that you cover the cake with before the "real" icing goes on, to minimize the crumbs that will drive you insane). I decorated with Smarties (no food colouring...they use beet root, etc) and Maltezers. The rocket engines (or whatever you call those things that the fire comes out of) were silver cupcake liners and the "fire" was organic wine gums.  So what if I slightly over-baked the cake, right? I'm still getting used to my new oven. That's my excuse. ;)

I had fun making up the loot bags. I found these little white bags for $0.50 at Michaels (yes..again!), and used the same stencils/marker to do the initials. The stars were from the same packet as the ones I used on the wristbands. I found some random "rocket" stuff from various dollar stores, etc....

Dustin made these big cardboard rockets and they were a hit! Toby's still playing in them, and I'm pretty sure I'll be stuck with these monstrosities in my living room for the next month! *sigh*....the life of a mom with boys! He made them out of various cardboard boxes, and then painted them white. I got out my trusty stencils and went to work again ;)

Toby received so so many wonderful gifts from all of his adorable friends!!! He's been in his glory all day today, playing with everything! Our guests were great!....got right into the rocket theme :)

My bff Michelle is so amazingly talented, and made Toby this rocket bag! He's been carrying his cars and tractors around in it ever since. Check out her blog here and her etsy store for more cute bags like this :) I'm pretty sure she can make all sorts of custom stuff.

Her little man, Gavin, painted this picture for Toby....cutest thing ever, right?

Toby's little friend Molly brought him an awesome rocket-wrapped present! He could hardly wait even 5 seconds to get it ripped open. I'm glad I got this picture when I did!

Oh the fun that happened........what a great day! 

Toby kept his eyes closed while daddy brought his present upstairs :) It was a HIT! We got him a Strider running bike and he's hardly taken a break all day! (as you can see by the blur "running" past in the picture down below)

The cake was fun with sparklers lit up for the "blast off!"

"Stomp Rockets" were a lot of fun. I definitely recommend these for a birthday activity :)

Me and my boys...(so hard to ever get a non-blurry picture)

Michelle and Cole

Finn and Cole (they're the same age)...destined to be best buds!

Toby's auntie Shannon gave him a pair of rollerskates (his dream come true!) and him and Gavin were "sharing" them at the wild "after-party".

In Toby's words..."That was SUCH a happy day!"

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