Braden's Science Party

Braden picked out this robot cake after looking at TONS of them in magazines and on the internet. We think it turned out great! He had a science themed party and it fit right in.

We've always done 'at home' (free...homemade) parties and personally that's my preference. Growing up my mom did the same thing and I have fond memories of all the fun games we played. A couple months ago a groupon came up for a great deal on a 'mad science' party where someone would come to the house and do 6 experiments over an hour then let the kids make something to take with them (Braden chose slime). After talking it over with Brian we decided it would be an AWESOME gift for Braden (our science lover) and he would love it. I kept it a secret from him until a couple days before and only told him because I wanted him to pick a 'science' themed cake. I told him he was going to have 'the best party ever' and it was something he loved...he couldn't wait to find out!

our precious birthday boy

this is dr. al who came to do the party!

It truly was AMAZING!! I wasn't sure what to expect and didn't know how informative it would be but the kids really learned a lot! Dr. Al explained each experiment in detail discussing acids, bases, polymers, safety, and way more than I can remember. He was awesome with the kids and always encouraged them to come up with a hypothesis and then discussed the outcome and why/how things worked.

In the picture on the left he's holding a ziploc bag full of water above braden's (aka Dr. Monkey) head. He poked holes in the bag by sliding two pencils in it demonstrating that the pencils blocked the water from coming out.

The pictures on the right are my REAL $100 bill going up in flames. Gotta admit this one made me nervous! He asked us for a $5 or $10 but I never have cash. I happened to have a $100 and that got Dr. Al super excited to do this experiment. He put it in liquid (that at the time I thought was water...and I stared horrified) then held the lighter up to it and lit it on fire. I couldn't believe it and was nervous but Brian kept saying it would be fine. Turns out the liquid was alcohol and the fire dried the previously dripping money then went out.


He also did an experiment with two balloons. He held the flame underneath the first one and it popped and flew off. The second one sat with the flame under it but never popped. The kids were able to guess that the second balloon had a tiny bit of water in it. They were CAPTIVATED the whole time....glued to each experiment.

There was another experiment where he turned water pink then blew bubbles into the glass for a LONG time until the water turned back clear again...everyone was amazed at this and thought it was cool:).

And one of Braden's favorites was one where he turned a piece of 'paper' into ash. There were a couple more...and it was SO great! The kiddos all loved it and I heard from parents that they were talking about it a lot when they got home. Braden definitely loved it and I was ready to hire the man to be our science teacher! I'm not so great with the experiments (that's daddy's department) but this guy had so many ideas I would never think of and knew/taught all the proper science lingo.

the 'scariest' thing he did was a demonstration of baking soda and vinegar (but talked about everything as acids/bases/and proper scientific names until the end of each experiment when he gave the 'household' names). he had them inside a 'rocket' and asked the kids to count backwards from 10. when they did there was a LOUD POP (which made everyone jump) and it flew up.

after all the experiments the kiddos made slime to bring home. next up was robot cake!

chocolate...at braden's request! he's my chocoholic:)

Braden was thrilled with all of his gifts! Bryce got him a gift card to Target so Braden could pick something out and later I heard Braden say to Cailey, "I get to spend whatever I want to in the store because it's a gift card:)" I think he's confusing it with credit card...he doesn't get many gift cards and his super excited to use it! He got a great LEGO set from Kellen with three cars to make and is saving it for his next playdate so they can build them together.


Harrison and Jackson got him a lego set and a giant nerf gun. Caden got him a nerf gun and nonny got him a nerf gun. Braden's friends all have them and he has been asking for one since after Christmas so he was THRILLED to get some! Nonny didn't understand why he needed more than one but you can't play with it easily by yourself and we've had a blast having family nerf gun wars! His two requests when asked what he wanted were legos and nerf guns...but he would always add...I like Star Wars and Transformers too:).

Braeden got him a star wars trouble game...
braden loves star wars and games so this was perfect!

Braden had such a great time at his party and loved being able to have most of his friends spend it with him! We HIGHLY recommend Mad Science parties (if you have a big coupon:)!