I’m one who loves to plan parties for my kids, and this Airplane party has been a favorite! You can go just crazy with it all, but I like to keep things simple and not stress myself out!! This party was actually a few years ago and I happened to notice a few pictures of it recently and realized I hadn’t posted it here on the blog:)

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I found this plane online and searched around for something I could purchase already made, but didn’t find anything I just loved. A gal in my neighborhood was so sweet and has a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine, she worked her magic and cut all the pieces for me to make these planes. I didn’t want to have to put together a bazillion of them, so she cut out the blue airplanes to add to the bunting.  If I remember right my daughter and I glued all the airplanes together while watching a few episodes of I Love Lucy 😉

I picked up a 3 pack of both white and sky blue tablecloths from Walmart for the main table and the backdrop (our backyard has a gray cinderblock wall and I wanted the colors to pop), a red birthday banner from Target, and a roll of sky blue crepe paper.

I showed my mother in law the airplanes we made for the bunting and she is so incredible with her piñata skills and this is what she came up with. Isn’t it AMAZING?!

Identical wings to my bunting…

She even bought wheels from Hobby Lobby to make it as realistic as possible!

A labor of love for sure! She always says that’s what she will be remembered by her grandchildren for – her amazing piñata skills!

I hate spending money on junk the kids will throw away the next day so I bought these awesome Aviator Hats from Amazon. They have gone up a bit since I bought them, but I feel like they were worth it – my son wore his all the time, and the other kids just loved them too! One mom commented that her son had to sleep with it on!

I also picked up aviator sunglasses for each child from the dollar store.

I really wanted the kids to “earn their wings” once they made it through the pilot school training. I could not find any wings anywhere! I posted on my neighborhood Facebook page about it to see if anyone knew of any way I could get some, and a pilot in the Airforce messaged me and said that he had an extra pair of wings and patches that at least my son could have  – isn’t that amazing? Such a sweet way to serve and make a little boy feel special, my son still loves to wear them on his jacket and remember that kind pilot! I ended up having my husband draw “wings” on some Shrinky Dink, this took a little practice to get a good size because it shrinks when you put it in the oven, but I think they turned out awesome! We glued these Name Tag Pins to the back for each child to pin their wings on.

When everyone arrived, we had this sign with balloons on the fence so everyone knew to go to the backyard. This helped them see that they were going to “flight school” to learn to be a pilot. I forgot to take a picture that day, but took one the next day before we threw the sign out 🙂

AIRPLANE TOSS 

I bought this big package of these foam airplanes from Amazon, just click on the image. There are a ton which came in handy for each child to have a few, and I have used the others as fun little “prizes” for my kids over the last few years.

We got a poster board and cut 3 circles out of it, and then hung it up with string in the tree. The kids had to try to aim their airplane and get it through one of the holes.

Super simple but they had lots of fun!

Keep Your Focus 

Pilots have to be able to focus to keep their planes in the air, knowing and understanding all the controls, so we had the kids practice keeping their balloon in the air for as long as they could.

My sister threw them off the deck which the kids seemed to like, and they had to keep it in the air.

I was pretty surprised how long they played this one. Again, SO simple, yet the kids are entertained!

EAGLE EYES 

Remember these little blue airplanes my friend cut with her Silhouette for me? We explained to the children that pilots have to have good eyesight and be aware of their surroundings. We had them all go on the side of the house while the adults “hid” the blue planes. They loved this one. Each child had to find a few and then come back amd show us their planes they found with their eagle eyes.

It’s like playing eye-spy, and they all loved it!

OBSTACLE COURSE

We taught the kids they needed to be healthy and strong to be a pilot, so we had a small obstacle course made out of things we had around the house – a mini trampoline, some foam squares, hoola hoopes, climbing up the rope, going down the slide, etc. This was fun to see some of them really get into it and go as fast as they could!

Flight School Graduation

We had all the kids line up to earn their wings, their aviator hats, and sunglasses.

My son with his legit wings from the kindest pilot in the neighborhood!

So happy with all he earned becoming a pilot!

All the kids so happy…or not. My brother-in-law told the kids they had to stand at attention like real pilots for the photo and not smile 🙂

Then time for cake and snacks!

We did min-cupcakes for the littles – 9 times out of 10 the kids take one bite of cake and they are done so I love this option!

We had cake (my sweet neighbor Jenny helped me frost and decorate this fun cake), grapes and a veggie tray with chips and apple juice. Simple and yet everyone was thrilled with it all and ate it all up!

It was getting dark so we quickly did the piñata! We didn’t want to kill the beautiful piñata so my mother in law tied strings to the bottom that had some paper that kept the candy inside. All the kids pulled on 3 –

All the candy comes out…

All the kids gathering their loot!

Some kids are a bit more aggressive when it comes to piñata winnings, so I always make sure that everyone gets about the same amount of candy, if not I have everyone give a little until it’s all about equal. I know it’s not the point of the piñata, but that’s how I roll.

All in all this was a simple yet super memorable party for me and my son. As I have been writing this he has been looking over my shoulder remembering how fun this party was, and actually, he says he wants to repeat it for this year’s birthday party theme. We’ll see if that lasts!

What’s your favorite birthday party theme?

See the Happy!

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