Mad Science!

How about a little Mad Science?!

That's what we did for our son's 8th birthday party. He enjoys science and a mad science party sounded fun and different.

We originally hired a company that would come for an hour. The host would have the kids wear borrowed lab coats, show a few fun things, and the kids would make slime to take home. That would cost around $150-$175.

After doing some research I figured that I could be the mad scientist and save a few bucks.

Here is what we/I did.

• Bought test tubes and filled with candy
• Brown paper bags with homemade stickers for goodie bags
• Baked the cake - (not cute)

• Bought colorful tablecloths and balloons
• Made slime with "slime cups" and mix (bought online)
• Made "snow" (bought online)
• Made volcano's with paper cups and plates - had the ingredients already
• Bought the birthday boy a lab coat ($10)
• Made name tags for added effect
• Bought dry ice (Huge Hit!)
  
• Used black lights to show off glowing slime
• Bought freeze dried ice cream to sample ($1.88 for a pack. One pack gave 13 kids a sample.)
  

The goodie bags had the slime and snow they made, a test tube with candy, a kaleidoscope, and "Chinese" finger toy (locks two fingers together) The goodie bags looked empty initially because they had to make some of the items that went inside.

A lot of the items are things we already had in the attic from Halloween decor. The other items were very reasonable. The party ended up costing around $120. I still saved money and that helped pay for gifts. I would have spent way over $200 if I would have hired the "professionals".

The experiments were:

• Slime
• Freeze dried ice cream
• Volcano's
• Snow

This took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete with 13 kids.

This turned out to be an absolute blast for the kids. It seemed like they had a really great time. For us, the adults, stress. That's all I can say. Tons of work, loud, and busy.

We wanted a great party with out spending a lot. Hope you have found some ideas for your next shin dig.

xo M