Monday, July 17, 2017

Noah's {Mad Science Themed} 6th Birthday Party

I'm pretty sure this is the quickest I have managed to post about a birthday party!! I'm so excited to share this one though - it was so fun!! When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday party theme for his 6th birthday, he told me he wanted a mad science party. The inner geek in me squealed with delight!!  Away I went planning an adorable mad science party for my little guy. I tend to go "all out" for Noah's parties. I think this is because 1) they are in the summer, so I have more time to plan and execute, and 2) having a summer birthday myself, I know what a bummer it is to not be able to celebrate at school like most kids do. So, all out I went! ;)

First on the agenda, the invitations. We needed to pass these out before school let out in May! I actually found inspiration from some party balloons and test tubes that I found on Etsy, from NerdyWordsGifts. Noah picked three colors he wanted for the balloons (aqua, blue and red), and I based the rest of the party design on the design printed on those! I also couldn't resist a few of the "Helium" balloons that she offered as well. Too cute! I ran with the element theme for the letters and used these for multiple aspects of the party. Since we were handing out the invites at school, I made labels of each child's name like I did Noah's on the invite. So fun!!  I had the invites printed at my local Office Depot store. They have a nice thicker cardstock that looks great printed on their laser printer. I also printed "Come have a BLAST!" labels to seal the envelopes on Avery's 2" glossy round labels. Those print beautifully right at home!

After the invitations were delivered, I started brainstorming (aka, browsing Pinterest and Google) ideas for the party. I made a custom banner that read "Happy 6th Birthday Noah" using the same element letters.


Here's an example of the banner letters, close-up. Each letter was an element, except for a couple letters that I combined because it worked out ("Ir" and "Th"). I used tiny clothespins to hang the letters on jute rope.


My friend, Sarah, made Noah's birthday T-shirt. It was perfect! Check out her shop on Etsy - All in Good Font!


For the dinner menu, we chose:

  • A HOT DOG bar, where guests could create their own style of dog:
    • All American Dog (ketchup + mustard)
    • BBQ Dog (BBQ sauce + peppers)
    • Chili Dog (chili + cheese)
    • Fiesta Dog (salsa + cheese)
    • New York Dog (spicy brown mustard + sauerkraut)
    • Surf Dog (pineapple salsa + teriyaki sauce)
  • DNA pasta (homemade white cheddar mac 'n cheese using rotini pasta noodles)
  • Fruit molecules (grapes + berries)
  • Petri dishes (strawberry Jell-O with "bacteria" sprinkles)
  • A BEVERAGE lab, where guests could mix their own creations:
    • Cranberry juice
    • Blue Hawaiian punch
    • Lemonade
    • Pineapple juice
    • Sprite
  • Bottles of H2O
  • An ICE CREAM SUNDAE bar, where guests could choose their own toppings:
    • Salted caramel
    • Hot fudge
    • Maraschino cherries
    • Peanuts
    • Sprinkles
    • Strawberry syrup


I used mason jars for the beverage lab and added kraft paper straws with some cute, personalized straw flags to complete the look. This is a great way to "label" drinks when you have 15 kids at a party and don't want to mix everyone's drinks up!! ;) I love Avery's water bottle labels. They print beautifully and don't smudge as the bottles sweat! What better way to label water than by using it's chemical name? ;) The kids had a blast using funnels to fill their jars with their own drink concoctions!


After everyone filled up, we moved on to the experiments. I browsed through a couple kids' science books (365 Awesome Science Experiments and Pop Bottle Science) and picked 6 experiments that I thought would be fairly easy and fun for 5/6-year-olds to do:
  • Drop It: will a full bottle fall twice as fast as a half-full bottle?
  • Metal Boat: can you make a metal boat float?
  • Acid or Base?: make colors change as if by magic!
  • Gas Balloon: an acid and a base make gas
  • Corny Goo: make a goo with strange habits
  • Squishy Ice Cream: make your own ice cream!
I created my own science lab notebook that included detailed instructions for the experiments we were conducting. Each child received one of these. For Noah's party with friends, I had the kids pair up and work together, making 7 groups. Each group had a pan full of the supplies they would need to conduct the experiments.



