Diego's Science Lab

In our family, we don't do friend birthday parties very often. My kids have lots of cousins that live close, so celebrating with just family always feels like a birthday party to them. However, since I grew up having friend parties every year, I wanted to do it for my kids a few times, too. Originally we said we were going to do 5 and 8 and didn't really have a plan from there. But I had so much fun doing Diego's party this year that I'm thinking we'll do 5, 8, 10, and 12? Or maybe 6 instead of 5. I just don't want to put a bunch of work into parties when they're too young to remember much of it. The first party I really remember was my 7th. I don't know, there's still time to think about it! 

Anyway, we went with a mad scientist theme. I owe the decorations to my friend Sariah, who came over all day on the day of the party and put up streamers and balloons and even mopped my floor. I owe a lot of ideas and science supplies to my sister in law Michelle, who is the birthday party QUEEN. She saved me up until the last moment by thinking of little things I didn't think about. She called me hours before the party and said, "Hey, I'm in my school's science lab...do you need measuring things?" I was like...how did I forget the measuring things!?! Also, she's a teacher and knows how to get a million kids to settle down and listen. Very helpful when you're dealing with 15 kids, mostly ages 7 and 8. Many ideas came from my cute friend Kara's blog (http://www.simplisticallysassy.com/parties-on-a-budget/science-birthday-party/). Oh and of course, I owe Pinterest everything else.

I WISH I HAD TAKEN MORE PICTURES! I knew that would happen. Oh well.

Diego's hand print over the doorbell.

When they walked in, they grabbed a lab coat and safety goggles and my niece Angela put gel in their hair to make it mad scientist-y. I wanted to take a picture of each kid, but hahahahhaha, yeah right. It quickly became clear that no one would stand still for a picture.

 Diego testing out some of the stuff before the party. All borrowed from my mother in law or my sister in law's school's science lab.

This was a cut up plastic tablecloth that I put over the entrance to the hallway that leads to the bathroom, a.k.a the "Decontamination Station". They had to go through there after every experiment to wash their hands.

The house right before they all arrived. I set up 4 stations and broke the kids into 4 groups of 4 (one group had 3). Every 15ish minutes, they rotated and got to do a new experiment. This killed an hour and worked perfectly. Station 1 (blue table) was for the Lava Lamp experiment, Station 2 (green) was for slime. Also, it's no accident that my new entertainment center is in the picture. Craiglist score! I love it I love it I love it. We also got a new rug, but no way was that thing going to be in the line of fire on this messy night!

The far white table was for Station 3, which was Soup Can races. We folded one of the table's legs, so it was a ramp, and the kids rolled Campbell's soup cans down it to see which one would go fastest. It was a bust because the ramp was too high, so the cans tied every time. I was manning this station and never took a single picture. The other part of this station was just playing with the science stuff on the counter where Diego is sitting. I had a tornado made out of soda bottles, a smaller tornado, a live spider, a microscope, and a ball that lights up and the light follows your finger if you touch it. Station 4 was in the backyard. Marcelo had the kids make different kids of paper airplanes and see which one flew the farthest.

 The kids ready for their friends to arrive!

Me and my birthday boy. Mad scientist hair!

I made these badges in photoshop and my sister in law laminated them and added the chains. It says "Dr. Diego BLALOCK Access to Level 8 experiments, food, and birthday cake". Obviously, I steal ideas from Pinterest.

The goody bags had two test tubes full of candy, a "take home experiment" that was a bug that grows when put in water, an extra alka seltzer tablet so they could do their lava lamp again when they got home, and before they left, I put their lava lamp and slime in the bag.

Eliana playing with the tornado.

My sister in law had the kids play with magnets while we waited for everyone to arrive. Ignore the empty frames on the wall. They have only been up since May, so give me a break!

Marcelo caught this live spider right before the party. Gross.

After all 4 stations were done, we went outside and the kids each blew up a balloon and put a penny inside. I told them about centripetal force and they shook the balloons and watched the penny spin round and round. Then Marcelo came out with a bucket of water and showed them that by centripetal force, he could spin the bucket of water in a full circle and the water wouldn't fall out. The kids thought it was awesome.

Then we did the grand finale of the experiments. Diet coke and mentos geyser. It would have been awesome if we could have had all the kids make theirs errupt at the same time, but we saw that it wouldn't work out that way because they were all waaaay too full of energy to follow directions on their own, haha. So we had to only do two at a time so we could help them. This is why I didn't get any great shots of it. My flash died and I had no time to go get more batteries. Pretty sad about the blurriness...enough to recreate it in the future, haha. (OCD photographer.)

All the kids watching a bottle of Diet Coke erupt.

 
I love that you can see the girls jumping back to get out of the way, while the boy prepared to stick his face in and get geyser-ed in the face. We moved him out of the way just in time.

 They loved it!

