Ok, enough is enough. Too many of my entires latley are starting to begin with "poor neglected blog"....I think I need to just pay more attention to my blog and stop saying I'll get to it tomorrow. Same with my scrapbooks. Thats my new years resolution. Because when you type up a blog entry and look through the pictures you include and think "man he looks so tiny in these!"...you know youre a bit behind. So here we go...rewind to June, Eli turns 8.
And nothing gets a new year started like Red Robin and ordering off the adult menu. Can he really be too big for the kids menu already? Well, not technically by his "age"..but by his stomach he definatley is.
Birthday morning breakfast of champions.
This birthday party theme was by far the most fun Ive had planning out of any of the parties Ive thrown for my kids. Which in turn, made it the most exhausting. Anything for my boys. Bring on the Mad Scientists!
Upon arrival, I had the living room set up with stations for the kids to make their way through. They began with getting on their lab coats (that I made out of XL mens white tshirts) and safety goggles (purchased at the Dollar Store, score!). Then they were to decode their Mad Scientist names for their name tags using a mad scientist name generater. It was pretty funny, Im not going to lie. Eli's name was "Professor Gorman Pinklechunks".
We had celery soaked in different colored food coloring to stain the veins, for snacking on. Not many of the kids ate it, celery is apparently gross to your typical 8 year old boy...except these two healthy brave souls...red and blue tongues to prove it.
I found these cool small balloons at the store that you punched which broke up the chemicals inside causing them to self inflate. The boys had a blast smashing these.
Who knew that diet soda + mentos would make such a cool science experiment. I was amazed at how high the liquid actually flew. We did this experiment a couple of times it was so fun.
Blowing plastic bubbles.
Our pond had recently lost all its renters (ie, Jake killed our fish on accident), so it was the perfect location to add lots of dry ice.
The birthday boy requested a lava volcano birthday cake. It was the least impressed Ive been with my cake making skills over the years, but I ran out of steam planning the rest of this party...so I'll get over my self pitty soon enough.
Oobleck...green oobleck...its squishy...no, its hard.......no its squishy......so fun!
What I told the kiddos = create a monster cupcake.
What the kiddos heard me say = pile as much candy on top of the cupcake as you can!
By far my favorite experiment at the party. Lava lamps! Fill a water bottle 1/4 with water, then about 3/4 the way up the bottle with vegetable oil and about 10-15 drops of food coloring. Add 1/2 -1 alka seltzer tablet and watch the lava lamp boil! So neat.
Soda bombs. The kids could have done these all day long I think. Some found it very humorous to watch them very closley. Thank goodness for goggles. (vinegar + baking soda in a plastic baggy, closed really quickly and shaken...boom, they blow up and pop)
Aqua gems, growing marbles, garbled marbles, water beads, etc. Regardless of where you buy them and what the particular package is labeled as....they are pretty darn cool to watch swell up from these tiny little plastic balls into these fun squishy marbles. We never tire of them in our house, such a fun little novelty. Infact, sometimes when I mop the floor I'll find one in the water when Im done. Occasionally when the boys play with one, they'll drop them and cant seem to find them...so they shrivle back up and then when I mop they swell back up. It cracks me up every time.
Did you know that Ivory soap grows? Me either until doing some research for science projects for this party. If you put a piece of a ivory soap bar into the microwave...it will rapidly grow 5 times its size! No other soap bar will do this. Then when its cool, we put the fluffy stuff in a bowl next to the sink for hand washing. Pretty simply amazing.
Some adorable little mad scientists.
I think I had as much fun with this party as the kids all did...but man was it exhausting. I think Im still recovering....and still finding garbled marbles. Happy 8th Birthday Eli.
Cake time!
Happy 6th Birthday!
Such a cool little dude.
Hard at work, painting pieces of art.
Even the parents painted! This particular Dad had mad coaster painting skills... some of which now reside on my coffee table.
Mmmmmmmm food.
More painting time!
Happy 6th Birthday Zachary, my very laid back artistic little man.
Birthday morning breakfast of champions.
This birthday party theme was by far the most fun Ive had planning out of any of the parties Ive thrown for my kids. Which in turn, made it the most exhausting. Anything for my boys. Bring on the Mad Scientists!
I found these cool small balloons at the store that you punched which broke up the chemicals inside causing them to self inflate. The boys had a blast smashing these.
Who knew that diet soda + mentos would make such a cool science experiment. I was amazed at how high the liquid actually flew. We did this experiment a couple of times it was so fun. 
Blowing plastic bubbles.
Our pond had recently lost all its renters (ie, Jake killed our fish on accident), so it was the perfect location to add lots of dry ice.
The birthday boy requested a lava volcano birthday cake. It was the least impressed Ive been with my cake making skills over the years, but I ran out of steam planning the rest of this party...so I'll get over my self pitty soon enough.
Oobleck...green oobleck...its squishy...no, its hard.......no its squishy......so fun!
What I told the kiddos = create a monster cupcake.
Soda bombs. The kids could have done these all day long I think. Some found it very humorous to watch them very closley. Thank goodness for goggles. (vinegar + baking soda in a plastic baggy, closed really quickly and shaken...boom, they blow up and pop)
Aqua gems, growing marbles, garbled marbles, water beads, etc. Regardless of where you buy them and what the particular package is labeled as....they are pretty darn cool to watch swell up from these tiny little plastic balls into these fun squishy marbles. We never tire of them in our house, such a fun little novelty. Infact, sometimes when I mop the floor I'll find one in the water when Im done. Occasionally when the boys play with one, they'll drop them and cant seem to find them...so they shrivle back up and then when I mop they swell back up. It cracks me up every time.
Did you know that Ivory soap grows? Me either until doing some research for science projects for this party. If you put a piece of a ivory soap bar into the microwave...it will rapidly grow 5 times its size! No other soap bar will do this. Then when its cool, we put the fluffy stuff in a bowl next to the sink for hand washing. Pretty simply amazing.
Some adorable little mad scientists.
I think I had as much fun with this party as the kids all did...but man was it exhausting. I think Im still recovering....and still finding garbled marbles. Happy 8th Birthday Eli.
He swears not to have eaten the poison berries, but we werent so sure this morning.
Attack of the adult boys at camp.
We had bear starring contests.
I made a bumblebee honeycomb pie
Played at many parks with splashpads to keep cool in the summer sun
Found a HUGE frog on a hike.
Did some snow geocaching
Had some not so successful geocaching adventures....we know its got to be here somewhere!
Found more creatures
More geocaching
Camping for Fathers Day
Bike ride/squirell friend making
Mothers day at the Tulip Festival
these are out of order, this should have been with camping at three creek river. :)
Milking a cow at AC Gilberts newest room.
AC Gilbert House with some of our very bestest buds.
Jake and I celebrated our NINE year wedding anniversary.
Oh boy, there is so much more to catch you up on... so there is just going to have to be another part to this blog....stay tuned!
