A Bon Voyage Birthday

Jake's birthday isn't until July, but we let him have a party super early this year, so more of his friends could come. This year it seemed especially important to make sure his friends could celebrate with him, since its almost time to say goodbye. We had his fete at one of those indoor kids play places (on a beautiful, sunny, summery day of course), and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I made goody bags for all, and included little favors that marked both Jake's birthday and his departure. He designed the bags and assisted with making some of the contents.
Here's what we came up with:

Jake wanted red drawstring bags with black ribbons for the boys and yellow bags with white ribbons for the girls. I made a total of 25 of them, assembly-line style, over the course of a week and a half or so, using my favorite simple drawstring bag tutorial from Skip to My Lou. I made chocolate lollipops using the same molds and sticks and stuff I had left over from Charlie's party in the fall. (The chocolate was not left over. There is never left over chocolate in this house.) I printed out some stickers that I made with the American flag and the Union Jack and stuck those on the wrappers.

I made tattoos using printable tattoo paper. The girls got Rosie the Riveter (whose speech bubble I changed from "We Can Do It!" to "Girls Rule.") The boys each got their names in a sort of comic strip/super-hero-y looking benday bubble that I lifted off of the internet. I included a little piece of paper with instructions for applying the tattoos, and stuck each one in a little glassine envelope.
Charlie models his tat below.

For the goodbye portion of the program, I got a pad of airmail paper and had Jake self-address an envelope for each bag. We stamped them (a dollar and five cents now to send a letter to the UK-ouch!) and included a little printed card inside each asking his friends to please write to him this summer. He promised to write to them too, and report back on life in England. We also included a blank vintage air mail postcard in each bag, just for fun and to keep with the theme. To write the letters (and whatever else they want), each kid got a pencil with "Happy Birthday Jake!" printed on it. I didn't make those; I ordered them from Miles Kimball.

Finally, I couldn't resist making bath bombs with "BOMB VOYAGE JAKE" stickers to seal the bags. Each kid got two bombs (they were kind of small). I listed the ingredients on another sticker, and was sure to avoid using any nut oils to make this batch, since several kids in Jake's class are allergic. I also skipped colorants, but I did used oils of lavender, lemon and clary sage (not all together). I hope Jake's friends don't think they're too smelly or girly. My boys love them. I used the recipe I like for water softening fizzies from the Teach Soap website.
Charlie couldn't wait for the party-I had to give him his bag early.

I probably went a little overboard on the whole handmade goody bag thing, but I wanted to make something memorable. Jake loves his buddies so much. They're a super sweet gang of kids, and I know he'll miss them a lot.

Bombs Away!

Nothing jazzes up a plain old tub of water like a colorful, fizzy, smelly bath bomb. I used to buy them every once in a while from Lush, as a treat for my boys. They love the cheap thrill that comes from watching the baking soda/citric acid combo bubble up in the water; to them it looks like some kind of chemistry experiment gone awry-one that might impart upon the bather amazing and unexpected super powers. In reality they just make the boys smell like they spent the night trapped in a brothel, which I always found to be an unfortunate side effect of the bath bomb experience.

Fortunately, bath bombs are very easy to make, and most of the ingredients required can be purchased in your local grocery and/or drugstore. Citric acid might be the exception. I bought mine online from Brambleberry, which is also where I buy my supplies for making cold process soap. My challenge in making the batch shown here was finding a natural colorant. Every recipe I've seen for bath bombs calls for regular food coloring, but my family recently started the Feingold diet, which excludes (among other things) artificial colors of any kind. So I decided to try using beet juice as my colorant, which resulted in the bombs you see above.

With my ingredients at the ready, I adapted the "Water Softening Fizzy" recipe from the Teachsoap website, substituting the beet juice for the water. I used avocado oil where the author used grapeseed and almond oils, and I used just one teaspoon of lavender oil rather than the two teaspoons the recipe called for.

First I thoroughly mixed my dry ingredients (1 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup citric acid, 1/2 cup corn starch) together. Be sure to mix them slowly and carefully to avoid kicking up a lot of dust.

I put my remaining ingredients (2 1/2 tablespoons of avocado oil, 3/4 tablespoon beet juice, 1 teaspoon lavender oil, 1/2 teaspoon of Borax) into another bowl.

I mixed these together well til they created a nice emulsion.

I don't have a photo of the next step because it required two hands, and Henry is never around with my camera when you need him. While pouring the liquid into the dry ingredients with one hand, I used the other to squish everything together. I knew I was done when the mixture was uniformly pink.

For a mold I just used my 1/3 measuring cup, which yielded exactly five bombs. I packed the mixture into the cup tightly, then turned it upside down onto a lined cookie sheet and tapped it out.

Lastly, I spritzed the bombs with a light but all around misting of witch hazel. I'll leave them to dry overnight, and tomorrow I'll flip them and spritz the other side. The witch hazel somehow forms a protective seal that prevents the bombs from cracking or crumbling. I'm glad I cut the amount of essential oil in half, because, as much as I love lavender, the scent is plenty strong.

And here they are once more, looking like delicious confections. Which means I better stick them high up on a shelf to dry, where little candy thieves won't be able to find them.