I found these paper mache boxes at the Dollar Store. On the side it says, "To Infinity and Beyond," from the movie Toy Story. I knew these would be great for the grandhildren to use in some fashion.

One day at WalMart I found a package of little glow-in-the-dark aliens. Perfect! I didn't realize until I took them out that they were all in different postures. Even better!

These little aliens were on keyrings. But, Joel and Jenna decided they wanted to use the glow-in-the-dark ones, so the colorful aliens will be saved for future projects.

The boxes were rather deep and dark so we decided to use the lids. This way, they could still use the bottoms to store things, like more aliens or vehicles or something.

First they painted the edges with a midnight blue to suggest the darkness of space.

Before we began working inside the box, they sprayed the outside with water, remembering our rule to avoid warping, "If you get it wet on one side, get it wet on the other."

The moon's surface is made from spackling compound (the kind that's like marshmallow fluff), sand, and stone colors of paint. The kids used a paper cup to mix it and then glopped it into the box lid. They used a plastic spoon and their fingers to push the mixture into the corners of the lid.

The exterior of the box was painted silver.

Joel likes to play with many of his projects, so he decided not to glue his aliens down. He will keep them loose in the bottom of the box so he can take them out and play with them in different ways.

Here's Jenna thinking about hers.

"Look, Nana! People will be surprised when they open the box and find my aliens! A double surprise!" So, Jenna decided to glue hers into place.

"To Infinity and Beyond!"

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