Photo Problems

I'm so sorry about the photo problems.  Pinterest is killing my free bandwidth allowance right now.  It went over the top in February with, believe it or not, the Minion Valentine's box.  My kids even had other children in their classes make Minion valentine's boxes from my post.  They thought it was pretty funny!

It should have reset on March 4th, but didn't all the way.  Not sure what to do about it.  The only way they are currently giving me to permanently fix it is to pay a monthly fee.  I'm not too excited about that and my husband REALLY isn't.

So in the meantime, hang in there and check back soon as I try to find a way to fix this problem caused by my photos being pinned to Pinterest.

E-mail me if you have any questions or if you can give me another solution!  Please!

Perry and Lego Head Valentine's Boxes

More Valentine's boxes finished, so though we would share them.

My 6th grader's box is Perry the Platapus from the Disney show Phineas and Ferb, which we all happen to love!  We love it so much, in fact, that we named our kitten Peri the Catapus after Secret Agent P.

Supplies: Shoe box, blue paper (I bought a sheet of Canson paper at Hobby Lobby), orange cardstock, orange marker, toilet paper roll, black and white cardstock scraps, glue, and tape.

It's pretty self-explanatory, but we used 1 toilet paper roll cut in 4 pieces, rolled tighter and covered in blue paper for the legs.  Oval and circle paper punches were used for the eyes (but you could just cut some out), and based the bill and tail on a free printable we saw here on Family Fun's website. We outlined the orange with a darker orange marker.  Pretty simple after we saw a pattern for the bill, and we think he is totally "AAAHHH"  worthy!

The Lego Man Head idea was in no way an original idea.  We saw some on Pinterest and my Lego loving 4th grader was all for it.  Especially since we had to buy a 5 lb. container of Red Vines licorice!

After washing the container and peeling off the label the best we could, my husband spray painted it with Rustoleum Gloss Sun Yellow spray paint.  We let it dry overnight then my son punched out some eyes and drew a mouth on black cardstock and glued them on.  The quickest Valentine's box ever!  We were going to cut a slit in the lid, but decided it might leave sharp edges on the plastic.  So they can just open the lid to drop them in.

Hope this inspires you with your Valentine's Box headaches fun!

Magic Wand Making

I have SO many photos to go through and prepare for a Harry Potter party post!  But in the meantime I thought I would post a little how-to on the wands we made for the party.

Step 1:
For the wand bases we used 7/16" x 12 inch wood dowels that we purchased at Hobby Lobby.  My husband sanded one end to a blunt point with a power sander.  You could use sandpaper, but to get the nice taper that ours had would take quite a while by hand.

Step 2:
This was the fun part, and my husband and I both went a little crazy creating wands.  It was a bit of a fight over who got to do the last one!  Get a glue gun and LOTS and LOTS of glue sticks!  We used a ton of them, but they are fairly cheap in a big package.  We used aluminum foil to set them on between layers - if you use paper it will stick to it.  By adding tons of glue, tipping, spinning and tilting, you can add layers and layers of awesome designs.

To get the big drips, add lots of glue in a blob then tilt it one direction to let it run.  Let it dry completely before adding another layer.  For the wood grain, just squeeze the glue out slowly as you run the tip back and forth right against the wood.

You really just have to experiment with it to figure out how it works.  We were each working on about three wands at a time so they had time to harden and cool while we worked on another one.

****BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THE HOT GLUE!!!!!  THIS PART IS NOT FOR KIDS!!!
Even being very careful we burned ourselves multiple times.  You may want to keep some cold water nearby.

Gluey wands-top, black sprayed wands-bottom left, finished wands-bottom right.

Step 3:
After everything was good and dry, I spray painted all of the wands completely with black spray paint.  I used the Rustoleum Universal spray paint made for all surfaces because it stuck really well to the glue.  Let them dry overnight, or at least 6 hours.

