Happy birthday Tallulah!
Setting up for the party was fun.
The colors were hot pink, blue and... aqua I guess you'd call it? So everything coordinated with that.
My son Tanner was allowed to invite a friend so he wasn't surrounded by only girls. He and his friend Miles were getting nosey before the girls arrive. They were dying to dig into the candy but they were patient and waited.
We got a bunch of those tissue pom poms to hang from the ceiling. Oy they take forever to put together! But they're so cute and fun that it's worth it. And you can still use them after your event. After Tallulah's party I hung them up in her bedroom. They are still there a year later and still look brand new.
I also brought a Halloween prop up from the basement to add to the mad science theme...
I set up a mad science candy bar for take-home goodies.
I bought some customized M&Ms for the party. I used Lula's photo, a mad scientist image I found on the internet and some phrases. They turned out really neat! But god they are such an over-priced rip off. But... they're so darn fuuuuuun! I have been $tupid enough to buy them for birthday parties going all the way back to her first birthday.
I purchased some test tubes from a kids science supply website and put the M&Ms in them.
Also got some Jelly Belly beans in her colors and put them in test tubes. I used the same clip art from the M&Ms and I printed it out and attached with double sided tape.
And the gummy brains. Gummie brains are hard to find in June so I bought them off of a candy wholesaler online. The petri dishes were purchased from the same website as the test tubes, and the same clip art and double sided tape.
Other take-home goodies to be used during the party were the nerdy glasses. Can't be a scientist without just a little bit of nerd. I got these off of eBay- a big box of 20 of them from a eBay seller in Germany. Apparantly last year "nerd raves" were all the rage in Germany and vendors sold these in bulk for very cheap. I got them for less than a dollar each. There were also glowsticks as take home goodies. I bought a ton of them the previous year a day or two after Halloween at Walmart where they were marked down to 25¢ each. I didn't know exactly what I was buying them for at the time, but they sure worked out well for this party!
The invites were designed by a vendor on etsy. She designed them and emailed me the file and I printed them out on cardstock.
Some photos of the cupcakes. Tallulah wanted my homemade cakes (the famous "oreo cake" my friends all know and love) instead of a fancy decorated layer cake from the local wedding cake place. I had so much fun making these all different! Plus thank goodness- the cheapest cake from that lady is $70! But so damn worth it which is why I always went back there.
What good is a mad science party without some bubbling mysterious liquids inside a bunch of huge glass beakers??? No good I tell you! So we filled a bunch of them up with colored water and dropped in pellets of dry ice. It helps to be besties with a retiring science teacher who will loan you however many glass vials, test tubes and beakers you need because otherwise you will spend a fortune on them.
I kept a styrofoam cooler full of the dry ice pellets in the sink and dropped them in as the other ones melted so they bubbled and smoked for the whole party.
Yay the guests have all arrived!!! Tallulah is the tall one in the middle. She is the youngest of all her friends but the tallest! When you're mom is 5'10" and your dad is 6'5" you are not going to be a shortie! They girls couldn't wait to get into those nerd glasses. And I just freaking LOVE how Grace and Sara put them over their regular glasses!!!
Tah-dah!
First order of business was lunch. We had pizza and sodas outside on the deck. It was such a gorgeous day!
After lunch we came back inside for the first science experiment. We put on our rubber lab aprons (kinda look like Dexter aprons...) and made "flubber." There are a zillion recipes for flubber on the internet and they're all basically the same.
If you've never made it you are really missing out. It was COOL! It turns from a liquid into a goopy slime in seconds. It was awesome. The girls faces were priceless.
Even Mr. Bones put on his apron and glasses.
Next it was cake time! Candles were lit, "Happy Birthday" was sung.
Birthday girl picked hers out first then everyone picked theirs. Then "let's put icing on our noses" suddenly became the thing to do.
I never thought Tanner and Miles would be the "normal ones" at any gathering!
The party is starting to wind down. We had one last activity for the day- Mentos/diet coke fountains. So we all headed into the backyard. And if you've never done Mentos fountains either... you are missing out. It was really fun.
It was a really nice day and everyone had so much fun! I looked on the internet for mad scientist parties and found a ton of great ideas- and came up with quite a few of my own. I will add links below for anyone who might like to do some of the things that I did for Tallulah's party.
Tissue paper pom poms: www.ebay.com
Nerd glasses: www.ebay.com
Glow sticks: Walmart
Invitations: www.etsy.com
Dry ice: google "dry ice" near where you live. I live in a small town but there was a dry ice vendor about 30 minutes away. My science teacher friend told me a trick to keep the pellets frozen overnight. Bring a styrofoam cooler and a junky old towel with you when you go to pick it up. Have them fill up the cooler and place the towel directly on top of the ice, then put the lid on *tight*. The men who worked there warned me that the pellets would be gone by morning but I told them that I had a friend who INSISTED this would keep them intact. And it did!!!
Flubber recipe: FLUBBER!
Test tubes, petri dishes, Mentos fountain: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com
Customized M&Ms: Personalized M&Ms Register on their website. Every so often they send out coupon codes via email.
Gummie brains: BRAINZZZZZ!
If I left anything out, feel free to ask in the comment section and I'll try to get you info.
