Summer Road Trip: California Day 3

Adam, the kids, and I all woke up early, snuck out and picked up cinnamon rolls, Starbucks coffee, and some gifts for our host. It was a special day as well for 2 other reasons. 1. It was our last full day in California 2. It was our 10 year anniversary!  After breakfast, we headed out for our first stop. Our entire family are big Mythbusters fans. (If you recall last year's birthday party) While watching a few episodes the night before, D drew a picture of the entire crew. She really wanted to send it to them, but since I let her know we were heading for M5 Industries in the morning, she agreed to wait.

We took our picture in front of the sign. There was a note on the door that said to please not disturb because they were filming. D happily slipped her note inside an envelope through the mail slot in their door.

From there, we headed into the city again, aiming for the Chinatown area. This was a neat thing we saw on the way. It is seriously a real car flattened and hung up on the side of a building.

We parked in a garage not far from Chinatown. As we came out of the garage at street level, we wandered into a neat Scottish Import Store.

A short walk from there, and we were in Chinatown! The kids had a really fun time checking out all the shops. Andy did show us to this tiny little fortune cookie factory down an alley. As you walk into Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory the first thing you notice is that they are freshly making the cookies in a tiny little room. There is a line of ladies taking the cookies off of the hot press, sliding a paper fortune inside and folding into the unmistakable shape. The lady in charge has a plate of misshapen or broken cookies for you to take a sample of, and there are bags of freshly made regular or chocolate cookies. We munched on these all day long!

After cruising around for sometime, picking up a few souvenirs, and having Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch (yes, they kids happily gobbled them up!), we tried to catch a trolley. We stood right on the corner at Chinatown for a long time, but every trolley was totally packed. A man walking past said we might have better luck walking to the next stop just 2 blocks away. Those 2 blocks were up a very very very steep hill. We made the trek, pausing to catch breath a few times.

1 block into our hike, I noticed this statue of Hermes and thought he just needed a pocket necklace. How else would he carry his messages? So once again I left my mark on San Fran.

After a short wait, we were able to all get on a trolley. The kids were bummed that we couldn't hang on the outside, but they said no one under 16 could do that. We also went ahead and bought a day pass, so that way we could ride it back and it would be cheaper that way.

Once we got to the end, back by Ghirardelli Square, the kids got a picture taken hanging on it once it stopped.

Another duck into the Buena Vista Cafe for Irish Coffee and Sprite before picking up boxes of Ghirardelli chocolate and explore a few shops. Another stop for ice cream for the kids at Ben & Jerry's!

Headed back to ride the trolley back again, but stopped in a really cool spy store. The line to ride back was shorter, and went really quickly.

Once we were back at the car, we headed back home to relax, wash clothes, and pack up for the long ride for home in the morning.

Mythbuster Birthday Party!!!

Last year after L and D's party, they insisted that the next party had to be Mythbuster themed. Normally they change their ideas every day, but this one held fast. Throughout the year, I was able to pick up caution tape on clearance from Michael's. We made sure we did fun science projects with the kids!!

The first one we did was 2 baking trays full of baking soda (found a giant box in the grocery baking aisle), colored vinegar with food coloring which we poured into plastic shot glasses, and gave each kid a plastic pipette (found at United Art and Education). I showed to the kids how to pull the vinegar into the pipette and then squeeze it onto the baking soda causing little eruptions. This one was a big hit with everyone!

Then we moved onto a super easy trick and the best part is that you probably have everything in the house already! You just need a Ziploc plastic bag (any size will do), water, and sharpened pencils. You simply fill the bag with water to whatever height you would like. Zip it closed, and then slowly push a sharp pencil through the bag where the water is, and the hole will self seal. You can push a bunch of pencils and it should only leak when you take the pencils back out!

Next we split the kids into girls and boys. We had about 15 kids there and they were about evenly split. The girls and I headed away a bit from the picnic shelter. The Mythbusters have a crash test dummy named "Buster" that always gets beat up in all they do. So we needed a Buster to beat up too! I had an old Tuxedo Mask doll, and a friend had given us a large water balloon sling shot. Soooooo, we tried to see how far we could fling Buster! I even made little flags out of Popsicle sticks and paper with the kids names on them to mark where Buster landed. He did loose both arms in the process, and let me just say, the girls got him the farthest!

The boys headed over with Adam to the side of the picnic shelter where we had kite string tied between 2 poles. Each boy got a balloon that they taped to a cut down straw. They blew up the balloon, slipped the kite string through the straw and let go, sending it flying down the string. After everyone had a turn, we switched!

And we had to finish the science with the mentos/diet cola explosion! We had lemon lime, diet, and regular cola to try it with.  In our trying, we discovered the lemon lime did the best this time around. The kids all had fun watching that one!

It was time for cake, and normally I make a big, fun themed cake. This year, since the party was at a park, we did simple funfetti cupcakes with either chocolate or vanilla frosting.

Then it was present time! The kids got so many really nice things from everyone. I handed out the treat bags to the guests while they watched the gift opening. I figured it would help keep hands busy! Inside each blue bag treat bag was a mini notebook, golf pencil, safety goggles (Thank you Dollar Tree!!!!), and a packet of Pop Rocks!

Overall it was a fantastic party, and a wonderful day! The easiest party I think we have done so far!