Every once in a while, my crazy friends and I come up with the most bizarre ideas...and we just run with them. So it was with my friend, Aiden and our space camp idea. He became my comrade in arms in theme party planning and we decided to try our hand at running a weekend space camp for kids.
Unfortunately, Aiden was military and got recalled, only to be killed in action in the Middle East after we'd begun setting up our space camp - so it never materialized apart from my using what we'd set up to host a space camp party when and if the opportunity presented itself - which it did.
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I lucked out and got a client who was willing to spend any amount of money on her young son, Trey. For his 5th birthday he told his mom he wanted to go to Turks and Caicos. They went to Turks and Caicos for his 5th birthday. (What 4 year old has even heard of Turks and Caicos???)
For his 6th birthday he wanted a space birthday party since his parents couldn't get off work to take him globetrotting. Mom heard of me through word of mouth and enlisted me to plan Trey's space birthday party.
This would be a tough one...it would have to be over-the-top.
invitations
Back then we didn't yet have AI programs so I'd make the invitations a little differently now in that I could use my Pincel AI program to turn the boys' photos into images of astronauts. But the rest of their invitations were the same - an ID badge on a lanyard that they'd wear around their necks. This was also their admittance pass to space camp.
Commander Jackson
We wanted to make things as closely realistic to an actual space camp as possible - to the extent Aiden somehow finagled his way into attending NASA space camp to experience it himself. He'd send a nightly relay message back to me and I'd be researching how to make happen the activities he was doing at space camp.
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These were those activities:
MOON GRAVITY SIMULATOR
Thank heavens Aiden and I got so much installed before he was shipped to the Middle East!
For example, the rig that would double as our moon gravity simulator and our spacewalk apparatus...
An adjustable bungi harness with swivel rings attached that we hooked to an apparatus we installed on the ceiling and tested on ourselves. If they held us with our weights, they'd hold the kids.
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So that you can visualize what we did, I'll show you a layout for my downstairs where we rigged all of this up and which would serve as our space camp.
Our space camp dorm would accommodate 8 kids. We installed a blackout curtain between the 2 sets of bunks in case we had a mixed group of boys and girls. The bunks were down there when I bought the house as were the metal lockers we turned into lockers for each individual child.
They had a full bathroom right across the hall from their bunk room.
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We'd purchased 2 large capsules that would fit 4 kids each. Sadly, they've were discontinued but I have an alternative for you that we'll get to in a minute.
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We used the storage racks to hold the kids space helmets.
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We had a table that sat 8 that we could feed the kids at. It just meant some up and down the stairs for me in bringing the food down...but it kept my main floor from being a mess at every meal time.
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I thought it would be cool if the kids had a jumpsuit uniform OR an astronaut uniform. Mom decided she wanted and would pay for both. Hey, far be it from me to argue. So each of the boys got both a blue flightsuit and an astronaut uniform.
staging & Props
I'll start with the space capsules. Although the ones Aiden and I got were discontinued, I found one very similar to the ones we bought. Ours held 4 children each, I believe the one below holds 2 children.
Although set up looked complicated it wasn't at all. It took us less than an hour to set up each capsule.
Of course, I can never leave well enough alone so I made some improvements to the capsules.
How in the heck is one supposed to land a space shuttle with printed on flat knobs? I reinforced the instrument panel with more corrugated, found the assorted switches, buttons, knobs at Alibaba and installed them on the instrument panel.
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Well you know males, ladies...get that new car and hubby is out in the driveway for the next 2 hours playing with every knob and switch on the dashboard...
I rest my case. LOL
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The other thing we got was a crawl through tunnel for each of the capsules to simulate going between the capsule and the Orion.
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The last thing I did was improve the capsule windows. The manufacturer had just made cutouts in the capsule and it didn't look like you were in space at all from inside the capsule. So I purchased 3D window decals and covered the windows so it looked like you were looking at space from inside the capsules.
That bit of fine tuning completed our capsules. On to the multi access
trainer. Aiden had come up with an easy and fun solution...hamster balls. We'd bought 8 of them.
Turn the kids loose on the lake in those babies and they'd be "multi accessing" all over the place.
(Yes, the boys did try to crash into one another)
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The moon rock collecting was no problem so we never finished that before Aiden left. I finished it myself before Trey's party.
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It was time to stage the space itself.
I used the longest wall behind the 2 capsules and space jump pad as "space".
I'm trying to think of the name of the material I used but it's escaping me at the moment. I bought a roll of it and covered that entire wall with it. It gave the wall a kind of dark somewhat shimmery effect.
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I made cardboard cut outs of planets and fastened those to the material I'd covered the wall with.
I saw a solar system set for sale but there was no way I was paying $215 for it. I went to the dollar store, got various sizes of styrofoam balls and painted them to look like the planets in the solar system, then hung them from the ceiling with monofilament fishing line.
I bought a $7.50 tablecloth for the boys' dining table. Aiden and I had already bought the moon lamp, $30. I decided to use that as the table centerpiece.
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THE BUNK ROOM
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Aiden and I had refurbished the bunk beds to make them look space-like.
We'd made the sides and ladders out of wood, the front end beyond the bed themselves of very heavy corrugated.
It would've cost a fortune to buy bed sets for all 8 bunks so I shopped around until I found space themed fleece throws on clearance for $7 each.
I put those over regular bedsheets. I also purchased a multi pack of mylar (space) blankets and laid one on each bed.
For the window in the bunk room, I'd made a pair of space themed drapes.
