By now you all know that I go a tad bonkers for the kid's birthday parties. I've given up apologising for this, I can't help it, it makes me happy and my kids happy so we've made our peace with it!
Ol decided he wanted to have a science themed birthday party for his sixth birthday after they had a science morning at school. Our little guy loves experiments so I was mad keen but I just couldn't justify the pricey packages offered by local science party entertainers. Never one to shy away from a DIY party I was pretty sure I could just buy a jumbo bottle of hydrogen peroxide and keep the kiddos amazed by myself.
The cake was a science experiment in itself. With gravity defying beakers of green and blue slime oozing down onto the cake, a Katherine Sabbath inspired chocolate bark explosion in the background and lots of bubbling goodness, I think I kept it pretty simple...
I applied a liberal dose of green across the party as it is Ol's favourite colour and naturally it is the colour of the grossest of the science experiments, SLIME!
Party bags weren't too over the top with just popping candy and a bubblegum eyeball as well as a balloon and a spinning top. The best bit was a little book of science experiments I put together so the guests could recreate the fun when they got home.
I tried to be as organised as I could with the experiments before the party kicked off because I knew that once I had a house of screaming kids it would be hard get it all organised. Our fizzy balloons (see recipe below) were all set up and put out of harms way before the party started. I also had liquids measured out in plastic beakers so they were ready to rock with each experiment. I thought I had it all completely under control but in the madness I forgot to get the yeast for the elephant's toothpaste out of the freezer. Thankfully the kids were too hyped to notice my quick sprint back into the house.
When it was time for our guests to arrive they found a lab coat, safety goggles and identification tags all laid out waiting for them. The goggles and the ID might have been designed to make our guests look gorgeous in the photos (and they did!) but the lab coats were a complete necessity. I couldn't quite believe how incredibly filthy they managed to get.
Once kitted out in their laboratory gear the kiddos hung out on the rug playing "make a molecule", which involved them making sculptures out of styrofoam balls and toothpicks. My original plan was to use grapes but our practice run with these resulted in some seriously sticky fingers. When you're having a science experiment party you've got to try and minimise some mess if possible.
Soon it was time for the real fun - the experiments!
First up was ELEPHANT'S TOOTHPASTE:
- pour 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide (6%) into a large plastic bottle
- add 8 drops of food colouring
- add 1 tablespoon of washing up liquid and swish it around
- in a cup combine 3 tablespoons of warm water and 1 tablespoon of yeast
- mix it around for about 30 seconds
- pour the yeast mixture into the bottle and get ready for some foamy fun!
FIZZY BALLOONS
- carefully pour 1/2 cup of vinegar into a small empty water bottle
- use a funnel to half fill a balloon with baking soda/bicarb soda
- stretch the balloon over the neck of the bottle without letting any of the soda into the bottle
- ready? pull the balloon up so that the baking soda falls into the vinegar
SLIME
This was the best. Not only did it feel squishingly amazing, but the kiddos got to make something to take home with them as well.
- fill a small cup with water and add a spoonful of borax and stir
- in another cup add about 2.5 cm of white craft glue
- add 4 tablespoons of water and a few drops of food colouring to the glue and stir
- add 1 tablespoon of the borax mixture to the glue and stir well
- after 30 seconds you should have some seriously goopy slime
and we finished off with our very own VOLCANO!!!!
This was only a few seconds of fun on the day but we got a fair bit of value out of making the paper mache volcano in the days leading up to the party. Can you say school holiday project??
We tried a few different versions of this experiments with different levels of success.
Basically we made a paper mache volcano around a plastic soft drink bottle. If you're looking for ease you can just skip the volcano and use the bottle only.
- in the bottle add a few spoonfuls of baking soda, a spoonful of water, a spoonful of dish soap and a couple of drops of red food colouring.
- when you are ready for show time just pour a cup of vinegar into the volcano and watch the eruption.
So much fun was had. The kids loved having some real hands on silliness. Was it over the top messiness? Hell yes!!! I just wish we had a backyard at the time so we could have set off a bunch of diet coke and mentor geysers!!!
