A Science Birthday Party

We did a science party for Maddy's 11th birthday party. It was a lot of fun. I thought I would share what we did for it. The invitation was a drawing of a wild haired scientist holding a flask of bubbling green stuff, with google eyes added. (And try as I might I can't get this image upright)





We decorated with caution tape, latex glove balloons, plastic painter dropcloth hanging in strips in the doorways and signs welcoming the guests to Maddy's Scientific Research Facility, Caution: Scientists at Work, Engineering Dept, Cafeteria, Field Research and Chemical Research Lab. The colors were hot pink, lime green and caution yellow. (Don't use vinyl gloves, they don't stretch. And the gloves need to be tied with ribbon or something. You can't twist and tie like traditional balloons.)



I made name badges with the guest's name, a type of scientist and a pseudonym that went with the name. Such as Dr. Dolly Fin for the marine biologist, Dr. Clara Skyes the meterologist, Dr. Pam Demic the epidemiologist, Dr. Ginny D Enay the geneticist, Dr. Gemma Stone the geologist, etc. When the guests arrived, we pinned them on their back. They had to to ask people yes or no questions to guess what kind of scientist they were. Once they guessed it, we moved the name tags around front. I was hoping to have disposable lab coats and googles for them, but waited too long to order them online and couldn't find them locally.


Then they headed to the Lab Cafeteria (kitchen) to eat pizza and drink soda. Afterwards they headed to the engineering dept (dining room) to build structures with toothpicks and marshmellows. This took a lot more toothpicks (400 wasn't enough), and not as many marshmellows (One bag instead of two) as I thought.

A structure similar to this seemed to end up the strongest. We now have a 4 foot long version of it, once a couple of them were assembled together.



Meanwhile, I cleared up the kitchen to transform it from cafeteria to Chemical Research Lab. They came into the kitchen and we did almost a dozen experiments gathered around the island. We had 13 kids, so it was cozy, but worked. I had all of the materials organized by experiment and ready to go before the day of the party, so we were able to quickly move from one to the next. And having the sink and microwave right there was handy. Especially for cleaning up the oobleck up to the elbows. The girls really enjoyed that one, but it was potentially a very messy project. I might hesitate doing that one with, say energetic 8 yr old boys.

The finale was heading outside to do the mentos geysers. We made cardboard tubes to hold the mentos and make them easier to put into the coke all at once, but Maddy really wanted to help do it. She was a little afraid of it, I think, and we ended up losing some of the mints in the snow in the getaway. I'm not sure if that is why they only hit around 6-8 feet high or not. I kinda expected them to go a little higher. The girls seemed to still enjoy them and were in really high spirits. We had to shoo them inside before the snowball throwing got out of control. Thankfully it was cold and they were willing to head in to get warm.

We then came in for cake and ice cream. The cake was a 12 inch pipe with a cap, wrapped in foil in the center of 2 bundt cakes. We were supposed to put dry ice into the pipe to make it seem like it was steaming, but everyone in town who sells it was out. The girls still seemed to like it.


I wanted to find hazard waste bags to use for the goody bags, but couldn't locate any. (Princess parties are definitely easier to find stuff for. There was no science themed party stuff at our big party store, except Sid the science kid.) Instead, I found plain red plastic goody bags and hot glued Caution: Open at Your Own Risk signs on the outside of them. Inside was silli goo, test tube shaped bubbles, pop rocks, smarties, gummy worms, cosmic brownies and those pill things you soak in water to make a sponge animal grow.

Maddy loved it and I think the girls did, too. I heard one of them say they were going to "remember this party forever." That was pretty satisfying. I had wanted to do science as one of our summer classes, but never got around to doing it. This was a fun substitute. I'll post all the experiments in my next post.

My Baby is Now a Toddler!

Cyrus had his first birthday. I made him a bunny carrot cake, like I do for all of my babies' first birthdays. It just seems more healthy to give a baby carrot cake, although I'm sure it doesn't make a bit of difference.


I still can't believe how quickly this last year has flown by. They really are little for such a tiny, tiny amount of time!