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All I had left to do to stage that room was get a night light for the kids in case they had to get up in the middle of the night.
I found this really cute astronaut lamp for $46.
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The last thing I made was some DIY jet packs to hang on the backs of the boys' chairs.
food/menu
My co-host, Kerry and I would have 5 meals to feed the boys since they were spending the weekend.
We wanted easy to prepare and prepare ahead meals as much as possible.
BREAKFAST CASSEROLE Recipe here
You can prepare everything the night before, cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator until ready to bake the next morning. We served it with buttermilk biscuits we just popped in the oven for a few minutes
and...
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ROCKET FRUIT SKEWERS
We used strawberries, banana slices and a piece of cantaloupe for the tail.
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LUNCH TRAYS
These were great because they were so quick to make and contained the boys' entire lunch.
In ours we put carrot and celery sticks with a small container of Ranch dressing, grapes, a small red Delicious apple, a couple of star shaped sandwiches, some space trail mix and some candy.
And just like McDonald's we added a mini toy.
SPACE CHARCUTERIE BOARD
We included sandwiches, fruit, cheeses, Halo oranges, red and green grapes, blueberries, strawberries and star fruit and just let the boys have at it.
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ROCKET DOGS
Wrap beef hot dogs in crescent roll dough, spear with a wood skewer and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool slightly and add cheddar cheese “rocket tails” to the end.
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MINI MARTIAN BURGERS Recipe here
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GALAXY CUPCAKES Recipe here
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GALAXY CREPES WITH GOLDEN GLITTER SYRUP Recipe here
GALAXY BARK Recipe here
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FROM SHOP NASA - These were from Shop NASA and cost $4.95 each but they are currently out of stock. They are available elsewhere but are ridiculously priced at $11+ per package.
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ASTRONAUT SALAD Recipe here
The space salad contains ingredients — including soybean, poppy, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato and sunflower seeds — that could be grown on spacecraft and provide optimum nutrition for astronauts. This recipe was developed by researchers for NASA astronauts.
activities
As you've already read, our activities were based on activities actually performed at the NASA Space Camo.
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MULTI ACCESS TRAINER​
To simulate being up, down, sideways and in between, Aiden had purchased human hamster balls.
Each of the boys had a hamster ball and Kerry and I turned them loose on the lake.
The problem was getting them OFF the lake and out of the hamster balls. They were having a blast out there!
I actually had to get my police whistle to get their attention, get them back to shore and out of the hamster balls!
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We were glad we started with this activity though as it got them really revved up for the rest of space camp.
MOON GRAVITY SIMULATOR
Again, the boys had a blast and wanted more than one turn in the bungi harness.
They were going to get more than one turn but they didn't know it yet - but under more challenging circumstances.
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If you don't have a bungi rig like we did, a child's trampoline will work too.
SHUTTLE LAUNCH & LANDING
For the launch and landing, we let the boys into the capsule after assigning them the jobs astronauts would have - Pilot Astronaut, Mission Specialist, Payload Specialist, etc.
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We then asked us what astronauts would have to do to launch and land.
(Some of their answers were hilarious, such as "Count down from 10.")
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We explained what all was involved in a launch and landing and let them simulate it in the capsule.
Wearing their astronaut suits, of course.
I was glad I'd installed all of those switches and knobs because they got a workout!
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SPACEWALK​
We actually did two versions of the spacewalk. I'd glued blocks of wood in one of the capsules in which I'd drilled a couple of holes and inserted screws so that the screws were on the exterior of the capsule.
The first round in the bungi harness was simply to simulate a walk in space, no bouncing this time as we had a guide rope to keep them off the ground.
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On the second round in the harness we gave each boy a screwdriver. Occasionally astronauts must make repairs in space in zero gravity.​​
Kerry and I had balled up tin foil to make "asteroids", affixed them to the ceiling hung by monofilament line but taped them right next to the ceiling so they'd be out of the way until we got to this activity.
The boys had to unscrew the screws while trying to dodge being hit by the "asteroids" Kerry was swinging at them. (I was on the guide rope) The boy who managed to dodge the most asteroids was awarded a prize.
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LUNCH BREAK FOR THE BOYS
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After lunch we allowed the boys some free time to do what they wanted to. They all wanted to go back out on the lake in the hamster balls. Since I'd been a lifeguard, I went to the lake with the boys.
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While I was with the boys at the lake, Kerry brought out 2 cardboard rockets from Ikea I'd put together that would be our "Orions" and connected a tunnel to each of them.
ORION
I did dress up the inside of the rockets with the extra knobs, switches, etc. I hadn't used on the capsules since the boys were going to simulate launching and landing the "Orion".
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After they wore themselves down in the hamster balls, we let them simulate launching and landing the "Orions".
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COLLECTING MOON ROCKS
I'd bought some 4x6 cloth drawstring bags and stenciled them with the NASA logo.
These were for the boys to put their moon rocks in and take home as party favors.
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Kerry and I had hidden the moon rocks both inside the house and outside of it. Some were easier to find, others more difficult.
I'd also purchased a space adventurer tote bag for each boy to fill with take home goodies, including printing up a space camp certificate of completion.
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A friend of mine was dressing as an astronaut to present the boys with their certificate of completion.
Their goodie take home bags included:
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Milky Way candy bar
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Package of space juice
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Package of astronaut pencils
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Galaxy stress ball
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A moon pie
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Bag of Galaxy Snack Mix
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Space shuttle foam glider
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Space activity book
I guess we must've done okay on the party as my client reported Trey told her it was better than Turks and Caicos.