Turning 4 is rather exciting, and Master Søren had been planning his 4th birthday celebrations since the start of the year. He has been requesting a rocket cake (one with real rocket blasters!) and a remote-controlled helicopter.  So a space themed birthday party seemed in order, and he might just have landed that helicopter too!

As is tradition, the pile of presents were waiting for Søren when the clock struck 7! There had to be significant investment in paper this year, helicopters need a lot of wrapping paper……
Søren was beside himself with excitement, and big sister Astrid wasn’t far behind! He managed to score a lot of really awesome presents from his parents and sister (including some hand-made by Astrid off her own bat).  The giant rescue helicopter was an enormous hit, he has had a smaller version since last year and it is well-loved.  When you are a 4 year-old boy you can’t have enough helicopters…….
Finally he cracked open the much-anticipated remote-controlled helicopter (which comes with sound and programmable message on the blades while flying). Little and big kid heaven!!!
Playing was briefly interrupted by a special birthday breakfast. In keeping with the space theme, star-shaped panettone French toast with cream and berries.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed the birthday feast……

Full of sugar and carbs it was quickly back to playing, and the new helicopter got cracked out…….

The rescue helicopter (with real spinning blades) and piloted by Søren’s toy astronauts was also given a good test-run.Soon it was helicopter launch time and Mulder the cat was rather perplexed. The kids were pretty impressed with Anto’s flying…… lucky we have all those high-ceilings, it makes it easier to fly your helicopter around the house!
It was a school day for Miss Astrid so after she was dropped-off, Søren and I spent the rest of the day rushing around getting bits and pieces organised for the space extravaganza (aka a 4-year-old birthday party) taking place the next day.  Once all the food was purchased, Søren managed to convince us he needed a chocolate croissant for his birthday lunch (you can take the boy out of Paris……..) and a good play with his helicopters outside!

For his birthday dinner, Søren had requested to go to the Mawson club. The kids love it there, and it was an easy Friday night option.  My boys scrub up all right…… but when did the little one get so grown up?

Dinner with Uncle Mikl and Granny and a play in the play-area was a huge hit. They even conned some dessert out of Granny!

It was a pretty great birthday according to the birthday boy himself….. luckily there was more excitement to come the next day!

While the birthday boy and big sister snoozed the night away, the hard-working parent elves were up well after midnight baking and decorating. Every year I wonder why we do this? Anto humours me with my requests to bake earth-like cookies, design rocket cakes and make rocket-dogs.  The things you do for your wife, hey!

The next morning it was party time……. one space themed birthday party for the new 4-year-old, he was pretty stoked with his balloons (courtesy of Granny).

There was also a pretty cool ‘Happy 4th Birthday Søren’ banner……. The birthday boy was pretty happy with the set-up!

Astrid and Søren had decided that black and white party poppers and hats went with the space theme (apparently because space is dark).  Glow sticks for all party guests were also a requirement!

Don’t let your 6-year-old daughter help with planning your son’s birthday party. Astrid insisted the party favours were going to be mini-rockets.  Luckily she made most of them with Granny’s help.  The rockets contained a mars bar, a milky way bar, some rainbows and clouds and a few other bits and pieces including parachute men. They did look pretty cute…….. There was also some ‘rocket fuel’ (red lemonade) to keep the young party-goers happy (and hyped up on sugar)……

Then there was the requested rocket cake.  A bit of creativity as we created something to live up to Søren’s expectations but it didn’t look too bad for a middle of the night effort!

As for the rest of the food, well we had:

• Chocolate galaxy cupcakes
• Alien jelly
• Star fairy bread
• Rocket hot dogs
• Moon (meat) pies
• Meteorites (chocolate crackles)
• Earth cookies
• Star sandwiches
• Fruit rockets
• Plasma dip with space sticks
• …… and a refuelling station with star cake pops, cheese and crackers, focaccia bread and mars bars and milky ways!

The first game was ‘pin the spaceman on the rocketship’ .  The kids all did well trying to get their astronaut inside the rocket…….

Next up it was a piñata. Søren had been asking for a piñata, so a brightly coloured number 4 piñata it was. There were some surprisingly good hits from the kids and they eventually cracked the 4 open and found plenty of treats. No toddlers, alpacas or roaming cats were injured despite some of the kids wild swings!

Despite quite a few guests missing due to being away on holiday, and a lot of last-minute non-attendees due to the Spring round of horrid viruses, all the kids managed to have a pretty good time. There was more than enough sugar to go around and the glow stick bracelets were pretty popular. Inti the alpaca kept letting himself in to see exactly what was going on inside!

Søren was beyond excited to get stuck into the presents. He got so many amazing and thoughtful gifts, he was well and truly spoilt!  This year he was thoroughly into the present opening and was genuinely excited by each and every one.

Soon it was time to light those rocket blasters and sing happy birthday.  It’s pretty cool when your cake has an element of fire!  Søren was absolutely chuffed with his rocket cake and loved being sung to!

Yep that cake was pretty good!

Party done and dusted with plenty of sugar, great friends, and amazing presents and then there was still time to thoroughly play with all the new loot.  Both kids had a most wonderful afternoon!  The remote-controlled helicopter was also a hit with the party guests.  Apparently a toy for all ages!

A big thanks to Anto who just nods, smile and makes whatever I tell him to, even at midnight!  Also thanks to Di (aka Granny) who helped with many of the bits and pieces and made one very happy 4 year-old with the bunch of balloons.  The cake pops were again made by my lovely friend Jade, and Uncle Mikl earnt his sugar with plenty of preparation and clean-up.

A super big thank you to the wonderful Rachelle from Easy Invitations who made all the printables: the bunting, the stickers for the party favours, the food tent labels and the pin the spaceman game.  If you need printables she is your lady and always comes up with something fabulous for my parties.

That’s a wrap on the 4th birthday celebrations for Søren. A week later we’ve almost gotten through the cake and the presents have all been played with non-stop. The balloons are still hanging in there too!  Both kids are not so secretly planning the next birthday parties. I might go drink some wine……