Step 4:

Use whatever craft paints you want to decorate your wands!  I used mostly earth-tone metallics.  I mixed many colors, and really just got creative with it.  This part was really fun, but a bit time consuming to make as many as we did.  You don't have to add a lot of paint though.  Just focus on the designs and the black base adds the shading automatically.

If you want you can add a clear coat after this, but we didn't.

Another shot of some finished wands.

Super fun to make, and the boys were so excited to have so many cool choices!  I have a few favorites, what about you?  Just as a side-note: I had about 5 wands left over that I put in a boutique for our Good Bird fundraiser.  They sold quickly for $10 each and one person bought them all! :)

Cookie Monster Valentine Box

The other night we needed to make an impromptu Valentine's box for my son.  Without any warning (or time) we had to use what we had on hand.  Due to the busy day I had, we happened to have a Sam's Club pizza box, and the plastic cover happened to remind us of Cookie Monster's mouth.  So that's what it became!

We just covered the box with blue paper, the inside of the box with black paper (so the Valentines will show inside his mouth) and added big circles for eyes.  There is an opening in the top to drop cards in.  The cookies are made from oval die cuts that my son drew chocolate chips on.  Super easy and cute!

Space Party

My son Evan's space party from last year was a real BLAST!  Ha ha, I know, I'm hilarious.

Theme:

I would have to say that the inspiration for this party came from two things.  1 - we own a rocket launcher, and 2 - my husband works for a company that designs stuff for NASA.  Access to space stuff was great motivation.  And as I have said before, I can talk up any party idea enough to make my kids fall in love with my ideas :)  They truly never mind, and always love what I come up with.

The majority of the details and activities came from this amazing party on Life Frosting.  So I give her the credit for coming up with all of the great ideas.  She has WONDERFUL parties posted, so check them out sometime.

Invitations:

I saw many cute invitations as I was searching for ideas on all of my favorite party sites, but just wasn't finding the perfect idea.  While browsing space wallpapers I found this photo from NASA and got the idea for these invites.  Aren't they cute!

Front and Back

I took a photo of my son's face, and using Photoshop Elements, I combined the two (adjust the layer opacity of the face) and made him a space walker!  For the back I just Photoshopped out the guy and added the text.  The wording came exactly from the invites on Life Frosting, so check out the link above.  The font was called fixedsys.  I tried to find the link for the photo, but can't find the exact one.  It's a pretty common photo though, so if you do a Google search for Manned Maneuvering Unit you should find it pretty easy.

Activities:

As kids showed up, we started them with Weightless Practice by doing Anti-gravity Arms.  Have you done this before?  I used to do it all the time as a kid.  You hold your arms straight down at your sides and push up as hard as you can.  While doing this, someone is holding your arms down at your sides.  Do this for about a minute, then have them let go and relax your arms.  Your arms will float up in the air by themselves!

Top left, clockwise: Anti-gravity Arms, Target Practice,  Nuts, bolts and washers for Shuttle Repair Relay.

Then the kids lined up to do target practice with a UFO (frisbee) and foam Rocket (my son is holding it) through a hula hoop tied to our trampoline.  I got the frisbee and rocket at Target.

For the Shuttle Repair Relay I explained to the kids how astronauts train for missions under water in their space suits.  We tried to simulate this by putting two washers on a bolt, then screwing on the nut while wearing dish gloves underwater.  I filled two plastic tubs about 6 inches deep and we divided into two teams and raced to see what team could finish first.  I had four sets of nuts, bolts and washers (from Home Depot - the square ones are in the cement section) so that when a boy finished we would take out a completed one and drop in the loose parts for the next boy to start on.  It was pretty tricky, especially for the younger boys, and took quite a while to complete.  I should have had something for the kids waiting, or those finished, to do when it wasn't their turn - like find a "Moon Rock" (we had already done it).

"Moon Rocks" from Starbursts and foil

Moon Rocks were made ahead of time and hidden around the yard.  Each boy got to find one and then put it in their treat bag.  Yes, they look like baked potatoes, but are a big handful of Starburst candies wrapped in tin foil.

