Jonathan's Birthday

Can you believe our little boy is eight?  Me, neither.

Since Benjamin made his appearance, Jonathan has had the choice of either having a family party, which he would share with Benjamin, or a small friend party on his own.  He chose a small friend party again this year, and he had four buddies over (just buddies from school this time.)

Over several months' discussion, we landed on the idea of a science party.  We were SO thankful for good weather on the day of the party so that we could have it outside!  We scheduled it while the younger kids were down for their naps.

Edit, Sept. 2013:  I'm adding links to the ideas that we used for the party.

I hope they help someone out there!

Mad scientist clip art

Here's some of the stuff that was waiting to be used in our experiments.  Almost everything was ordinary kitchen science stuff, and all the ideas were stolen copied from Pinterest.  I only used the ideas that looked doable, and I tested them all ahead of time.  I'm so glad I did.  Maybe it's the teacher in me, but it helped me so much to know exactly what to expect and to have everything measured out, as needed, before I had a bunch of wiggly little boys in front of me.  (No disrespect intended...I do enjoy wiggly little boys!)

Here are my two professors, waiting for guests to arrive.  Jeff managed to buy some dry ice, which you can see in the bottles, and we had a lot of fun with it.

Here are the boys checking out the dry ice.  I won't describe all the experiments that we performed, but if you look at the boys' expressions in the pictures that follow, you'll see that we had a lot of fun.

Each boy got his own "lab coat" and safety goggles.  The goggles were real, but the lab coats were men's T-shirts cut to be jackets, with "Associate Professor _____" name tags added. I found the lab coat and goggle idea here.

Here we're doing the tornado tube and fountain in a bottle, with and without food coloring and soap.  Look up Steve Spangler Science for ideas on this.

Jeff spontaneously decided to put the remainder of the dry ice into our fountain.  It was awesome.  The boys were delighted.

We found out later that Jonathan's buddy on the right thought that this was how he needed to look to truly be a "mad" scientist.  Ha!  I love how literal these kiddos can be sometimes!

This activity was blowing up a balloon with vinegar and baking soda.

Other experiments we enjoyed:  

Swirling milk colors - we did this at the table while guests were arriving.

Exploding sandwich bag, which everyone loved

Elephant toothpaste (I thought this was a dud, but the boys liked it.  Try it yourself and see what you think.)

I got off easy this year - Jonathan bought into my idea of a cookie cake.  We couldn't decide if it was a giant, bacteria-filled petri dish, or a molecule, or what, but it was yummy.  We also had gummy worms in Jello in (real) petri dishes, and Doreen brought some of her famous cookies.

Eight!!!

Waiting for the grand finale...Mentos in Diet Coke.  I goofed it up a couple of times before getting it right, but the boys were patient.  (Look this topic up on YouTube...you won't be disappointed.  Look it up even if you never plan on having science party.  :)  )

Jonathan's buddies were great guests and gave him some very sweet gifts, all of which he loved.  And even though his family was not at the party, his relatives and close family friends gave him some very special and thoughtful gifts, which he continues to enjoy!

The professors..."after."

Jeff and I had realized that Jonathan had outgrown his bike, even though Jonathan didn't think so.  We had been plotting to get him a "new" bike for weeks.  Jeff, the research king at our house, had been shopping online and scouting out Craiglist until he finally found the right bike.  We had a hard time keeping the bike a secret from Jonathan because we were so anxious to give it to him.  We could hardly wait for his birthday morning.  He didn't suspect a thing.

Here's our boy on his bike.  He had a really great birthday and said that he was overwhelmed by all the good things.  I hope he remembers it when he's older, because our sweet boy had a wonderful 8th birthday celebration.  We love you, Jonathan!