The Little Sewing Shop: Mr. Science

Levi turns 5 in a couple weeks, but we decided to have his party early this year, so his grandparents could go. Levi decided to have Mr. Science do his party again (we had a great time last year!). Mr Science has a big indoor lab thats great for parties - lots of fun stuff the kids can play with, plenty of room, out of the heat, and best of all, we are allowed to make a mess!
Levi also wants a Guinness Book of World Records theme. A little challenging for me to come up with ideas for that one, but I think we pulled it off. The kids had such a great time!

FOOD:

Here is the table:

We just kept it simple because it was a morning party, not really prime eating time. A bowl of organic apples and an apple cutter, a big bowl of fruit, gluten free pretzels and a veggie tray. We also put a stack of world record books with a "custom" one with Levi on it!

Apples:

Carrots and Hummus (I actually forgot the hummus!!)

Pretzels

Water bottles: On these I printed labels on sticker paper depicting all different water themed world records, like a dog who balanced a glass of water on his head and walked down stairs!

Cake:

On the pic of the food table you can see the award we got from the Guinness book of World Records for Brevard County's longest birthday cake. (well, actually it was made by me on the computer, but Levi was impressed! And I'm pretty sure it is the longest cake in Brevard!) The cake was 10 feet long!!

We put it in the middle of the science lab on low wooden boxes. I took pics before the kids arrived, worried they'd all have their fingers in it, but surprisingly, I didn't see any evidence of frosting testers. Later on though, around 8 feet of cake was eaten!

There were a couple kinds of icing, made from the same base of Earth's Balance (which is dairy free). Some were chocolate, and some were vanilla, I made the vanilla into the closest I could get to purple without using food coloring - by adding some blueberry juice from our fresh picked blueberries (that we froze plenty of!)

To keep the decorations simple, I printed decorations, backed them with card-stock and taped colored popsicle sticks to the back. Stuck those in the cake for quick and easy decorations (and these could be designed for any theme you want!)

The wooden letters have been on the wall in our bedroom for a long time now, I brought them out to decorate the table. They were made by PhoenixFire Designs for a Craftster swap.

There were several flavors of cake:
- Chocolate
- Chocolate coconut (the chocolate cake above, with coconut extract instead of vanilla, and some unsweetened organic coconut thrown in - not sure how much I added, until it looked good!)
- yellow
- Maple Agave (sugar free and vegan) I added cinnamon to this one.
- gluten free chocolate (cheated on this one and used a box mix!)

I'm usually behind the camera instead of in the pictures, but I got convinced to be in the pics for Levi's cake cutting.

He has a lot of hot air!

Me clapping like a goofball and Levi looking proud!

Me and my soon-to-be-5 year old!

With Nai Nai and Buddy too! Levi is looking away as he often does, ready to get started with the eating part!

The Guinness Book of Records Challenges:

These I made just for fun to go with the party theme.

See how fast you can get into a suitcase:

or play a game of jenga.

How many spoons can you attach to your face? (it wasn't long ago that Levi was calling these "poons").

I included a roll of tape, for those who wanted to cheat!

How fast can you dress a barbie?

How many spins can you hula?

Or jumps can you do?

Or bean bag tosses?

Photo spot:

I set this up for taking pics of some funny props I made that related to some of Levi's favorite world records. The banner is from Levi's 2nd birthday party (which was beach ball themed).

Levi and his "girl friend" with the worlds longest dog ears (these are actual size!)

Levi with the worlds longest ear hair (gross!). I knew that weird grey fuzzy yarn would come in handy eventually! One of his little friends wore this for a good portion of the party.

The props had signs with actual photos and info about the records.

Worlds biggest sunglasses (found these big purple ones at the dollar store), and worlds longest tongue - how does she fit it in her mouth? Giant green eraser is there too, just because.

On a dog with regular ears, those giant ones look kinda silly. Poor Berkshire put up with Levi testing them out on her when we got home later.

Party time!!

Here is another view of the lab:

Lined up and listening to Mr. Science.

Mr. Science had the kids make hand kits and try to beat his record of walking the length of the lab 7 times.

Its not easy!

The rocket launch!

Mr. Science built a real rocket for Levi during the party - made from cups, cardboard, tape, and some other stuff! It even has a parachute that pops out.

Getting it ready

All set!

Waiting for lift off

Heading back to earth.

We got two launches! But on its second flight, it landed on the post office roof next door!

And last is the goody bags:

They contained a mini-book of World Records and things to go with them.
- a mini sand castle, with the record for the most sand castles made in an hour
- some rubber bands, and a pic of the biggest rubberband ball
- a toy car, and the land-speed record
- some stickers
- some fun pencils

And here is Levi's outfit. This one he helped make! First, I hand dyed the fabric purple and cut out the pattern pieces. I cut a stencil of a big number 5 out of freezer paper, got out my collection of fabric paints and let Levi have at it! It entertained him while I baked cakes for the party. When it was dry, I peeled off the paper and finished sewing up the shirt. Added the text to the back, and it was done!