My Ten Year Old Scientist

So maybe not quite ten yet.  But we celebrated my smart not-so-little guy with lots of some of his favorite things to do...science stuff, with some of his favorite friends.

Some of the decorations to turn our home into a science lab.

Brain cupcakes for our smart not-so-little boy.

Basically, we just did a bunch of science experiments for the whole party. 

First, we did the Mentos-in-Diet-Coke geysers.  The boys all had their own two liter along with a pack of Mentos and they took turns making them explode.

Next, we tried an experiment called "elephant toothpaste".  It's supposed to foam up out of the bottle and keep the form of the bottle opening, looking like large toothpaste.  "Supposed to" being the key words.  It didn't work, so we quickly moved on.

Next we used our 'tried and true' volcano since we knew it would work.  The boys took turns making baking soda and vinegar lava come out of the volcano.

The next experiment was called "geological cupcakes".  I made two layered cupcakes (brown and white), added some sprinkles for a third layer, and then frosted them for the fourth layer.  The boys stuck a clear straw down through the cupcake and when they lifted it up, they could see the different layers of the cupcake.  They thought it was neat and enjoyed eating the cupcakes when they were done.



The biggest hit of the evening was probably making the tornadoes..two two-liter bottles, some water, and a bottle connector bought from Oriental Trading Company.  The boys kept coming back to these for the rest of the night to start up the tornadoes again.

Our next experiment was technically a flop as well, but the kids still enjoyed doing it.  And for the record, you can not use washable glue for the Borax/glue slime recipe.  The solution was really watery and lumpy when the kids mixed it at the party, but once it sat overnight, it was a rubbery solid substance that my kids ended up playing with for a while, so I guess it wasn't a total bust!

The last science activity we did was to make snow.  Really, we just mixed some "Instant Snow" particles with water and they swelled up and looked like snow.  We mixed them in test tubes and let the boys take their "snow" home.

When it was time for Christopher to open gifts, I put a chair in the middle of the room for Christopher and Leah pulled up a chair and sat next to him.  It was so cute.

Cake time!

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!