Thanks to ATK Space Systems for the demo video and parts

As I mentioned before, my husband works for a company that makes parts for NASA.  That company is ATK and they make the booster rockets for the space shuttle, among other things.  Here is a link to the ATK image gallery where you can get some cool photos.  My husband talked to his boss, and they were able to let him check out a video and some composite parts.  He did a short demo for the kids and we watched some of the video that showed a shuttle launch, jets taking off, etc.  They thought it was pretty cool - and it was!

We actually did the rocket launching at the very end of the party because their parents had to drag them away!  Literally.  But i'll put it in here now.  Each kid got to make and decorate their own rocket.  If I would have had time I would have just made the rockets ahead of time, had them decorate with stickers and markers, then launch.  So the actual construction took a little time, but they still enjoyed it.  But the best part by far is launching their little rockets about a hundred feet into the air.  They had fun trying to catch them too.

Rocket launching - the highlight!

For plans on how to make a PVC rocket launcher go here for one similar to ours, or just do a Google search.  There are many different ways to make them.  We make our rockets by rolling a piece of cardstock around a piece of PVC pipe that is just bigger than the one we launch off of (3/4 inch on launcher, 1 inch to roll on).  Tape it well with clear packing tape along the entire seam.  Tape over one end of the tube well and make sure it is sealed.  This will be the cone end.  If you don't tape over the end, air will get through and the cone will blow off.

Cut a 3" circle of cardstock for the nose cone (I just trace around the inside of the tape roll).  Cut a line from the edge to the center, then roll it into a cone and tape.  Tape it to the top of the tube.

Rocket fins.  Follow instructions on where to cut.  Print on 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.

Tape three fins to the bottom of the tube like in the photo above, and then decorate and launch!
I hope the directions make sense.  Looking at the photo will probably help the most.

Music:

Years ago I helped do a space themed Blue and Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts in our area.  I ordered this album for it, The Science Fiction Album - City of Prague Philharmonic (4 disks), and have actually used songs from it for other events, like a haunted house.  Songs from 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T., Close Encounters, and Star Trek made great background music, not to mention Star Wars of course.  I highly recommend this great album.  Actually listening to it as I do this post.

Food:

We tried to keep the food pretty simple for picky 8 year-olds.  We had "Flying Saucer" pizzas, "Asteroid" cheese puffs, "Meteorite" grapes, and "Galaxy Juice" drinks.

The food display and table.

I made the star ice cubes from unsweetened colored Kool-Aid in my star ice cube trays.  I should have sweetened them.  They were okay with the "Galaxy Juice" sprite from 2-liter bottles poured over, but when they got smaller and people started popping them into their mouths to suck on they got a very tart surprise!  Kool-Aid has a lot of citric acid in it.  They did make the Sprite interesting colors though.  The label is clip-art from Microsoft Publisher.

The backdrop was made from a black plastic tablecloth and wall decals from the local Dollar Tree store.  I also got the space shuttle die cuts there.  Boxes were placed underneath the plastic to add levels and height.

The table was close to the same with the addition of silver star die-cuts from Zurcher's party store.  We had silver cups and plates.

Cake:

I got the idea for the cake from the Family Fun crater cake.  I didn't want to take time to serve up the cake at the party, so I made patriotic cupcakes to go with it.  I was excited to find the space playset at our local party store Fundaze.  I may have squealed with delight!  It came with the rocket ship, flag and space men.  I think I got the number 8 sparkly candle either there also, or at Zurcher's party store.

Space backdrop and Moon Cake.

The cake was a chocolate cake mix baked in a stainless steel bowl.  I used canned frosting with crushed Oreo cookies mixed in.  The craters were made with gray Necco candy wafers.  I suggest buying several packs to get plenty of gray ones that aren't broken.  The only store I found them at was also Dollar Tree.  Love that place.

