Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A Science Party

The theme for this year's blowout birthday party for my boys was science. I don't quite understand the allure of dissecting small animals and mixing up chemicals, but they seem to dig it. So I did my best to play along and tried to create a great event for my budding scientists.

As each guest arrived, they were transformed into "real" scientists. This of course meant donning safety goggles - you can purchase these for a little more than a dollar here...



...and white lab coats, along with personalized name badges, that you can purchase at the lowest prices I could find here...



The invitation was a little involved. I first created a basic invitation on vellum paper with a background image that was printed on regular printer paper. By the way, the background image is an Erlenmeyer flask - interesting fact #1 that I learned while planning this party.



I then rolled up the invitation and put it inside a giant test tube that I found here. Interesting fact #2: these plastic tubes are actually used to create two liter soda bottles - who knew? The really cool "caution" labels were created by Amy Locurto - you should check out her blog when you get a chance.



The last part of the invitation was a direction card - the party was held in a kind of obscure location, so I played the role of GPS. I might have mentioned that I get a little obsessed with themes, so when I started typing up the directions this happened - another white lab coat!



Here are some pics from the actual event - if the smiles were any indication of their satisfaction, I think the kids had a great time.



I wanted to have a little fun with the food, so I drew inspiration from the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids". The basic premise of the movie is that a crazy scientist invents a machine that miniaturizes things, including his kids. For the party I altered the original movie poster and served all miniature food - sliders, mini tater tots, bagel bites (which looked like mini pizza),baby carrots, etc...too fun!



So the last interesting fact that I learned from planning this party is that science is pretty cool - I'm off to pick up my own lab coat right now!

4 comments:

Kendra@My Insanity said...

So fun! I love the invitations in the test tube! And I know several budding scientists that might love this party.

Cute Party Ideas said...

Love the lab coats with the name badge, this idea adds a lot of authenticity to your MAD SCIENTIST PARTY THEME. Would love to know the activities. It looks like you were constructing molecules and possibly slime? It's a superb way to inspire a career in science. Did you do anything with dry ice? We have some tips for handling dry ice.

Hatter and Hare Events said...

Thanks Kendra...the extra postage to mail the invitations was well worth it - the kids loved the test tubes!

Hatter and Hare Events said...

Hi Christine! I conducted what I called a "Scientist Readiness Course" that included creating molecules out of marshmallows, guessing elements from the periodic table and reciting famous scientific formulas. I would love to take credit for the experiments (you called it - slime and dry ice), but I hired an incredibly cool company that specializes in science parties - they are here in GA, but I've heard about similar companies in other states. One other fun thing I set up was an "Invent Your Own Sundae Bar" - needless to say this went over big.

 

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