Tightwad Tuesday: Space Party

Check out the Tightwad Tuesday post over at "Being Frugal." She put on the coolest party for a 'tweenager,' based on the show "American Idol." Things like this make me miss the days when my kids were young and I could throw theme parties for them. I'll tell you about one I did for my son, when he was about six. It was a party based on an Outer Space theme. Sorry, no pictures--this was 20 years ago! (Of course, there are pictures someplace, in some album I scrapped...in the attic.)

I honestly can't remember the cake, but I suppose it was shaped like a rocket ship. That would be easy enough to do. Prior to the party, I collected egg cartons and half-gallon milk containers. These were washed out very carefully, then I wrapped white paper around the milk carton. I glued the egg part of the carton to the milk container. I remember that I cut off the triangular top--so basically, you had a box with a bunch of bumps on it, LOL! What for? Well, the kids decorated these and we called them 'Space Packs,' which was a fancy-shmancy name for a goodie bag!

Two games I remember: one was "Throw the Ring Around Saturn." We had a huge ball, like a beachball, and a hoola-hoop. The kids had to toss the ring around the ball. The second game was "Captain (Put Name Here) Says," instead of Simon Says. I was the captain. Maybe I was Captain Mom. Hey, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone something that happened in 1988. I do remember walking very slowly, like you might on the moon, and then jumping up and down like crazy...like you just stepped on the sun. The kids loved it, LOL! (Nobody said it was Rocket Science. I'm perfectly aware you can't walk on the sun.)

One snack comes back to my poor brain: Saturn pops. Basically, I unwrapped Dum-Dums, then put a gumdrop ring around the pop. Then I wrapped them again.

Like I said, I don't remember it all...but I do remember we had a great time!