One of the items on sale at the Gardner School auction was spending an evening with other parents and the most excellent science teacher, Jared, making explosiony things and drinking rum-based beverages. Naturally, I signed up.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2017 challenge. Here’s the full list. Click on the photos for a closer look!

Our theme was “rum and rockets,” and both were in ready supply. We concocted several kinds of beverage, including some foggy Kraken courtesy of Ken, who brought dry ice to the party. We spent most of our time trying to make a matchstick rocket fly as far as we could. I believe we reached 16 feet.

In addition to the dry ice, Ken also brought a 2-liter soda bottle, which makes for a nasty trick. Fill ⅓ with solid CO2, ⅓ with water, seal as tightly as you can, and leave it in an uninhabited area for about an hour, or until you hear a loud bang. If you’re lucky, and you have a big tractor tire to contain the blast, you’ll find about half of the bottle afterwards.

When I rode my bike to the event (the school is only about 2 miles from our house), I thought I was being smart (did I mention there was rum?), but coming home at 9pm I realized my mistake. There’s a ¼-mile stretch of road where there isn’t a bike lane, and an unlit pathway in our neighborhood that’s kind of treacherous. Fortunately I got some help with the first, and didn’t get lost in the second, so everything turned out fine.

I had a great time, and made some friends that night. If you have kids that go to school, consider putting something like this together, it’s a ton of fun.