Birthday Party!

We had my son's 4th birthday party last Thursday evening. I love planning parties so I thought I'd share some of the fun ideas I used. First, I found a blog that had a whole rocket-themed birthday party so I used several of their ideas. The "Rocket Fuel" sign above was made by a graphic designer friend of mine along with the thank you tags you'll see below. I LOVED how those turned out! Thanks AJ!

Then I made a "Happy Birthday" banner with a rocket in the middle and hung it in our basement where most of the party took place.

These rocket cookies turned out super cute. I looked all over for a rocket-shaped cookie cutter but I ended up just making a template out of cardstock and cutting out the rockets from rolled out sugar cookie dough. I bought red Wilton Cookie Icing and it turned out perfect. It dried so I could put the cookies into bags and they still looked nice.

I put a rocket cookie and a packet of Pop Rocks into each goodie bag. They were a hit!

Roman had so much fun opening presents. He loved everything from toys to shoes to sidewalk chalk. They are so easy to please at this age.

Last, but not least, is the rocket cake! I made a 9x13 cake and froze it. Then, while it was still frozen I cut the top off so it would be flat, then I turned the cake upside down and cut out the rocket shape. The leftover pieces worked great for the fins. I watched a little tutorial online on how to crumb coat your cake if you are just going to chop up a cake and have exposed sides which makes for lots of crumbs getting into your frosting. It's not perfect, but I love how it turned out! Roman has a pair of rocket pajamas and that's what I went off of for a template and even the colors.

I happened to go to Party America for a couple items a day before Roman's party and found a #4 that was a sparkler! I originally wanted to stick regular sparklers in the bottom of the cake so it looked like it was taking off, but this was perfect! Especially since I couldn't find any regular sparklers this time of year. :)

All of Roman's cousins blowing out the candles second time around!

Little brother loved the cake!

Even if it is at night, in the basement where the lighting is horrible, I've got to have a family picture at the birthday party! :)