Supernora

Some time early in the summer, we mentioned the possibility of a "planetarium" birthday party to Nora, who immediately leaped at the idea.  We said, "great" and then headed off for various family trips, figuring that since I'd seen a blog post on kids' birthday parties in the DC area that mentioned such a party, I'd nail down the details closer to her actual birthday.

But once we got in the birthday window, I discovered that planetarium shows are only about 30 minutes (birthday parties are generally at least 2 hours) and the place referenced in the blog, doesn't allow you to to bring in food, had nothing convenient nearby to facilitate a party, and didn't respond to my inquiries either way. I had a little more success with the Air & Space Museum, who will give private tours to members (and an annual membership is a great present for a budding astronomer!), has a conveniently located snack shop just outside its doors, and whose 230 seat planetarium runs 14 shows a day.

A membership was purchased, the tour arranged, and invites sent out. All we had left to do was get 18 tickets to the planetarium show, Journey to the Stars. Only the Einstein's Planetarium's computer system had some sort of glitch which wouldn't schedule showings after August 31st.

Fortunately, on the eve of Nora's birthday, the computer gods shined on us and so the next day, 12 kids, and six adults joined our docent Vince on a 1.5 hour tour highlighting air and space, a pretty cool show on the lifespan of stars, and some kid friendly snacks and space ice cream sandwiches (followed by a three hour playdate with a few friends afterwards at our house).

After which, we pretty much collapsed, like so many red giants before us :-)