Favors:

The favor bags consisted of Mars Bar, Orbit gum, Milky Way candy bars, Starburst Moon Rocks, Pop Rocks, glow sticks, squirt gun, airplane finger flyer, patriotic bendy straw and Tootsie rolls, parachute dude,  an ATK coloring and activity book, and a completion certificate.  My husband got the activity books from the HR department at work and they were awesome.  They had puzzles, space facts, and full-color paper airplane pages to fold.  He also ordered some space erasers and dehydrated space food through work (the actual stuff they send up with the astronauts) but it didn't make it in time for the party.  We used it at a family party a month later.

The treat bags with Space Shuttle die-cuts for name tags.

Certificates we put in the treat bags.

At the time of this party NASA was doing a fun "Send Your Name to Mars" program on their kid's website.  You could register and get your name on a computer microchip that would be sent to Mars on the rover Curiosity.  I entered my son's name and printed him a certificate telling about it.  Well, this rover just landed on Aug. 5, 2012 and my son thinks it is pretty cool that his name is now on Mars!  You can see how it landed here.

Other Parties to Visit:

I just have to add these cute treat cups from Martha Stewart.  This party has many great ideas too.

Martha Stewart Space Odyssey birthday party favors.

An adorable party is here at Paper & Cake.  You can purchase printables and they have a great playlist for space music also.  I love the "control panel" in the play structure.  Every kid would too.

From Paper & Cake.  Click photo for link.

Need more ideas?  There's a fun Robot Command game at Birthday in a Box, and don't forget to visit Life Frosting where I got my inspiration for this party.

Good luck planning your own space voyage, and don't forget to leave comments or e-mail me with questions.  I LOVE COMMENTS!  If you use any of my ideas, please let me know in a comment.

Mad Scientist Party

Theme:
I would have to say that the inspiration for this party came from cool Halloween supplies on clearance at Walmart!  I'll show it to you later in the treat bags, but since Halloween is about six months before my son's birthday, he had to decide quickly.  Since I am pretty good at persuading my children toward the party I want to plan, it wasn't hard to convince him :)  They do actually get a choice, but once I tell them all of the cool ideas I have for that theme, they jump on board quickly.

This was a fun party to plan, but got a little pricey from all of the specialized supplies I purchased for it.  Compared to some I found, I think I actually kept it pretty cheap.  But with 6 months to plan, I accumulated quite a few items.  But the results were a really cool party.  And just to prove it, I will quote a boy who attended that came up to me and said, "I just have to tell you, this is the coolest birthday party I have ever been to!"  I love that kid.


Invitations:
I found these awesome invitations that I used at Living Lucurto (her party linked here).  Here's the link for the cute OPEN WITH CAUTION stickers used to seal them with.  I love it when talented people share awesome freebies!

(Forgot to take a photo.  Awaiting permission to use hers.)

Decorations:
The color scheme came from the invitations and the supplies that I had, and this cool Hazardous Teen Party on Catch My Party.

The test tube sprinkles were Halloween clearance from Walmart.

Halloween decor and dry ice in the colored water.  The background had science die-cuts from the dollar store.

We bought dry ice to add to the colored water for a cool effect, but it just doesn't last very long!  Long enough to take a few photos, but not through the party.  It would take a big chunk of dry ice to get a long-lasting effect.  We put a little more in when the kids came in to eat so they could see it.

Activities:

Safety goggles from the dollar store.

We had the caution sign (below) posted on the front door as the kids showed up.  My daughter drew the "Get your Einstein on!" sign on the white board that was in the entry.  She helped them get their lab coat on, safety glasses, then if they wanted, she used hair mousse to get their hair spikey.  A few kids even let her do it!

The lab coats were made from a white garbage bag and a Sharpie marker.  We cut holes for their head and arms.  Here's a cute idea for one out of a white T-shirt, but we were going for waterproof.

Making Atom structures.

After the boys got dressed for mess, they headed outside and were given a bag of gumdrops and toothpicks to build an Atom structure.  We told them to make it as tall and as stable as they could.  They came up with some pretty neat towers.  I got the idea from here at Party Planning Mom, but I think the gumdrops we used were more stable than marshmallows.  The link will take you to her entire party, which is very inspiring.  Many of my ideas came from her party.

