Science Party

My little scientist turned 8 this month.  I have to say, his birthday party was a little easier than some of the other parties I've planned.  I am a science teacher, so I have access to some science equipment that made my life a little easier... and saved me some money.  

 To start, I dressed him up in my lab coat and accessorized him with goggles and a beaker.  To create his invitation, I put his photo over a chevron background layer in photoshop elements, then erased the background from his photo.... easy peasy...  Then I used the text from this invitation to create my invitation.

 The mini test tubes are actually plastic flower vases that are used when you purchase just a single rose... I bought a box of them at a yard sale for $1.  I filled them with Nerds and tied them on with baker's twine... I love that stuff!!!

 I found my bright happy wrapping paper at the dollar store.  I printed this fun clipart to make tags and tied the boxes with baker's twine!!!

When the kids walked up to the house, they found a shirt with their name on it... resembling the periodic table.

To make these, I just used Hanes T-shirt maker iron-ons and my computer.  They were super easy.  I got my t-shirts on sale at Michael's for just $2 each.  I know that these t-shirts shrink so I bought them really large.  Rumor is that the kids loved them because 3 of them wore them to school the next day.

They also picked up goggles in a basket at the door.  I bought the goggles at the Dollar Tree.  Some of them broke before the kids even put them on... sometimes that's what you get form the dollar store.

They had to "scan to enter" the house.  I love chevron print right now and used that for the border paper.  I painted my son's hand and stamped that on the paper.  And I really love washi tapes right now!  So, even though there is scotch tape rolled up on the back, I still used the washi tape to adhere it to the door as well.

I know that all of the kids don't arrive at the same time, so I had this table set up with microscopes and slides so that the kids could look at different specimens under the microscope while they waited for everyone to get there.

After everyone got there, we headed through the back door to the science lab.  I had a few sciency things set up on the table...

And another table set up with baskets with all of my supplies.

We made balloons blow up by putting vinegar in the bottle and baking soda in the balloon.

We talked about surface tension with milk and food coloring and dish soap.

We built molecules out of tooth picks and marshmallows.  The kids really loved that!

We made slime out of glue and borax.

We made lava lamps (those didn't work too well).

We came in the house and learned about static electricity by rubbing their balloons on their hair and trying to pick up pieces of crepe paper.

And for the decor... I used scraps of fabric left over from Brenner's science bedspread as a table runner down the table.  Then I put the favors, cake, kool-aid with dry ice, and science beakers and flasks full of candy.

My party favor test tubes were found at a yard sale as well. I filled them with nerds and tied a tag on with baker's twine.

The jars of candy were super yummy!

 The kids, of course, got the biggest kick out of the kool-aid with dry ice.

The blog Mrs. Mouthy is where I got the idea for the cake and most of my ideas for the party.  If you go to my Party Pinterest Board, you can find links to most of the other blogs that I used for the party.

Party land was pretty creative with the balloons.  I wanted them to look like atoms... they kind of don't, but they are still fun and unique.

I made a banner that said Happy Birthday Brenner.  I also had one hanging outside that said Science Lab, but the wind was always blowing too much to take a picture of it:(

Okay, so that sad part was that I completely forgot about my jello petri dishes until the party was over:(

                             

And I had to get a group pic of the boys!

I'm tired of the super long blog post... so, if I missed any details, I'm sorry.

Graduation Gift

It's that time of year.... Graduation!!!  Last week I had a couple of family members graduate from college. In a couple of weeks I have a family member graduating from High School.  Not to mention the most important... Preschool and Kindergarten graduation!

For the older bunch (high school and college) I found this idea at The Seasonal Home.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money... and you're really supposed to just give grads money... but since I had three, I thought it would be kind of lame to just give them a card with a few bucks in it.  So, my thoughts were, if the gift is creative, then it's okay if I'm cheap:)

I bought my umbrella at the $ Tree.  (I really wish the dollar store had cuter umbrellas). I tried to paper clip the money to the spokes of the umbrella but that didn't work.  So I just taped the money to the spokes (I guess those grads will have to earn their money taking the tape off the bills).  The tutorial I found online had them hanging from ribbon, I guess that would work too.

I found this cute tag at Oh the Lovely Things.  I have decided that there are so very many cute free printables out there that its quite a waste of my time to make my own:)  So, I just threw this into photoshop so I could add my own text.

Happy Graduation everyone!!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

It's teacher appreciation this week!  I find it to be somewhat ironic that I am a teacher.... yet I am doing all of these fun things for my kids teachers... maybe I appreciate what they do so much because I truly know what they do!

Here's the thing about Pinterest.  Sometimes, I just repin something without re-visiting the original pin site.    So, I bought my cups, made my cute little signs for the top, bought my drink packets, ya know... the usual.  Well, just now, when I was typing up this post I thought I would visit the site so I could give the original pinner the credit she deserves... and I found that it also has a free printable!!!  That would have saved me some time... so, always visit the site with the original pin!  Thank you  Lisa Storms for the cute free printable and idea.

I made these for the teachers of my boys in Preschool and Kindergarten.

 I have an aide that works with me at school so I also made one for her.

Teacher Appreciation... take 2

I volunteered to decorate a door for teacher appreciation.  The door I was assigned was my son's 2nd grade teacher.  I happen to know his teacher a little better and I know her daughter.  So, I asked her daughter what she liked and she told me Home Depot... and working on projects.  I love Home Depot too, so I thought it would be fun to go with the whole tool, building theme.

I found clipart online and used my best artistic talent to make a paper tool box.  Then I enlarged the various clipart and cut and traced the clipart on patterned paper to make the tools.  For the letters I used my trusty cricut.

To go with the tool theme, I spray painted an old tool box I had bought at a yard sale.   I printed off paper tools from the internet and took them into the school to have the kids color them and write messages.  I had parents donate money to give her a gift card to Home Depot.  Then, I stuck some plants in there for filler.  In the back is her favorite candy bar... a symphony with toffee and almonds!

I truly appreciate all of my kids' teachers and all of the work and effort they put into teaching my children!!!