Spring Nesting or Keeping Busy While I Wait

Yesterday was my due date, and still no baby! I've been trying to keep my mind off the fact that I'm still pregnant by keeping busy. I don't know if it is nesting, my desire for spring to finally get here, or just desperate attempts to distract myself. But, here is what we've been up to...

Practicing cake decorating:



More Spring Cleaning, including organizing the kid's arts and crafts cupboard:



Getting the drapes in the dining room hung:



Please ignore all the pictures all over the table, I'm still rearranging them after
painting:





It may be the fact that I miss the spring sunshine, but I decided I wanted my living room, entry hall and laundry room all painted yellow. It makes them seem much more bright and cheerful, especially the laundry room and hall, which have no windows. It is Wal Mart's Chanternelle, which strangely enough is a type of mushroom. It actually is a bit more gold, and less lemony in real life.

And there is an end in sight to this eternally long pregnancy. I am scheduled for induction Monday. But, I hope we go sooner!

Elsie Turns Two!

Primary Organizing and Cake Decorating

That’s what I’ve been up to these days. Two and a half weeks ago I was surprised to learn that our church ward was split into two, and I was subsequently released from my calling as Primary President. Two hours later I was called as the Primary President in the newly formed ward. So, we were back to square one in getting everything organized in Primary for the new year. Actually, having managed to get everything super organized before (thanks to my wonderful counselors!) made the transition so much smoother than it would have been!


I also finished one of my New Year Resolutions by taking a cake decorating class with my daughter Emily. Our last class was last night, and here we are with our final “masterpieces”.



I found the most difficult part of cake decorating to be getting the consistency of the frosting correct. Last night, I misplaced the recipe our teacher gave us and had to make a brand new recipe, and made it too thin. Which really made decorating our cakes last night a challenge, but I think we did okay. It was a class for adults, but they let Emily in anyways and she did really well. I was very impressed that after getting very frustrated with trying to make roses and wanting to give up, she faced her frustrations, jumped back in and learned to make a pretty decent rose. We enjoyed the class so much, that we are going back next month for the sequel!



So, in honor of Works for Me Wednesday, here are some cake decorating tips, both old and new:

Old

1. To keep your cake from sticking to the pan, line the bottom of your pan with waxed paper, spray it with non stick cooking spray, and then pour the batter in. After the cake is done, cool for 10 min, no more or less, and then remove from the pan to finish cooling on a cooling rack. It comes out super easy, and you simply pull the waxed paper off and find a perfectly smooth bottom! (This is actually I tip I learned from my mother in law.)

2. To keep crumbs out of the frosting, first brush your cake gently to remove excess crumbs. Then apply a “crumb coat” of frosting. This is a very thin layer of frosting that seals in the crumbs. Let the cake sit until the frosting is set, then put on your final frosting coat. (Putting the cake in the fridge helps set the frosting quicker.)

3. Don’t have decorating supplies or want to try to decorate with frosting? Use small toys, or even pictures on cardstock to decorate with. Find them on greeting cards or in scrapbooking stores. Tape a toothpick or straw to the back to get them to “stand up” on the top of your cake, or just lay them flat. The cardstock will start to absorb oils from the frosting, so don’t place on the cake too far in advance. Once removed, and the frosting is carefully removed, you can save your cake “topper” to put in the child’s scrapbook.





4. Instead of writing “Happy Birthday!” on top of your cake, write the child’s name and age. Such as “Marvin is 3!”. Unless your kid has an unusually long name, it is shorter to write, and years later when you come across the picture of the cake, you’ll instantly know whose cake it was and for which year!



New

1. To get a flat cake, instead of one that bulges on top, either buy and use bake even strips (about $8) to prevent the bulge, or use a serrated knife or cake leveler (about $3) to trim off “the bulge”.

Bake Even Strips

Cake Leveler

Then use the bottom of the cake as a nice flat cake top.

2. You can buy an 8 x 3 inch round cake pan and bake an entire cake mix in it, instead of using two separate rounds. Just lower the bake temp 25 degrees and bake it a little longer. One less pan to clean and no layers to deal with! Your final cake will be slightly shorter than a layered cake would be.