My husband and my oldest son were our scientists that demonstrated and helped run the experiments.  I kept calling my son Beaker, but since he had never seen The Muppets he didn't get it.

I had my very own Beaker and Bunsen!

Jelly Marbles.

The jelly marbles were purchased from Steve Spangler Science.  If you watch the videos on his website you can get lots of ideas for experiments to do with the supplies.  When they show up, they also come with a sheet of directions and experiments which was really helpful also.

Jelly marbles are solid polymer orbs that start out the size of a small bead.  They expand to a squishy marble size as they absorb water.   The first photo is of marbles that we soaked for at least a day in colored water, yellow and blue.  The middle photo shows how they disappear when you add water to the container.  We had a message taped on behind it that said "Happy Birthday Noah" and was revealed when the water went in, but you can't see it in the photo.  The third photo shows how the clear ones are practically invisible in water.  The kids loved putting their hand in this and feeling them.  They were given some dry jelly marbles in their treat bags to take home and "grow".

We tried to dry them out afterward, but after being handled and played with, they got moldy before they shrunk, and we threw them away.

Hydrophobic Sand (or Magic Sand).

Hydrophobic sand is SO much fun to play with!  When it is in the air it looks and feels just like regular sand, but when it is under water it gets 'scared' of the water (hydrophobic) and clumps together.  You can shape it and lift it under water, but as soon as you get into the air it falls apart.  My husband explained how it works and then the kids got to take turns playing with it.

I was able to spread it out to dry after the party to store back in a bag.  Spread it thinly though because little drops of water kept hiding in it.

Supplies for the volcanoes.

I tried to make everything sound as scientific as I could, so the above supplies are white vinegar and baking soda.  In the recipe below there are scientific (or scientific-sounding) names you could label them with.  Most of the kids were pretty smart and knew what they were.

Top three: volcanoes.  Bottom two: Insta Snow.

I knew we wanted to do the old erupting volcano experiment, but I wasn't sure how.  Somewhere I stumbled across this easy way to make a volcano out of a Dixie cup, small plate and foil.  Just tape the cup to the center of the plate, put a piece of tin foil over it and tape to the bottom, then cut slits in the top of the cup and tape them to the inside.  It was an easy and inexpensive way to make 12 volcanoes.

Volcano Recipe (for a small Dixie cup)
1 Tbsp. baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
2 Tbsp. water (H2O)
drop or two of food color (Blue No. 1, Red No. 40)
1 drop of dish soap (sodium laureth sulfate, or anionic surficant)
     Mix together with a popsicle stick (stirring stick).  Then take to eruption site before adding:
2 Tbsp. vinegar (acetic acid)
     Pour it in quickly!


I experimented with a lot of different recipes, but loved it this way with the dish soap.  Without it the bubbles pop and go away quickly, but with it, it foams and oozes over the edges slower for a longer-lasting effect.  Always try it out ahead of time to make sure it works well with the size of cup you have.  It wouldn't be any fun if it didn't overflow!

The bottom two photos are of the Insta snow, which was also purchased from Steve Spangler Science.  This powder is a super absorbent polymer that grows in seconds when you add the water.  Again, watch the videos on his site to see how cool it is.  We had the kids team up for this one and after watching it grow in the cup they got to dump it out onto large cookie sheets and play with it.  We didn't send any of this home because it could be a big mess if not controlled.

Messy, but fun Oobleck.

The next experiment was to make Oobleck, a non-newtonian fluid.  This basically means that when stress is applied to this liquid it exhibits properties of a solid, and it's totally cool to play with!  I got the little storage containers at the dollar store, which is a great place to get them because I think they come in a six pack for a dollar, and they have all different sizes.

