Ethan turns 9! {A Mad Scientist Party}

 We have officially entered into Ethan's final year in the single digits.  I can honestly say that it has been an amazing 9 years of watching him grow into his own person.  He had a really hard time deciding on a theme until we looked at this one.  Ohhh, the excitement!  He wanted one last themed party (because this mom is getting tired!) and he wanted to go out with a bang.  I by bang, I mean make things explode!

This party was a lot of fun to put together and actually really simple because most of the experiments use things that are laying around the house.  I bought some fun artwork and got to work on designing his invitation and started pinning ideas from other people's science parties. . . thanks Pinterest!  We stocked up on glue and pencils during back to school sales, which saved us a lot of money. 

 We had the party in the early evening so we could set up outside.  We ended up with some great weather this year and the shade made it so nice in the backyard.  Also, the triple digits took a break for the party, so that was so nice.  We ordered a bunch of pizza from Dominos to feed these hungry 9 year olds.  I thought they would eat more, but they were having so much fun, they only ate a little!  Crazy boys!  We also had rice krispy treat molecules,  sugar cookies, jello and candy.  Ethan wanted ice cream sandwiches for dessert. . . so easy!

 The set up outside was fun.  I had coloring sheet, safety glasses, glow sticks, pencils, and crayons. We had corn hole set up for the kids to play while Ethan's friends arrived.  The kids invented a new game called "full contact corn hole" because 9 year old boys. 

While they ate pizza, they made their name tags by putting their finger prints in the box and writing their name in the rectangle.  Then, we safety pinned them to their shirts to make them official scientists. 

We also did some science mad libs.  (BTW, read pussy - as in Puss-y. . . it looks way bad when you don't know).  And again.  9 year old boys (and a girl. .  who threw in some fart and poopy comments just as much as the boys!). 

 Can I just say Dry Ice is amazing!  We put it in the punch and did a few experiments with it.  Oh, the excitement!  The Punch was just Blue Hawaiian Punch, Pineapple Juice, and 7-Up.  The kids drank it like it was the most magical thing in the whole world! 

 We kicked off the experiments with Diet Coke and Mentos.  The looks on their faces says it all.  I mean, how cool is exploding diet coke? 

 More Dry Ice.  We put it in a big bowl of water and talked about the states of matter.  (Shh. . . these third and fourth graders may have learned something. . . insert evil cackle here).   Then we put some dawn in it and watched it bubble.  This was kind of mind blowing for them. 

 Then, we made flubber with some glue, water, and borax.  I know that some people are super scared of the stuff, but there really isnt anything to be scared of. . . unless you eat it or sniff it like one would do to get high.  I talk about it here in this post.  Flubber is super easy because you pour some glue in a container, and then add some water with borax already mixed in.  Then it gets stirred for a bit. . . the reaction is instant. Once it's solid and slimy, you just knead it together and it cleans up itself.  It's really amazing.  We let them pick their own colors.

 The next activity involved more candy.  Really, I am sure these parents hated me once they got home.  They made molecules out of gum drops, marshmallows, and toothpicks using these printables.  Again. . . they may have learned something (oops!).  These two are showing off their salt molecules.

I had a paper bag for each kid that had all they could put their stuff inside.  That made it easy for them when they went home and it also helped us go from one activity to another. 

 The last activity we did was Elephant Toothpaste and that was also a lot of fun and possibly mind blowing.  It's amazing what some dish soap, water, and yeast will do! 

 These kids were so much fun!  I am so thankful Ethan has made some great friends.  And this party was so much fun!  We finished it off with ice cream sandwiches, presents and basketball.  By the end of the night everyone was a hot, sweaty mess, but we had so much fun!
As the kids left, we sent them off with a bottle of glue and the directions to make no-fail slime (the contact solution kind).

So, this party was so much fun to do.  The boys are still talking about it! Now to start looking up ideas for Weston's birthday.