I think it went pretty well, aside from most of the parents having to complete the ice cream experiment for the kids by the end of it. ;) In their defense, they were distracted by the large amount of ducks in our backyard, and they were all more interested in feeding them at that point. Haha!




Noah requested a Reese cake this year for his party, so to tie in to the theme, we made it "explode" with Reese's pieces when you cut into the cake! I made a cake topper to put in the top.


I also ordered these adorable cookies from my friend, Amanda, of Sweet Hadley B Cookies. She is the best!!!


For the party favors, I bought plain white paper bags at Michaels and assigned an element that represented each child attending (i.e. Ra = Radium = Rachel, Am = Americum = Amos, Lu = Lutetium = Lucas, etc). I made a personalized ID badge for each child to wear, using these badge holders and lanyards. Each child also received a pair of safety glasses for the experiments, the notebook with instructions for the 6 experiments we conducted at the party, a pen, another Science notebook (from the Target dollar spot!), an atomic bouncy ball, and a test tube full of sixlets candy.



Here are some pics of the birthday boy enjoying his parties!! :) 

The final item to take care of was the thank you notes. I made a simple flat 4" x 6" card to go with the theme. Because who doesn't love getting something sweet in the mail instead of bills? ;) 



It was an adorable, FUN party! Happy 6th Birthday to our little middle!

If you're interested in purchasing any of the Mad Science printables, please visit my website at www.seeleylanedesign.com, or contact me via my Etsy shop. Don't forget to check out Sweet Hadley B Cookies (she ships cookies all over the U.S.) and custom vinyl t-shirts by All in Good Font!

SaveSave

Monday, July 3, 2017

Baby Bump Update: Week 24

Week of Pregnancy: 24 weeks, 3 days

Baby size: Baby is the length of an ear of corn this week!



Baby is about a foot long from head to heel and weighs around 1 1/4 pounds.

A fun website, babysizer.com, also states that the baby is the size of a package of Oreos, Mr. Burns' teddy bear, Bobo (the Simpsons), or a Philly cheesesteak. Yuuummm.




Appointment Notes: Everything looked/sounded great at my OB appointment this morning. Baby's heartbeat was strong at 142 and he/she was actually weighing in at 1 lb 12 oz by U/S, so a "healthy" 76th percentile. ;) They were able to view the heart vessels this time and all looks good there as well. I also had my glucose testing this morning and managed to just squeak through that one! Whew!

Symptoms: Hip/pelvic/low back pain is my biggest complaint right now. It's hard to get comfortable most nights and trying to get up from sitting on the floor is probably quite amusing for others to watch. Sigh. Heartburn is still mostly under control now with OTC meds. Hoping it stays that way!

Food cravings: Still cereal!

Food aversions: Still coffee. Sigh. I'm fine with the iced stuff, but still zero interest in hot coffee!

What I'm excited about: Passing my glucose test! I was so worried about failing it this time that I'd even had dreams about it this past week. I needed to stay below 130 mg/dL, and I slid in at 121. Probably means I should be a bit more careful about my diet now though.

What I've done to prepare for baby: I think we may have names picked out?!? Pretty solid on a girl's name, but boy's name may still be up for debate...I'm still trying to get maternity workouts in as much as I can handle. I've been seriously exhausted this past month though. Lab results today also showed I have some pregnancy anemia, so that may be the culprit! I think I've found a cute gender neutral bedding set that I like at Target. Surprise! With an aqua, green, yellow and gray patchwork design, it will be cute for either a boy or a girl. Part of me still wonders if I want to wait until after baby is born to pick, so I can go super girly if that's the case! ;)

Funny moment: Looking back at my pregnancy with Amos, Ethan had wanted a little sister and was sad when we found out it was going to be another boy. This time, all three boys are wanting yet another brother!!



Here's a fun look back at each of my pregnancies at 24 weeks! Definitely bigger with each baby, except maybe a tie between the last two?? My weight is actually quite a bit more than it was at this point with Amos though. :( I'm just going to say it's due to the increased muscle I had built up before this pregnancy. ;) Right?!? I guess it's the added four years (you know, in my elderly pregnancy state now, haha) that are making this one even rougher than the previous pregnancies on my body. It's going to be a long 16 weeks!

Happy 4th tomorrow!