Oobleck Recipe
1 part water
1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch
food coloring (optional)

Try it ahead of time to get the right consistency.  I think we used a straight 1:2 ratio.  The kids got to take this home in their containers, but because of the dirt and oil on your hands, it goes moldy quickly.  You could try storing it in the fridge, or just make a new batch.

The printable for Oobleck.  Click to enlarge, then right-click to save.

Tip:  I bought the baking soda and cornstarch from a store that sells these items in bulk bins and it made it much cheaper.  I went to WinCo Foods.

And what party would be complete without Mentos and Diet-Coke geysers!!!

The highlight of the party!  Saved for the very end because the kids were a mess afterward.

We purchased the Geyser Tube from Steve Spangler also, and you really couldn't do this as well without it.  The best effect comes by getting all of the Mentos into the Diet Coke at once, and the pull-pin makes that possible.  My husband made a little stand out of some scrap wood to keep the bottle from tipping, and each guest got a pack of plain mint Mentos (they got to decide how many to add), and a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke.  We rinsed out the tube between launches to keep it from reacting too soon.

Off brands of soda will work also, but I got this on sale for the same price.  My family hardly ever drinks soda, and we don't drink Coke at all, so I felt SO guilty with a shopping cart full of twelve 2-liter bottles!  I told everyone I talked to that it was for Mentos and Diet Coke geysers because I didn't want them to think I was going to drink it!


Most of the kids actually kept their lab coats on, and only a few chose to stand in the geysers, but for this reason, go with Diet Coke instead of regular to reduce the sticky mess.  Nothing you can do about the smell though, because those kids were REALLY stinky afterward!


Here is the printable for the labels.  One 8.5x11 sheet made three labels.

Click to enlarge, they right-click to save.

Food:

The food was simple, but fun.  I saw some Jello made in petri dishes with a gummy worm, but didn't want the added expense, so I used clear cups instead, and I think they turned out great.  I let them set up just a little before adding the gummy worms.  We did four flavors of jello.  The main dish was hotdogs, and the drinks were mini cans of 7-UP with the label below.  Again, thanks to this post for the inspiration.  The atom structures the kids made were a great centerpiece, and I filled my big cookie jar full of atomic cheese balls.

Drink label.  Click to enlarge, then right-click to save.

Cake & Cupcakes:

How could you not have a mad scientist party when you have a gummy brain to use?

I purchased this gummy brain on Halloween clearance at Walmart, and it made an awesome cake topper!  The container was from some rolls or something that we had just purchased their also.  The icing is tinted slightly grayish, and it was easy to do a brain design on the top of the cupcakes with a large round tip.  I totally LOVE how they turned out.  I was going to tint some vanilla pudding green to put as filling in the cupcakes, but I didn't have time.


Favors:

Die cuts were from Dollar Tree.

The treat bags were: skull suckers, prisms, wax drink things, and paddle/balls from Halloween clearance items from Walmart, Toxic Waste candies, bubbles, glow sticks, Sour Dudes Sour Straws and grow capsules from Dollar Tree, Smarties and Atomic FireBall candies, and polymer orbs from Steve Spangler Science (link above).  Nerd candies would also be a great addition.

Labels for treat bags.

Labels for grow capsules and polymer orbs.  I put them in jewelry zip-top bags.

A.k.a. bubbles.

The bubbles from Dollar Tree turned out really cute.  I struggled to come up with a scientific name for them, and eventually made this one up on my own.  I'm pretty proud of it!

Labels for bubble containers.

It was a very fun party to plan.  A little time-consuming to come up with the experiments, but worth it.  It was also great doing something that felt a little educational also.  Helps me justify the cost! :)

Please leave comments with questions or additional party ideas.

I'd love to hear from you!

Extras:

• The font I used for the labels was Aharoni.
• The label images were from various clip-art I found on Google Images, and the font Science which is a bunch of science dingbats.  Available free on dafont.com.
• Funology is a site with great information and science experiments.
• Birthday Party Ideas.com has this great party posted under the name Scientific Sleepover 8 yr.