Early Preparations

7:15 a.m. - Last Sunday morning (6 months until Ethan's birthday) - Church starts at 8 a.m. I'm ironing the boys' pants. Ethan steps into the laundry room.

"Mom, can you help me make a list for my birthday?"
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Can it wait until after church?"
"Okay."

I don't think he's been informed of our "birthday parties on certain years" rule. He had one for his 5th birthday, and won't get one until his 8th. Which is a shame in a way, since his last one was really fun. The lists for that party started a month before his birthday. In the end, we found a recipe for this really cool cake on FamilyFun.com and decided on an "Exploding Party." The simplest ideas were the best.

There was the maze of bubble wrap that the kids ran on forever:Then the "Pop Balloons with Darts Board." Ethan had this great idea of putting money in the balloons. I started filling all the balloons with a few coins, until he informed me that only a couple of balloons should have money, so that it would be a surprise. We seriously bumped heads on this one. I think in the end my stubbornness won out over his. There might have been some trickery involved - I really can't remember.The kids got to eat Pop Rocks and do their own experiments with baking soda and vinegar:Of course, you have to have the exploding pinata:And the Mentos & Diet Coke volcano, meticulously rigged by my clever husband so that with one clip of a string, all the Mentos fell into the volcano at once, while the Coke was forced to shoot through a tiny hole, making the eruption last for what seemed like forever.But I think the biggest hit was the Ziploc bag catapult, originally discovered by Marshall in the high school lunchroom, using banana chunks. Apparently when you close a Ziploc bag just half-full with air and place anything (we used marshmallows) on one end, when you hit the opposite end with your hand you can send the objects sometimes 30 feet in the air. Very cool.