3. To measure 1 c. of shortening easily, put 1 c. cold water in a 2 c. glass measuring cup. Then add spoonfuls of shortening until the water line reaches the
2 c. mark, pour off the water, and you have a perfect 1 c. amount of shortening left that easily slips out and doesn’t leave a greasy mess in the cup. Works because of displacement. I don’t think I will use this trick for making my pies, though, because you are left with damp shortening.

4. To apply a frosting coating, use an angled, or offset, spatula to spread your icing. Works much better than the butter knife I used for years!

Angled spatula

5. To get a smooth frosting surface, frost as smoothly as you can, then let the cake sit until the frosting starts to set. (Touching it lightly with your finger, your finger comes back clean.) Then lay a sheet of parchment or waxed paper on the surface and use your spatula or hand to gently smooth out any bumps. It is important that your frosting not be too thin, or it will take forever to set.

Edited: At Sketchy's request, here is the frosting recipe our teacher gave us:

1 c crisco
1 T clear flavoring (she uses 1 t. each of vanilla, almond and butter. DH doesn't like the almond, so I use 2 t. vanilla instead.)
pinch of salt

Mix well. Then slowly add:

2 lb 10x powdered sugar

Mix till well blended, then add

1/4 c. water.

Beat till smooth.

This will make 6 cups of "stiff consistency" frosting, good for making stiff decorations like roses. This frosting remains soft, and will not harden. Add more water, as needed, to thin frosting for icing the cake and decorations that need to be done with thinner icing, such as writing, stars and shells. If you add too much water, you can add powdered sugar to thicken it.

Another Flower Fairy Birthday Party!

"I close my eyes and count to five
To make the fairies come alive.
And when I open them, I see…
There is a brand new fairy, Me!"

Once again, I've copied someone else's great idea! My sister, ItyBty Frog, gave my niece a fun flower fairy themed birthday party last October, complete with darling costumes for all the guests. My daughter,Maddy, was lucky enough to get one of those costumes for Christmas and requested her party be about flower fairies, too. So, last Saturday our home was invaded by fairies!


The invitation was a small flower shaped card that opened with a pop up fairy inside.

Maddy, dressed in her fairy costume, greeted her guests and invited them to color flower fairy coloring pages we printed off the internet. After all the guests had arrived, they were invited to go to the Land of the Flower Fairies. After linking their hands in a line, with their eyes closed to keep the location a secret, Maddy led the girls upstairs to to Flower Fairyland. There, they listened to stories about the flower fairies. Then they were turned into flower fairies themselves by closing their eyes, saying the poem above, and being tapped lightly on the head by Maddy's fairy wand. (I, too, made each guest a fairy costume. Holy flower! Was that a lot of work!) The rest of the activities included "Land the fairy on the flower", and "musical fairies". (Thanks for the ideas, ItyBty!) They also danced and gathered flowers admidst bubbles and streamers at the Fairy Ball, and had a Fairy Tea with raspberry floats and a flower cake. The party was finished up with opening gifts and relaxing, watching a Sky Dancers video.



Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, especially Maddy!

Maddy's Tea Party

My 12 yr old son informed me yesterday that his birthday and party are coming up in the next couple weeks. My son is becoming a teenager! We only do friend birthday parties every other year, saving the even years for family only parties. This is less overwhelming, and we can better focus on baptisms, ordinations, etc. This is the year of the friend parties. My three oldest are having odd year birthdays this year. I haven't had to do a party since Maddy turned 5 over a year ago. I went back to look at the pictures and thought I'd share what we did, because it turned out really cute.

The theme was a tea party. The invitation:



We decorated hats for the opening activity and party favor.



I read them Miss Spider's Tea Party and we played "tea, tea, tea, cup". My daughter has a toy tea pot that plays music, so we played a version of "hot potato" with it.



We had a tea party, of course, with a teapot cake, ice cream, herbal tea, apple juice and cream cheese and raspberry jam sandwiches cut into shapes with cookie cutters. I let them use my grandmother's vintage tea cup saucers as plates, but only the birthday girl got to use an actual tea cup. I didn't want any to get broken.

Of course, my son won't want this type of party! Gone are the days of crepe paper and cheesy party games for him. He wants a more mature party now. A sleep over with movie watching, video game playing and tacos. It actually sounds like less work for me, but less sleep, too!