Staring at the Sun

 I think I was in the first grade when I watched my first solar eclipse.  I can't remember what we used to look at it with, (I vaguely remember camera film or something) but at some point I decided that I didn't need eye protection and just looked directly at it.  Ooops.  I suppose it should have been common sense not to do that, but I was really young, impulsive, and the sun was surprisingly easy to look directly at at that point. It didn't take long to figure out what a bad idea it was.  I had a blind spot and a burn mark on my retina for YEARS.  So, few years ago, when my kids wanted to watch an eclipse, I wanted them to experience it, but I also didn't want them to hurt themselves.  With the another solar eclipse coming up in a few days, I thought I'd share some things I did to ensure a safe viewing experience. The first thing I did was share my experience with them, and made sure to stress the importance of not looking directly at it without eye protection.  Sometimes, kids just need to be reminded about common sense stuff.  I also thought it would be fun to explore all the possible ways to view it.  We experimented with different things, but this pinhole projector worked the best.  Here are a couple different ways you can do it.    

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/box-pinhole-projector.html

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera/#.WZXDhmhgokg.facebook

 As fun as these are, I still think there is something about being able to look at it through glasses, so, we will be viewing it that way as well.  If you want to do the same but are worried your littles will be tempted to peak around them, this might be worth a try.  :)

Happy viewing!

Tea Time

I may or may not have a slight obsession with tea parties.  I love that I have a daughter who also loves them.  My sisters also love them and we try to have one any time we get together.  Last year for my daughters birthday, I let her invited a friend and her mom and we went to high tea at a local "castle".  (It was actually more of a mansion.  But it's as close to a castle that we were gonna find in our little part of the world.)  They had fancy hats and a waitress dressed in authentic servant attire.  We were served tea and scones with cream and jam, petite fours (Lulu got the fanciest pb&j's you've ever seen), little cakes, fruit, and our own individual fancy pots of tea with fancy tea cups.  

I think it's safe to say that all 4 of us had a great time.  This year, she wanted another tea party for her birthday.  I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of the fun we had at the castle into the tea party.  If I had the funds, I would have bought a bunch of fancy teacups and pots, but I was limited as far as what I could afford, so I opted for fancy hats.  I ordered 10 or so hats straight from China.  (I found the same hats on Amazon for twice the price.)  Lulu chose most of the other activities.  She wanted to stack sugar cubes, and play pin the tea cup on the plate, and most of all, she wanted a fishing booth. I was kind of stumped on how to incorporate a fishing booth into a tea party, but that was the one she wanted most of all, so I couldn't leave it out.  I searched the web for ideas, and came up empty.  So, I called my sister and she came up with the idea of just calling it something different.  She's great for thinking outside the box like that.  Just off the top of her head she came up with "mystery boutique".  I went with that, cause I thought it was genius. We have a little puppet stage that ended up being perfect to transform into a little boutique. Here's the end result.

         


I glued two poster boards together and painted stripes on them to look like a shop awning and taped it up where the stage curtains usually are. Then I purchased some clipart from etsy for the boutique items and just taped them on the front. I think it turned out perfect.

My favorite part of this party was the photo booth.  It was the most time consuming, but it turned out so cute.  The backdrop was pretty tedious and a bit of a challenge to assmeble, but it was totally worth it.  The only thing I'd change if I could, is lowering it on the wall just a bit.  I feel like it was a little too high.  I just brought in the iron bench from my front porch and centered it underneath.  That was the most simple part.  :-D  

We did the photo booth very first.  As people got there, they came in, dressed up and we took pictures.  We figured it would be the best option, so people wouldn't just be sitting around waiting for everyone to get there. This was our dress up station.  I ordered faux pearl necklaces from oriental trading and mardi gras beads, fans, and boas from Amazon (though they would have been a lot cheaper from Aliexpress, which is where I ordered the hats.) The umbrella is also from Amazon.  It was the most expensive item, though I later found a really cute pink parasol from Amazon for about $8.  This was the dress up station.

The other activities were all pretty cheap and simple.  Pin the teacup was made out of poster board, doilies and free clipart.

Since there was kind of a wide age range for people she invited, we did the sugar cube activity two different ways.  For the younger girls, we just had them stack them on the table and whoever stacked the highest won.  For the older girls, we did it minute to win it style and had them hold a Popsicle stick in their mouth and stack them.

 The food was pretty simple.  "Fancy" cookies from the grocery store, veggie tray, fruit tray, chocolate fondue, cheese and cracker tray, chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, and crustless pb&j's cut into triangles and of course, cupcakes.  We washed it all down with pink lemonade.

We also made paper fans similar to the fans I used in the backdrop.  They ended up being a bit too advanced for most of the kids, so I don't think I'd include that again.  Hands down, the dress ups and photo booth were the funnest part.  We got soooo many fun pictures.  Now that I have hats, for the next tea party we have, I'll invest in tea cups and pots and serve tea with scones and cream and really make it authentic...ish.  :-D

For anyone interested, I am going to add some links for the super cute disposable stuff I used.  The cutest stuff I found was from a company called talking tables.  The doilies, paper plates, and serving trays/stand were all from them, through Amazon. The paper straws were also through Amazon, but I don't think they were talking tables.

Paper straws
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IZ5O430/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Doilies
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BLN57DU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Paper cups
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IZJ60K2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Paper plates
https://smile.amazon.com/Talking-Tables-Scrumptious-Plates-Parties/dp/B004Y6GA9Q/ref=pd_bxgy_229_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B004Y6GA9Q&pd_rd_r=VPB8S0MC53HW5M19KPMV&pd_rd_w=rRm5T&pd_rd_wg=esR72&psc=1&refRID=VPB8S0MC53HW5M19KPMV

https://smile.amazon.com/Talking-Tables-Frills-Frosting-Party/dp/B00BXOM4U6/ref=pd_sbs_79_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00BXOM4U6&pd_rd_r=MSV62375ZVV56PFHFV3Y&pd_rd_w=c0Nkq&pd_rd_wg=4fe1c&psc=1&refRID=MSV62375ZVV56PFHFV3Y

Napkins
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LTNST32/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Paper serving tray
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SWRGAPM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cake stand
https://smile.amazon.com/Talking-Tables-Scrumptious-Cakestand-Multicolor/dp/B0088GU792/ref=pd_sim_79_10?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0088GU792&pd_rd_r=W7BV7M7MH0C1ZY3P3XCB&pd_rd_w=PZAJF&pd_rd_wg=s8r0K&psc=1&refRID=W7BV7M7MH0C1ZY3P3XCB