Jacklyn - a most beautiful bride

We went to get pics of Jacklyn in her wedding dress and I had so much fun! Even though me and my flashes have issues I am pleased with what we got and I wouldn't have been able to without Ada and Luis! so Thanks!! I can't wait for the wedding!

Here are some of her pics... I am doing this before the wedding but won't post until after...

Benjamin is 5 - Party part 2

Well I finally came back with the second part of the party. This one will be all about the party.

Benjamin picked a science party after our space inspired VBS. I considered hiring the mad science company but Jorge and I then thought that with both of us being engineers we should be able to pull it off and I am so glad we did because it was so much fun.

Experiment 1 - TASTE TEST

We got this experiment from last years science curriculum. It involves your senses of taste and smell. You have to try both strawberry and chocolate milk while blindfolded and holding your nose and try to figure out which is which. Because you don't have your sense of smell it only tastes sweet and it is hard to figure out.

Jorge got 4 volunteers (including our birthday boy) to try it out. They almost all got it right.. but it was because they let go of their noses which then negates the test. Two though couldn't figure out one of the drinks. I think they thought we were giving them the same one. If you decide to try it, try milkshakes. It makes it harder.

Our 4 volunteers getting blind folded.

Experiment 2 - EXPANDING BALLOON

This is an experiment Benjamin tried at church and we had to do at the party upon his request. It is so easy and so much fun. The bottles had premeasured vinegar and the balloons had baking soda. When you put the balloon upright the production of CO2 makes the balloon expand.

Jorge's example balloon had more vinegar and soda so that it would get bigger. I played it safer with the kids since I did read of instances where they went BOOM!

Experiment 3 - SLIME
Another petition from the birthday boy. Slime is made by using Borax, Glue and water (and some food coloring) The kids got to put it in an airtight container and take it home. They did not get to play with it at my house. Food coloring isn't fun to take out of a rug!

Thanks to his Grandma Nay Benjamin's slime looked like mucus! YUCK!
Boys sure did love this.

Experiment 4 - Ivory snow puff
I wish I had pictures of this experiment but I was in charge of it and obviously didn't pass on the camera. But basically you place a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave for 2 minutes and watch it puff up. The moms especially loved this and even though I decided against watching it for 2 minutes as time was getting away from us it was still pretty amazing. It puffed and puffed and puffed. We will be waiting two minutes with my kids in a few days and will be posting pictures.

Experiment 5 - SNOW

Jorge and I saw this online and then we found t he kit at Hobby Lobby and toysrus. After buying an off brand and having it not work we went back for the real stuff. (Steve spangler for those of you interested). The kids loved this. Snow in August, in one of the hottest augusts at that! It looked like the real thing although I overheard some conversations where the kids were a bit dissapointed that it wasn't cold.

I loved this thing but it doesn't dissapear. It is sort of the stuff that diapers are made of so after it dries out it becomes powder again and then when it gets wet it expands again. And so on and on. Not enviromentally great but they do say it will help your lawn and garden so we did it over the grass.

Experiment 6 - Water gel
I am not sure where Jorge found this one I just know when he went to buy the snow this came with it. It was so funny to see Benjamin squirming when he thought he was going to get wet!

Basically he showed them what happens when you poke a hole in a cup with water. Then he put water in a cup with the gelling thing and then put Benjamin under it and poked a hole. And what happened no water. This was also a polymer experiment.

Experiment 7 - Rocket Blast

Now this was my idea. I couldn't think of something funner than blasting a rocket in the air for the big finale. I had tried to get Benjamin to want to do the popular mentos in diet coke experiment or something that went boom but he doesn't like strong noises and doesn't like the diet coke one so I found this when looking online. Basically you stomp on something and the rocket shoots up. I don't have wonderful pictures because well getting a pic of something flying up in the air isn't easy but I did get a picture of him running to stomp on it. We didn't let the kids stomp on it until the party was over to keep the party going but boy was it a hit. What a little air pressure can do!

And that was it for the experiments. Then we ate some food, cracked open the pinata and opened presents. It lasted well over our 2 hour norm (more like 2 and a half or more if the kids decided to stand in line waiting to blast the rocket!) But like I said I had fun! I know my kids had fun too and I hope all the rest did too..
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN!
We had a long line at the rocket blast after the party was over. Benjamin was too busy with his presents to go stand in line but the line kept recycling itself so they stayed out there for a while.

