Mad Scientist Birthday Party

 We had the boys' 6th Birthday Party today.  It was a couple of hours of somewhat organized chaos.  But I think the kids all had fun and the adults were all exhausted.  We had the kids in 5 different centers doing different "science" kind of things.  I didn't get good pictures of each of the experiments - but I think I captured the chaos and Ryan and Luke's excitement.

 

 The planning began several weeks ago.  Most of the ideas came from various blogs, as well as, www.stevespangler.com I was able to borrow some shade tents from people at school, which helped us deal with the 90 degree heat.  We were up early this morning getting everything organized and set up.

 

 Nana was enlisted to help the kids create their own lava lamps.

 Stephanie helped the kids make their own slime.  This was a perfect experiment for a former 3rd grade teacher.  She handled it with lots of patience and the kids loved it.  Ryan really enjoyed mixing his glue and water together.

 Luke loved making the elephant toothpaste.  Greg manned this messy station, along with enlisting the help of a dad of one of their preschool friends.

 

 I think Ryan is making insta-snow in this picture with Grandma, and Grandad is in the background helping the kids with the swirling colors of milk.

 

Not sure what Luke is doing here, but he was pretty excited about it.

  

 Greg had quite an audience with the Liquid Nitrogen.  He was somewhat scary with some of his demonstrations, but fortunately nobody was injured.  The kids love it.

 

Greg and his longtime childhood friend, Jeff, had a blast making the liquid nitrogen ice cream.  They both have degrees in chemistry, so it was right up their ally.  The only other experiment that I failed to photograph was of the Mentos and Diet Coke - the kids really loved that.

I told the boys that Iwould make them each cupcakes of their choice.  Ryan chose the Hostess/Fauxtess  Cupcakes.  Luke chose these Banana Split Cupcakes.  We also had punch with dried ice to add to the mad scientist effect.

 

 Party favors were some of the experiments that the kids could take home; as well as, a test tube of nerds and a beaker shaped decorated cookie.

 

We had a great time, but I don't know if we will be willing to tackle such a big party again. It is made worse in that we have 2 kids in 2 separate classes with 2 sets of friends.  But that is part of having twins and we don't want to jip either boy because of that.  We'll see what happens next year - I can't believe that they'll be 7 at that time - I can hardly handle them turning 6!