Total Eclipse of the Heart (and 85% of the Sun)

This past Monday (August 21, 2017) was the great "Eclipse Across America."  I remember first reading over a year ago that a total solar eclipse would be visible in the United States and thinking, "That's pretty cool," but not doing anything further with that information.  In retrospect, I don't know why Matt and I didn't look into making plans to go to SC back then.  We could have always cancelled our reservations later.  If we were smart, we would have made a reservation at the Disney Vacation Club Resort at Hilton Head and it wouldn't have even cost us anything out of pocket for our room.  We didn't think of it until the beginning of July and although we signed up to be put on the wait list, we knew it was a lost cause.  The more articles that were posted about the eclipse, the more excited and intrigued I became about this so I decided to take matters into my own hands and plan my own celebration.

I ordered (legit) eclipse glasses from Amazon.

I went to NASA's awesome eclipse website, https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/ and got information, ideas and downloadables like an invitation for Leah and Aaron to give to their friends and flyers.

One of many NASA flyers.

I told the kids we would have an eclipse slumber party.  Leah and Aaron invited their friends, Katelyn and Robby (also brother & sister) over for a sleepover on Sunday.  I had used the last of the space-themed birthday party decorations my friend Becky had given to me years ago and augmented them with a few new things to decorate our place.

I also got the kids activity books and space-themed pencils.

I found this "Craters of the Moon Cake" recipe on the Internet and Matt helped the girls make the cake.  I helped the kids design their own solar eclipse t-shirts using fabric markers and fabric paints.

The cake is like kitchen chemistry in a pan
(and is also very chocolaty).

.

Perhaps not Tim Gunn-worthy but
the kids were proud of their shirts.

After baking and crafts, we had planetary pizza (aka Papa John's pepperoni) for dinner then the kids played by themselves for awhile.  Then I broke out the Twister--Leah's been asking for that game for a while now--and it was on!

"Right foot where?!"

I kicked it up a notch by giving them glow sticks and
glow bracelets so they could play "Glow Twister."

After Twister they ran around the house using the glow sticks as wands and hexed each other using Harry Potter spells.  By 10 pm I had to bring it down a few notches because Matt has to wake up and leave for work ridiculously early in the morning.  He went to bed and the kids and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.  It was after midnight when I corralled them off to bed.

On Monday, eclipse day, the kids did their own thing in the morning.  Then they did their activity books for about 15-20 minutes and we had a light lunch.  At 1:00 pm it was time to move the party outside.

It was hot and very humid, which is why I waited until the start of the eclipse to bring them outside.  I set up a sun tent and had sidewalk chalk, Pop-Its and a Rube Goldberg rocket machine for them to play with during the event.  We also had sunscreen, cooling towels and lots of cold water to drink.

Katelyn, Leah, Aaron, and Robby anxiously waiting the eclipse.

"Aliens...oh, snap!"

"Houston, we have a problem!"

When the first glimpse of the eclipse started, everyone was really excited.  However, after about 15 minutes, the lack of sleep caught up with Robby (he only slept about 3 hours) and he just went home.  (His mom told me he went straight to bed and took a nap.)  Leah kept marveling how amazing it was and Katelyn and Leah couldn't believe there weren't more people outside to watch.  I texted Matt when it had started.  He was at work and we had bought a bunch of glasses so he could take them in to his office so everyone there could see the eclipse.  He was in a meeting for most of the time until he finally got frustrated, left the meeting and came back and put the glasses on the conference table.  Matt said once he did that and people saw he had glasses the meeting quickly adjourned so he got to see the peak of the eclipse (about 2:48 pm here).  As the eclipse went on here neighbors did come out and came by our set-up.  We let them borrow our glasses so they could see the eclipse safely.  One girl had made a pinhole viewer out of a cereal box so we all got to look through that, which was cool too.

It's hard to describe seeing the eclipse in person.  It's kind of like going to Yosemite or the Grand Canyon.  They are beautiful in pictures, but when you go see them in person with your own eyes, well, it's just something you have to experience.  We were not in the zone of totality so it didn't get dark here or cool off (unfortunately) but we did get about 85% coverage and I'm glad I got to see it in person.  I don't have the right kind of equipment to take a picture but I got one from the local news website to show what 85% eclipse looks like.  (Through the solar glasses the sun did look orange.)

Photo credit: WAVY.com Report It: jmsanderlin86

As soon as the peak occurred, Katelyn announced she was going home too, which I don't blame her.  We were all tired, hot and sweaty.  We cleaned up our outside stuff and gladly stepped into the refreshing air conditioner.  When the air conditioner wasn't enough to bring our core temperatures back down, we made a milkshake run.

"Mmm...chocolate milkshake."

So was it worth it--the planning, the expense, the melting outside, the lack of sleep?  Unequivocally, yes and here is why.

Seeing how excited and fascinated the kids were watching the eclipse occur was a great feeling.  And because we made such a big deal about it, they'll remember seeing it when they study it in school or when the next total solar eclipse comes to the U.S.  (Mark your calendars for April 8, 2024!)  I remembered seeing a few lunar eclipses but never a solar eclipse.  Now I can check that off my list.