Mom

Andrea Blumberg

My mom didn't want to have a big party for her 70th birthday, so I wanted to make it special in another way. I knew that one thing she really likes is microscopy, so I drew some pictures on Shrinky Dink film, shrunk them down to microscopic size, and hid them around her house. Her birthday is the 26th, so I started the hunt on the 1st, and each day she would get a clue as to where to find the next slide, 26 slides in all.

One of the slides before and after shrinking:

Some bits of the slides through the microscope:

Part of the colored bit

Another colored bit

Part of the final fireplace image

Another part of the final fireplace image

Hidden somewhere on each slide was one of these squares of scribbles:

Each day she would find a slide and copy out the scribble onto a piece of paper. Then the final slide, instead of having a scribble, had clues as to how to assemble all the pieces to make a final picture.

The present was hidden in her fireplace (no fire blazing in it, fortunately). It was a stuffed penguin and tickets to a behind-the-scenes, "play with the penguins" visit to the Camden Aquarium (another thing she really likes is penguins).

All the slides (click photo to enlarge. It may take a while, it's a large photo):