The Almost Impossible Astronaut & Ballerina Party Photos

The party day was cold and windy, but that didn't deter us from having a great time! We added an outdoor  fire, s'mores and hot cocoa and we were good to go. The kids stayed outside for more than an hour playing with the rockets, gliders and zipline before we came inside for cake.

My tutu wreath made on an embroidery hoop

Our homemade rockets and goodie bags

I didn't get any pictures of the kids performing on the reclaimed pallet stage,
but both the girls & boys loved it.
They found instruments like our Paperjamz guitar and put on a show!

Dollar Tree foam gliders were a huge hit (while they lasted)

They girls liked the Rocket balloons as much as the boys

Rocket balloons from Dollar Tree - tons of fun!
Tip: buy several balloon pumps if you get these
otherwise they are really hard to inflate

Stomp rocket was played with all afternoon by both boys & girls

Everyone loved the zip line! The flight training sign blew down

 

Space helmet visors raised to eat s'mores

Fortunately you can eat s'mores with your tutu and tiara on

Cake with moon topper and tutu

rocket craft



Craft & cake aftermath...

 

Please see previous posts for more information about the cupcake toppers, rocket craft, helmets, tutus and my tutu cake plate.

Tips of you try this party at home: splurge and buy a zip line if your yard will accommodate it. If you can't manage a zip line definitely buy a stomp rocket (or two!)  The toys from the Dollar Tree (gliders and rocket balloons) were fabulous. You could probably skip the dress up costumes and just buy a glider & some rocket balloons for each guest and they would entertain themselves until they broke and/or were lost.

This was a fun party, but at the end I was (as always!) exhausted. Next year, I swear I'm going to talk her into having her party outside of the house. I'll pay the extra $100 - it took me almost a week to clean the house, decorate and cook. Surely my time is worth at least $100. Live & learn....



Cake Stand Tutu

I saw my dream ballerina cake on Pinterest. I knew I couldn't do all of the beautiful fondant work, but I figured that I could pull off a fairly respectable Cake Stand Tutu.  But, how?

Isn't this just pink perfection?

I searched for tutorials on DIY cake stand tutus. Hmm... lots of people seemed to like them, but no one was sharing how to make them.

So, I made it up myself. Here's what I did.

First I knew I didn't want a large Styrofoam wreath as the basis for my tutu so I had to think of some other way to make a tutu.  Love & Sugar Kisses blog had a  great post on how to make a long, flowing cake stand tutu that I considered following.

I didn't use her instructions mainly because I don't own a hot glue gun - and her warning about burning your fingers made me a tad nervous. Besides, I wanted a puffy tutu like the one in the picture.

I bought a  10 " embroidery hoop for $3. I bought a 25 yard  roll of 6 inch tulle on sale for $2.50 and began to experiment. At first I thought I could get away with just stuffing tulle between the two piece of the hoop.

 

It didn't quite look right, but it was easy.

 

I separated the two pieces of the hoop. I happened to use the outside piece with the clamp because my daughter was playing with the inner loop. (I think the inner loop might have looked better because its a little smaller.)

 

I cut lots and lots of 9" strips of the tulle ribbon. Thanks to Treasures for Tots blog for the quick tip for cutting lots of strips of tulle!

 

 

Next I began tying the strips around the embroidery hoop.

I folded a strip in half and laid it over the hoop

 

Then I pulled the ends through the loop I had made.

 

 

Then pulled the ends tight to create a knot.

 

Then I repeated it over and over again until

 

it looked like this.

 

I cut a bunch of 4 inch lengths and tied them together with a ribbon to cover the screw.

 (You wouldn't need to do this if you use the inner hoop.)

 

I love the way it came out. I can't wait to see a cake on it!

 

I used about half of the spool of tulle and one of the rings of the embroidery hoop. The materials cost $5.50. It took about 30-45 minutes to tie all of the knots. Who knows? I might make another one night while watching a half hour show. It wasn't hard at all.