Rockets

This past weekend, we threw Owen a birthday party with some of his good pals. Before I get into the details of the party, I have to share a background story about rockets!

On Thursday evening, my Dad and Gianni arrived for a weekend visit. As I explained in a previous post, we celebrated Gianni's 13th birthday and Owen's 3rd birthday in OC a few weeks back. But like everything else I did this summer, I planned that party at the last minute and didn't give my Aunt Donna any time to shop for presents (of course I tried to say that gifts weren't unnecessary, but she wasn't having any of that!). So, soon after they arrived on Thursday night,the gifts were open. 3 year olds only have so much patience when presents are involved. My aunt gave Owen a couple of great toys (thank you!) and gave Gianni a model rocket kit!

We needed a few more supplies in order to build and launch the rockets, so Kris made a list and we purchased the goods on Friday afternoon. Friday night Kris and Gianni built a big rocket and on Saturday we had a test launch.

We had light winds on Saturday which made for an extra exciting test case because they had to "study" wind patterns and try to pick a strategic launch pad location (on the nearby elementary school field) with the hopes that the rocket would float back down on the field. They picked pretty well. We did two launches and both were successful. The rocket easily went 300-400 feet in the air and the wind carried it away from us by at least 300-400 yards. In fact, it landed outside the school grounds, at the park next door. The fun continued as Kris plotted out the best way to jump the fence to get the rocket back. The boys were luckier the second time as the rocket landed inside the park (barely!).

Because the launch was so successful, we thought we'd do a demonstration at Owen's birthday party. Our birthday party plan was pretty simple and basic. A couple of hours at the park with a picnic lunch, playground time, and cake. We figured we'd try the rocket launch and found cute and fairly safe foam rocket party favors to add to the theme. We weren't really sure how it would go, but we were pleasantly surprised. I'll save those details for the next post, and end this post with this final thought -thank you Aunt Donna for Gianni's great gift, thank you Gianni for sharing your rocket!