I had a lot of fun preparing for this party. Reuben turned nine and we celebrated with a bang! We conducted lots of exploding, flying, popping, and foaming experiments which boys of that age love. The invites were a free printable from here with some more free printables as embellishments for the envelope from here and here.
The party food was also a lot of fun to make. My husband (who helpfully is a doctor), carved a watermelon into a brain pattern and supplied some syringes which I set jelly inside (they were a huge hit)! We also had little “petri dish” jellys with sour worms set in them. I made eyeballs from babybel cheeses (instructions here), and periodic table pies from a Donna Hay Kids party magazine (homemade meat pies with pastry numbers and letters on them from the periodic table). I used some food colouring to colour some popcorn and made the mad scientists from Easy Party Cakes by The Australian Women’s Weekly.
The drinks were a “make your own” experimental concoction of different cool drinks with crazy swirly straws. The cake was the Volcano Vomitus from Cheat’s Cakes by The Australian Women’s Weekly.
For decorations I used some test tubes filled with coloured water, and some beakers filled with lollies with hobby fill “smoke” coming out of the top. I also used some gross items missing from certain family members (gallstones and wisdom teeth)!, as well as some dried out and preserved lizards Reuben had collected. I placed some toy snakes and lizards in some jars of coloured water to make them look like they were pickled, as well as some eyeball bouncy balls. My husband drew some scientific formulas (all those years at uni paid off) onto a chalk board and I printed out some periodic tables (from here).
The experiments were largely carried out on a plastic covered table outside to help contain the mess. Each child was given a jar in which to conduct their experiments. I tested some of the ones I wasn’t sure about ahead of time and had a surprisingly good time doing so! One of my favourites involved lighting a piece of paper and dropping it inside a glass bottle and then placing a peeled hard boiled egg on the top of the bottle and watching it get sucked inside! Lighting up empty teabags and watching them turn into rockets (instructions here) was my other favourite. Also popular with the kids, were the vinegar volcanoes (pictured above), and the elephant toothpaste (instructions here).
We also had fun with diet coke and mentos and the skittle experiment (where you make a ring of them on a plate and add a little water, to make a rainbow pattern).
This party was a lot of fun to put together and held the attention of this age group beautifully. The boys looked gorgeous in their safety glasses with their studious engrossed mad scientist faces!
The party bags contained some glow sticks and some weird sour lollies. My husband was able to source me some biohazard bags which were perfect as party bags.
Do you have a favourite science experiment?