Even some of the dads got involved in this stomp rocket thing. I hear Jorge had the record for flying it the highest. We will have to bring it out soon and watch it fly again.

And the cutest 2 in the bunch definitely have to be these two. There were plenty of moms at the party and they each took turns with these two. I definitely would rather hold the first but what can I say the second one lives at my house.

Oliver!
Our sweet Molly in desperate need of a bath! But so cute anyway. She did great at the party except she was begging for affection from total strangers :)! We are loving this doggy!

Benjamin is 5 - Party Part 1

Benjamin is 5! It is hard for me to believe but it is true...

I really wanted to come and share about when Benjamin turned 5 but we also started school about that same time so I am just thankful we were able to have a party (although about 3 weeks late)! I do have to say that I had lots of help from moms at the party and Nay! So thanks. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you!

Anyway I am splitting this up into two posts because there is so much to tell...

INVITATIONS

I so stole the idea completely and utterly from here I even ended up printing her Caution labels because they were done and it was easy.

CAKE, CAKE POPS and food

We saw this on another site and he loved it. So he had to have the eye! I really wanted to make a volcano cake but the boy would not go for it. He wanted the eye.

The cake pops were the same story as above. I wasn't sure how big the eye cake would end up being so I decided to make some cake balls also and he wanted the eyes and would only consider eyes. So there you have it. Just for kicks we made them with red velvet inside.

Other than that we had Ice Cream, grapes, strawberries, chips and a veggie tray. The veggie tray was almost intact at the end of the party but I think they liked everything else.

For something fun I was lucky to find these fizz koolaid tablets at walgreens 1/2 off. We had a pitcher of water and the kids got to pick lemonade, grape or fruit punch to stick in their water and watch it fizz and become their drink. I also got some glow in the dark straws so they could sip their drink from. I didn't take pictures of those because since it was daytime they really didn't glow that much but the kids didn't seem to mind. But believe me when Jorge took out the trash later that day it was glowing.

DECORATIONS

I was so busy coming up with experiments (and doing school) that I didn't spend much time thinking about decorations. We had decided to buy him a microscope for his birthday so I knew I would have that. The test tubes contain slime and the others food coloring.

Now the cookie jars is something I have been seeing on blogs and have wanted to try for a while now. When Hobby Lobby had them on sale the week before the party I knew I was going for it. I think they turned out great. It added so much and the best part was when I opened them as they ate the cake, a couple of kids asked me if they were real lab worms :)! Anyway thanks to Angie I didn't keep anybecause she nicely packaged the candy up in ziploc bags to put in their favor bags before they left. BTW the TNT was this fizzing candy that I thought tasted awful but the kids seemed to like.

PIÑATA

I knew I wasn't going to be able to find a mad science piñata anywhere so Jorge and I came up with this idea. Some kids were a little hesitant about hitting it with all the caution signs but most figured out that it was all a scam and were ready to break it. We blindfolded the boys over 5 except the birthday boy and the girls just got to go at it. We only had 4 there anyway...

Which leads me to this story. When we had finally figured out what type of party Benjamin wanted, we started making the invite list and after naming his friends he said Hayden and Gunnar. Then I said something about Adreana and he said, "No, only one girl at my party and that is Hayden" Of course my girl was so sad but I told him she had to be there because she was part of our family and so did Katherine. He didn't get to pick those, they just were part of the list always. Well he was not very happy and after that he kept telling me, "but mom I only want one girl at my party! He really likes Hayden which makes it tough on his sister. I obviously won out and by his party he was ok with it. I know one day he will be a lot more interested in girl but for and I will have to bring him over here to read this post.

THE FAVOR BAGS

This year I decided to keep the bags pretty simple, so I bought sandwich bags and added a caution sign. Inside were a magnifying glass, pop rocks and a super sour gum. On top of that at the party they got to add their scientist journal and their slime. Some chose to take their straws home and their snow home too. More on that in another post.

I made the science journal because as a homeschool mom I couldn't let the opportunity go without teaching them something. The journal had one page with what we did (sort off) and another explaining the science behind what they found them.

THANK YOU CARDS

I loved the design of the m&m jar so much I decided to use it on his thank you cards. They were easy to make and I loved the look.

Anyway I will go over the actual party later. I am getting tired so it must be time for bed. I must tell you this has been by far the most labor intensive party we have thrown, but Jorge and I had a blast. If any of you have any questions about any of it... I would love to share what I learned.