Bubble Games

First off, as an icebreaker, set up a bubble blowing area with lots of tools and a few containers of bubble solution. Make sure you've got extra bubble mixture for later bubble games and activities.

Bubble Designs: Give each kid a piece of cardboard, construction paper or any other thick paper. Have a few containers with bubble solution and to each add a different water-based color (experiment first to see what works best with your bubble solution). Have one or more adults blow bubbles and tell kids to try and catch bubbles on their "canvas". As bubbles pop paint splatters to make a cool design (which is a great artistic gift to take home)!

Bubble Clouds: Get everyone standing in a circle with their bubble bottles and wands at hand. Choose birthday child as first to be in center of bubble ring. The kids have 30 seconds to blow bubbles at birthday child while she twists, jumps, rolls and does everything possible to avert touching bubbles. When time's up, have another guest enter ring and so on until everyone has had their turn. Make sure your camera is loaded before this game as photo opportunities here are awesome.

Bubble Popping: Choose three kids to be bubble blowers. Set a time limit and have them blow as many bubbles as they can while other kids race to pop bubbles. You can also use a bubble machine for this activity.

Bubble Hoop: Prepare a bucket-full of bubble solution and after it sets for at least a day (the longer better), pour it into a small kiddie pool. Place a hula hoop into pool and a small step stool in middle of hula hoop. Set a child on stool and then lift hula hoop up over child, as you do this a giant bubble will form around child. Have your camera ready to take pictures of child in bubble!! It's AWESOME!

Bubble Float: Designate a blowing area and separate kids into teams of 3-4. Get first team to stand and designate one of team members as Bubble Blower. Give Bubble Blower ten seconds to blow as many bubbles above heads of his team members. The object of this game is to keep bubbles floating by blowing upwards. While other groups are watching, have them count how long group keeps their bubbles in air without bubbles bursting. When last bubble bursts, it's next team's turn. The team that keeps their bubbles floating longest wins.

Bubble Contest: Give kids a few minutes to choose their bubble-blowing device from a box of bubble-blowing items you've arranged beforehand. You can also hand out bubble bottles so everyone is using same tool. Now, let's see who can blow biggest bubble, longest-lasting bubble. How about getting one bubble inside other with use of straws, and tiniest bubble, etc.

Biggest Lungs: To measure their lung capacity, have your guests take a deep breath and slowly blow through a straw on surface of a pan of solution, pulling straw up as they blow (the stronger their lungs, larger bubble will be).

Bubble Freeze: Make sure there's room in your freezer… Get kids to blow bubbles on a paper plate and then, before bubbles pop, put them in freezer and you'll all be amazed at how "cool" they come out.

3. Slow down and drive at speed limit. Cars use about 20% more fuel driving at 70 miles per hour than they do at 55 miles per hour.

4. Avoid using air conditioning whenever possible. Air conditioning reduces fuel economy by 10% to 20%. Use air ventilation system instead.

5. Don't drive with open windows when traveling at high speeds. Open windows on highway can reduce fuel efficiency by 10%. It's much better to use ventilation system.

6. Remove car racks and other items which make your car less aerodynamic when they're not being used. Leaving them on only makes your car less fuel efficient and costs you money.

7. There is no need to let your car idle. Even on cold mornings, cars don't need to idle more than 30 seconds. Newer cars are designed to be driven almost immediately and letting your car idle longer is a waste of gas.

8. It's more efficient to turn off your car and turn it on again than to let it idle for more than 45 seconds while waiting.

9. Remove all excess weight from your car. Many people use their car trunk as a storage space adding unneeded pounds to car's weight. This unnecessary weight reduces car's fuel efficiency by about 1% for every 100 lbs.

10. For most cars, higher octane gas is simply a waste of money. Regular unleaded (approx. 87 octane or so) is least expensive and what you should purchase. It's important to remember that octane is a measurement of how hard it is to ignite gas, not quality of gas. Purchase mid or high octane gas only if your engine pings, knocks or rattles when using regular unleaded fuel.