 Then it was time to go inside to eat. Hot dogs and chips, nice and simple. I also gave them a petri dish of jello and a gummy worm. Some of the kids were like, "Is this a real worm??" It was cool, but if I had to do it again, I wouldn't have bothered with this little cutesy detail. I mean, if anyone needs petri dish, I now own a million. But the kids would have been just as happy if I did it in a plastic bowl.

Everyone singing happy birthday to Diego. Presents were opened soon after.

Since I didn't take pictures of the experiments during the party, I recreated them after everyone left. Here's Diego with the microscope and cool ball thing. 

Playing with his slime.

Lava lamp.

It was crazy and loud and I literally stood on my feet for a full day, but it was so fun and I now know that I really like throwing friend birthday parties!

Birthday and Baptism!

Yesterday was Diego's 8th birthday. He got to get baptized on his birthday, which was really special. At first, I was nervous about planning the baptism. After all, I had never planned one before. But once the refreshments were decided (muffins) and I had helpers to make them (Michelle, Karen, and my mom....with Necha on punch duty), all I had to do was make the program. Diego chose everything from the speakers to the songs. I got his jumpsuit and Marcelo's white pants, and then all that was left to do was continue to make sure Diego was prepared to take this step. At that point I kind of relaxed and didn't stress anymore. People kept asking me if I was nervous or stressed and I truly wasn't. A few days before the baptism, I started to worry that maybe I wasn't stressing because I was just forgetting something crucial. In a panic, I sent a message to my sister in law who had just been through this a year before. I said, "Am I forgetting something?? Why am I not more worried about this?" She wrote back the sweetest response. She told me that Diego would only remember how he felt on this day, and not anything about the muffins or anything else. She said, "You are an awesome mom who has just spent the last 8 years preparing her son to take his first steps back to Heavenly Father...you can do no wrong right now!!! Make sure that whatever you decide to do, that it allows you to enjoy the moment too...you've earned this moment!" Wise words from a wise lady. I cried when I read it and I cried again just now reading it again. It was exactly what I needed to hear and I followed her advice and just relaxed. It was a wonderful baptism and I felt so blessed to have such great family members and such great friends there to support Diego in this big step. During the baptism service I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for both my own family and the family I married into. There was such a wonderful feeling in the room. I held it together until the confirmation. At that point the tears flowed. 

I'm so proud of the boy Diego has become. I feel pretty certain that he was sent just as he is from heaven and my job is just to not mess him up. He's amazing and he teaches me so much on a regular basis. I'm so grateful that I get to be his mom. I'm also so grateful for the wonderful example he has in Marcelo. I couldn't have hoped for a better example for our boys. 

A couple days before the baptism, we had a little family meeting. "Fally Ho Leaving" as Eliana calls it (Family Home Evening). We told Diego that we wanted to have a family testimony meeting because we wanted him to hear our testimonies before he got baptized. Marcelo and I each stood and bore our testimonies. Then we asked if they wanted to. Celo went first and said, "I know we're Mormon. I know we go to church. I know we believe in Jesus. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet." It was really cute. Then Diego got up. He said, "I know the church is true. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. I know the scriptures are true and I'm grateful for the scriptures because they teach me the example I should follow and what I should do." Oh man, I cried and cried. It's amazing how much they grasp at a young age.

Today, Diego's name was called in sacrament meeting and he was welcomed as the newest member of the ward. We weren't there. The kids and I got there late today. I told Marcelo last night that I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it on time. It had been a really long day and I knew the kids, especially the girls, were really tired. I went to bed exhausted and even though I got all the kids' clothes ready, I didn't iron my own clothes. I woke up at 7:30 and tried hard to get myself and everyone ready as fast as I could. But in the end, with little things like Camila getting her dress dirty and me having to change her and then having to change her diaper again before leaving and then Diego being really sad because he couldn't find his scriptures...we were 15 minutes late. Once we got there, I sat in sacrament meeting just kicking myself for not letting Diego have that moment. I seriously teared up thinking about how it was my fault that he didn't get to have that moment. I started to get kind of irrational and just wanted to leave. I was saying things to myself like, "Why is it so hard for me to get 4 kids ready on my own every Sunday? Why can't I just make myself get up earlier or get more things ready at night? Why can't I be more organized?" I was kicking myself over and over and just feeling awful. Then Diego turned to me and started begging me to get up and bear my testimony. It was really the last thing I wanted to do and I told him so. He begged some more. He had been asking me to bear my testimony since last month's testimony meeting. Looking at his little face, I didn't know how I could refuse. So I tried to get my feelings in check. I reminded myself that I didn't remember standing up the day I was welcomed to my ward when I was 8 and that this would not be a big deal in the long run and that I needed to just forgive myself and get over it. Still, I was not quite ready to get up. But then something was said that made me feel like I should. And then our good friend was giving his testimony and said something that had been running through my head over and over. It was the push I needed to get up. I didn't say anything amazing or memorable, but I bore my testimony and my kids saw it. Diego was so happy. When I sat down he said, "You did it!!" So cute. I'm so glad he pushes me to be better. Love that boy to pieces.