Ben's UFO Party

About ten months ago (yes, ten!) Ben announced that he would like aliens, slime, and UFO's for his party in October. I was unsure. How could I make that cool and retro and well, awesome? I had those Toy Story aliens in my head and I couldn't figure out what direction to take with it.

After a bit of thinking an image from the movie E.T popped into my head. You know that part where they take poor old E.T and stick him that research lab and it's all quarantined? Believe it or not, that was my starting point. I decided to go for the science/research side of aliens and away we went.

My idea was to have an early evening party with a fog machine and glow sticks, and to try and recreate a UFO lab in our room downstairs. That was until Ben gently told me that he didn't want a big party, and he didn't want lots of people there. In his four year old way of course. I think his exact words were "You know Jemima's circus party and rainbow party? NOT like that." Gotcha.

So today we had an alien themed BBQ in the park with some close family friends and two kids from Preschool. It was relaxed and fun, and totally stress free. The kid is on to something.

So here we go, my UFO party on a budget....

The invitations were home made on the computer and the envelopes were cheapies bought at the local art shop.

At this party you had to work for your party bag. We set up a scavenger hunt for 'Alien Specimens' all over the park.

Alien gems.. these glass beads were .99c a bag (I bought two) the kids loved them. Ben and I made patterns with them all over the rocks at the park for the kids to discover.

Pieces of UFO spaceship.. my husband found a big silver coated piece of polystyrene on the side of the road and picked it up knowing that an alien party was in the works. He cut out shapes and drew designs on them and then I hid them in the trees and under bark.

One of Ben's alien patterns of gems.

Alien eyeball lollies, we're lucky that Halloween is almost here, there were lots of spooky sweets in the shops.

Alien Goop - lime shower gel in some craft storage canisters from a junk shop with some alien writing on the outside.

Decorations were cheap - we bought this yellow and black hazard tape from a hardware shop for $5.50 and some green and black balloons. A few days before the party I saw these alien head balloons for .39c each so I grabbed a few.

I wanted some kind of specimen looking thing on the science table so I made these out of some Fowler jars, a piece of yellow polypropylene, and the alien head balloons squashed inside.

 I picked up these specimen jars from a pharmacy for $1 each and added the stickers onto the lids. These were the containers for the slime that they would be making.

We copied an Area 51 security pass and made our own ones specific to the park and the party. We handed them out to each child before they set off on their scavenger hunt.

I think the science was the best part of the day, the kids were amazed when fake snow appeared from nowhere, and they were so excited to see slime forming in their cups. Then we went over to the grass and set off some rockets made from water and effervescent tablets. I loved seeing their faces when we were doing these experiments!  All of the supplies were from the Prof Bunson online store.

I don't have many shots of the table to show you, and to be honest it wasn't that flash. The sausages were ready and the kids were charging, and we missed our photo op. Here you can just about see the ice cream alien brain cake I made. The table cloths were lime green plastic, the plates were silver and we had green cups from IKEA. I made some alien head chocolate lollipops using a mold I bought online and I stuck them into a round piece of the silver polystyrene around the edge. It was all pretty simple really, which is just how my boy wanted it.

And then there was the alien pinata that we made out of a balloon and some paper mache. It took a long time but it was worth the effort to see them having fun bashing it up and scrambling for the treats inside.

It was a really fun afternoon and definitely one of the best parties we've done.

Happy Birthday Benny!