Monday's Moment: Before, During, After

 

Mermaid Themed Slime Party

As wordy as that title is....leaving out 'themed' made it seem we were making mermaid slime....which gave me marine biology lab/fishing boat flashbacks (fish can be slimy) and that didn't sound very fun.....lol.

So for Clarissa's 9th birthday (eek! last year in the single digits), she decided she wanted a 'girls only' party. So her requested mermaid theme would be perfect. For the 'main event' activity it was slime making! So this is just the nuts and bolts of what we did!

Of course you can't tell in the photo that I used glitter/sparkle chalk.

I found some adorable clip art at Design Bundles. I received an award from my CLO days in Suva, which came with a bonus. Last fall, it finally came through (only took six months), but I put that toward getting myself a Cricut cutting machine....something I'd be eyeballing for few years now. So with my Cricut, I used the mermaids clip art for the invite, on top everyone's slime container, food markers, and little stickers for the bottoms of Hershey kisses.

I was able to borrow some folding tables from the embassy and we set up everything in our carport....a hose-able space to keep the mess under control....lol. Each spot was set up with a takeaway container of w/5oz of glue, a mixer (aka colorful popsicle stick), and an empty mini m&m container. I put the food coloring, shaving cream and activator in the middle of the table. On each container I made stickers (literally a last minute idea just hours before the party started) and had markers out for the girls to write their names (on the off chance someone forgot to take their slime home.....Clarissa would know who to give it back to at school).

Then the crowned jewel of the slime....the mix-ins. Someone may or may not watch too much YouTube and loves watching slime making videos where the unknown is the magic/excitement of the slime making. IKEA had this mini spinner and I made mermaid themed items for them to spin for. Then they would pour a bit in the m&m container and spin again! I then labeled the mix ins with the fun mermaid items (so the foam balls = bubbles, star shaped confetti = sea stars, you get the idea).

This was quite the hopping spot! For girls that arrived at the beginning they had something to do while others were still showing up. The trickling in made it so there was never a backup at the spinning. The m&m container helped control how much they took (oh your container is full, time to start making your slime).

Given they were 8 & 9 year old girls....this was the easy part and they are all experts in the slime making.

Once everyone's slime was made they washed their hands and moved inside for a snacks. It was a mid afternoon party, so I didn't have to worry about a meal. (FYI: these food name ideas were brought to you by Pinterest! Thanks it was fun!!).

The two biggest hits were the candy sea weed (the grape sea weed, not so much) and the 'ocean juice'. The candy sea weed was just fruit strips on skewers. The ocean juice I got from this video. It was super easy to make, though I did have to modify a bit as I didn't have the correct syrup (I used blue raspberry shaved ice syrup). It was delicious!

While the girls ate and ran around the playground across the street a bit, we swapped out the glue covered (there was one slime fail) slime table cloth and put down a fresh one. Once that was down I set up mini cupcakes, icing, and all types of sprinkles. We called the girls back and they went to town!

Such artistry! I had several girls tell me that this was the most fun party! Woo hoo! Yet, they did all the work, lol!

After cupcake decorating/eating, there was more running around and playing. Clarissa opened her 'not gifts'. We kept up with the tradition of asking for donations to a local animal shelter. They did not disappointed. We took a of photo of Clarissa and all the donations before they were picked up. The shelter asked for a back story. They then posted it on their website and said the sweetest thing on their facebook page.

In addition to the slime full of mix-ins the girls took home. We also made littler mermaid pouch goody bags. They had a mermaid tail key chain (poking out), some mermaid ponytail holders, and some of the Hershey kisses with mermaid stickers. Mason complemented me that it look like a mermaid was diving into the pouch....why yes, totally planned it that way. I love seeing the girls wearing them on their wrists (aka like a mermaid would) before they left. We had a couple extras and the pouch is perfect size for ear buds/charging cables.

And that is how Clarissa celebrated her 9th birthday. Of course there was the cookie cake in her class room

and an Oreo ice cream cake on her actual birthday with just the family and her besties in the neighborhood (disregard the mountain of dishes in the sink....someone requested Taco Night with homemade tortillas for dinner!).

So it has begun...

So now that you all know the big news we were about to share that I had mentioned here . You also have a better idea as to why we started this blog to begin with....it really drives home the why oh why we did make this blog.....because all our family and friends are going to be super far away.....(and maybe a little bit of that's what the cool kids in the FS do...).

So school and all school related events are done.....so now time for me to get a move on and getting ready to move.....the purging has begun! Some stuff is easy (that t-shirt from a certain frat party in college that has gotten a little holey over the years....adios)....other stuff is trickier, you know there may be that partly cloudy day when the sun is at a 94 degree angle and because we are now in the southern hemisphere this ____ is going to come in real handy....must say adios as well.....

In our purging, I'm trying to not donate everything to goodwill (we did make 4 trips there one weekend....oops). I want to spread the love. So, I'm trying to help organizations that really need special things. So I packed up 17 boulder holders from college/single days and shipped them off to Free the Girls ....really cool way to help those women get on their feet (which I heard about this organization from a fellow blogger....).

Next stop....all the baby stuff/toys/outgrown clothes... Lowcountry Orphan Relief. They had come down and spoke to the students at FBS and then set up collection boxes one year....so I looked them up. They picked up one load already that we gave away our stroller, pack and play, clothes, shoes, some toys, blankets, etc. Now we are setting aside another load. They really helped us motivate Mason too....little Man has an affinity for stuffed animals as well as the memory of an elephant....so in the past during our semi-annual purges I've tried and tried to get him to give up stuffed animals with no luck. A couple weeks ago, we started telling him, we can't take all his lovies with us...told him about the orphans and how giving these lovies away could mean so much to a scared kid (btw, thank you christmas movie Search for Santa Paws.....used that to help him visualize). So I am extremely proud....he found 16 lovies to give away!  The rest...well we had to sort them....we gave him the categories of storage for 2+ years, those going by boat, those going by plane, and those in your suitcase. He did a really good job (I question some decisions....but hey we took pictures and documented 'who' was going where).....then the fun part.....space bags!

Before

After

That's just cool.

So our last donation destination of choice is Donation Town by searching their website, they determined that the National Children's Cancer Society will come to our house (post yard sale) and take any furniture, household goods and clothing we were unable to sell....done and done!

** <added Aug 16> When Mason was younger, he had some childhood wheezing. We haven't had to use his nebulizer for several years now.....so I found that the American Lung Association will take them. They can give them to school nurses that need them to give treatments to students so they student doesn't have to lug their machine back and forth between school and home...how cool is that!! 

Now if we could only get our house sold......not so much a purge but a giant sigh of relief.....so please say a pray, do a rain dance (TS Andrea is producing a good bit of rain, today would be perfect!), or send some positive juju this way.......

Speaking of rain...rainy day fun while also prepping the kids for some apartment living while we are in DC....