My son has always had a fascination for airplanes, so it was not hard to pick the theme for his 5th birthday party.....Air Force Birthday Bash!
Computer created invitations resembled that of an important and very secret mission memo, referring to my son as 'Captain'. Since we lived a bit out of the way, I turned my van into a shuttle bus, picking up passengers at a designated spot on military time. We arrived back at headquarters only to find the house sparkling with metalic silver and red streamers. Shiney pinwheels attached to the ceiling fan gave a feeling of flight. The cake had a die cast F-16 atop with shiney curling ribbon behind it just ready for take off. It was surrounded by little cupcakes, each decorated with a miniature jet that each guest got to pocket after deouring it's landing pad. And the final touch was a cloud of batting which the bigger cake was set upon. One activity not only allowed the guests to be creative, but it was economical and later used in a contest. The boys first decorated paper with markers, stickers and glitter pens. After they were all done we had a lesson in paper airplane folding. The look of concentration on each childs face was priceless as they tried their hardest to make the best airplane ever. The shuttle left headquarters at precisely 1500 headed down the mountain back to civilian life as usual!