Marbles and Your Space Themed Family Reunion

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Aunt Mo

Marbles Make Great Planets

These are not marbles, they are planets. Each marble represents a planet (yes, we included Pluto) and will be given to older children at our space reunion as they complete planet oriented challenges and activities.

At one time, you could purchase marbles that represented each planet but I could only find Earth marbles and Jupiter marbles. For the other planets, I had to search for marbles that in some way highlighted a distinguishing feature of each planet. I choose red Rooster marbles to represent the “red planet” Mars and because Neptune is the coldest planet due to its proximity to the sun, I choose Ice Queen marbles.

I purchased my marbles from a local toy store and paid $3.25 a bag (24 marbles and 1 shooter). When I searched online, I found marbles for $3.50 a bag plus shipping.

Shooter marbles are the large ones used for “shooting’’ when playing marbles. There is one in each bag, so I’m currently looking for a good resource and price for 1 inch shooters. I’ll let you know when I find them.

I loved playing marbles as a kid and so we plan to teach and play marbles with our kids at the end of our planet fun.

Marble planets are going to be great for the older children at your family reunion but for the toddlers you might want to consider these Universe Stress balls. They’re $9.99 at Oriental Trading for all 9 balls.

Universe Stress Balls Audio Thumbnail

Bottle Rockets- an “Out of This World” Reunion Activity

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Aunt Mo

When I decided on a space theme for our 2020 family reunion, there were two activities I was sure I wanted to do. The first was moon stilts (I’ll write that bog when I get some good photos) and the second, was water bottle rockets.

Our family has a big party every Independence Day and one our traditions is making and launching water bottle rockets. We invite all of our guests to make a water bottle rocket and bring it to the party but, for our reunion, I’ll bring the supplies, poster board, duct tape, markers and bottles and let reunion goers make their rockets on site.

Basically, to build a bottle rocket, you start by rolling a piece of paper into a cone shape and attach it to the bottom of an empty 1 or 2 liter plastic bottle. To help your rocket fly, you need to cut out 4 cardboard triangles to make your rocket fins. (There are lots of videos on YouTube to walk you through this process.)

At our Independence Day party, our seasoned rocket builders come up with some pretty creative designs for their rockets . Most add parachutes to soften the landing and some even include small, plastic toys that they send into space. No matter what the design, spectators love to watch the rockets blast off and their landings can be quite exciting.

For safety reasons, we only let adults operate the launcher. We have a homemade launcher and one we purchased from Amazon. Both work great but, keep in mind when planning your reunion, that you need to have a water source and hose available to fill the rockets with water.

AquaPod Bottle Launcher

At our reunion this year, we will give prizes for best design, most unusual design and most creative design. We will also give an award to the rocket that stays in the air the longest which we will determine by timing with a stopwatch on our phones. At our Independence Day parties, that award has been won by my son in law for the last 4 years. He’s a very talented engineer and his rocket designs are quite impressive and fun to watch.

Space Camp Family Reunion

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Aunt Mo

Name Badge Designing

My favorite part of planning a family reunion is designing the name badges, invitations, water bottle labels and anything else that gives me a chance to be creative. I decided to create my name badge first and hopefully, in the process, come up with some sort of logo for the entire reunion theme.

The challenge with this name badge is that I can’t use copywrited images. At some point I’ll add a Space Camp reunion theme to my store and I can’t do that if I use copywrited materials. That means I can’t use anything NASA and that really makes this space camp theme difficult.

I’ve been playing around with some ideas but haven’t settled on a favorite. Take a look at my rough drafts.

I like the simplicity of this name badge but I’m not sure it would be that exciting for the kids in our family. I don’t know if I like the “Space Camp” logo on the top or the bottom of the badge.

Here’s an example of the logo at the top with “space camp” on the planet- I really like that.

This is my attempt at adding an astronaut to the badge- since we’ll be “astronauts in training”. Just not sure I have the “right” astronaut.

I don’t think I’ve nailed down the right name badge yet. If you have a comment or a suggestion, let me know.

Out of This World Family Reunion

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Aunt Mo

Coming in 2020

Image result for planets

My family is in charge of our Stewart family reunion this year. It’s been 5 years since my family has had this responsibility. (The Stewarts rotate each year and now it’s rotated back to us!) I’m excited to take our turn again but already a little tired and yes, I’ve started planning.

I had an idea… how would you like to follow us along as we plan this new reunion. Check out our progress and maybe find a few good ideas for your reunion too.

The very first thing we did was choose a theme and the theme for this reunion is TA DA- Our Family is Out of This World, a space theme. We felt that a space theme would go along with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Also; three family members worked on the Space Shuttle, when there was a Space Shuttle program, including the patriarch of our family. Besides the picture below, we also have a photo of Grandpa with an astronaut that we will enlarge for display at the reunion.

We already have the date for our reunion, Labor Day, and the location, a campground and we’ve told everyone to “save the date” so now it’s time to start gathering ideas.

I like to keep a file of all my ideas and a great way to do that is on Pinterest. I created a Space board and add every good idea I find to that board. I like to get as many quality ideas as I can for the next couple of months and then we’ll choose our favorite ideas and start putting together a schedule.

Take a look at these fun ideas:

This solar system necklace is so cool. It would be a great idea for an ice breaker activity as family members arrive or for some down time on a hot afternoon. The idea comes from https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/make-a-stellar-solar-system-necklace/

Make a Stellar Solar System Necklace

We also need to turn our name badges into “astronaut in training” badges.

NAME-BADGE-HALLOWEEN-COSTUME-PROP-NASA-ASTRONAUT-IN-TRAINING-MAGNETIC-BACK

I thought these signs would look cool on the bathroom doors. They’re from catchmyparty.com.

Family members have asked if we can do a murder mystery (I’ve written several for our reunions and they’re lots of fun) and a talent show, two activities I need to get to work on so I don’t have that last minute cram the month before our reunion. (I really don’t like that)

I hope you’ll check back often and see how the planning is going. I’ll keep posting our planning and progress and hey, if you have a fun “space” idea, let me know!

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