She Blinded Me With Science . . . Party

First of all, I can't believe my girl is ELEVEN!!  Where on earth has the time gone?  Seriously, when she was 3, I thought it would take forever for her to grow up.  But here I am 8 years later buying her size 14 jeans.  They were slims, but still . . . size 14?!  Before I know it, she'll be babysitting (which I am looking forward to) and driving (which I am NOT).  As for dating, well, I just try to avoid thinking about that all together.

On a positive note, K is truly a good girl.  She's responsible, capable, smart and really quite witty.  I am hoping that her teenage years don't bring us TOO much grief.

For her birthday this year, we (OK, I) decided to outsource for the first time.  We've always had birthdays at our house, but I've been feeling rather unmotivated lately and decided it might be nice to just pay someone else to do most of the work.  It was fabulous.  My very favorite part was that I didn't have to clean my house.

K wanted to do weird science, so we booked a party at a local park/natural science center.  An employee there did a fabulous hands on science class which the kids absolutely LOVED.  We may just have to stick with the science theme for S's birthday in March.

Just in case you can't tell, the cake is supposed to be a flask overflowing with a very bubbly science experiment. Some of you might be thinking that you've never seen a flask quite that shape. And you're probably right. But that's what happens when you're too lazy to actually trim the cake, and decide to just slap the frosting on instead. Still, it turned out better than I thought it would when I was making it.

S prepares to blow up a balloon using vinegar and baking soda.  J took the phrase "blow up" a little TOO literally and insisted on covering his ears for the entire balloon experiment.

Glue + water + borax + food coloring = flubber.  Very cool.

This experiment delighted K.  Her chain molecule of flubber grew quite long before it broke.

Dry ice in a flask of blue colored water.  Just look at the faces of all the kids.  Pure delight.  I don't understand why they don't teach more science in the lower elementary grades.  The kids love it.  It's like learning how a magic show works.  And it's SO GOOD for their little brains.

Water + sugar + flavoring + dry ice = soda.  Some of the kids said they liked it.  But, really, it was rather gross.  The recipe needs a little tweaking, in my opinion.  Still cool, though, to watch it get made.

And then there were the grounds to explore.  Here's J off on an expedition in a real space capsule.  Everyone also got to dig for eathworms, explore the maze & cactus gardens, climb trees, play in teepees, dig for dinosaur bones, and just run wild outside.  We could hardly believe how perfect the weather was.  Sunny and 70?  In January?  I'll never get used to the climate here, I think.  I still have this midwest winter mindset which will probably never leave me.

R thoroughly enjoys having two older sisters who dote on her.  Here, she gave me her cheesiest of smiles when she saw me taking her picture.  During the party, thanks to the friends of K & S, little R had about 5 big sisters watching over her.

My beautiful girl, who is growing up too fast.