Violet turned eight last weekend! I vaguely remember turning eight, maybe simply because there is a picture of me sick in bed blowing out the candles on my cake, pitiful I know...but also, I think, it's because eight is such a big year. It's a year in which you become more independent, in all things...not just little things like tying your shoes and such, but bigger things too like crossing the street by yourself, going to the bathroom at a restaurant by yourself, making big kid friendships, reading chapter books for hours at a time, you know 8 year old stuff!
Every year, of course, she is excited for her birthday, but this year her excitement seemed different...more like she knew she was teetering on the edge of little kid to big kid. Each morning this month she would amble down the stairs, check the calendar and proclaim, "It's __ days till my birthday!"
And for this year's birthday party, she decided she wanted to have a "tinkering" party...
We had a ton of fun planning what kind of tinkering we were going to do, so much so that our initial list was way too long for a two hour party! But, after some editing...we came up with some fun tinkering stations...
We had a "nuts and bolts" table, with nuts and bolts and tools as well as some other odds and ends and scraps of wood with pre-drilled holes...
There was a build your own lego car table...
And once the cars were built the kids could either attach a straw & balloon for propulsion or affix a magnet onto the back and move the car along using a magnet wand.
Obviously one option was faster than the other, but it was challenging to get the right technique for each option...and then, of course there were car races too...
There was a mini zip-line (similar to this) that kids worked on using bobbins, paper clips, fishing weights, buttons and more...this took quite a lot of tinkering to get to work, but super fun when it did! We have pvc pipes, blankets, logs and more for fort building...
And lastly, there was a super fun, yet quite difficult game that the kids made up that consisted of a magnet on a pulley and you adjusted the length of the pulley string to help you aim the magnet at the numbers on the board...
Goodie bags were filled with mini gear erasers, handmade (by Violet) gear necklaces, handmade chocolate tool candies, and then whatever goodies the kids made while they were here...
The table was covered in craft paper, pencils and graph paper too, in case someone had a design urge during lunch, of course there were lots of little tools too, on the cupcakes and cookies too!
I'm pretty sure fun was had by all, but I do know for sure that Violet was thrilled with the way it all turned out...
Oh and this year's traditional birthday dress...turned into a tee instead due to the tinkering theme...
The shirt is the new trinity tee pattern from rock the stitch and Violet loves it!
Everything about it!
The graph paper inset is leftover from Henry's backpack (Schematic fabric from Carolyn Friedlander). I had just enough, well nearly just enough...thus the little orange flannel at the tip, which is actually pretty perfectly suited anyhow for this shirt and Violet couldn't be happier about it!
The tiny shoulder pleats...
the high-low hem, the 3/4 length sleeves...It all got high marks from Violet!
There will surely be more of these trinity tees in the future! It really is the perfect eight year old tee!
