it's mad, i tell you. mad!

Mad scientist parties are one of my favorite kids' party themes. Not only do they offer an endless amount of activity and decoration options, but they also let you sneak in a little learning and give kids some new ways to get messy.

To find out how to plan a bash worthy of Mr. Wizard without blowing up your budget, we talked to party-planning whiz Brenda of the Party Planning Mom blog, who created a mad scientist extravaganza for her lucky birthday boy.

There were lab coats, magnifying glasses and experiment stations where each kid got to make Mentos-in-soda geysers, towers constructed using marshmallows and toothpicks, lava lamps and more.

Here are Brenda's tips for hosting your own mad scientist party:

• Try all of the planned experiments a few days before the party. This way you know that you have all of the correct components, that it will be simple to execute, and that it will be a success. One of the experiments I planned for our party was an "Edible Volcano" (a foaming homemade candy using citric acid, baking soda & powdered sugar). In theory, this sounded like a cool experiment, but my kids hated the taste of it! No matter how I tweaked the recipe, I couldn't get it to taste quite right. So, I knew not to do that one at the party.
• The best advice I can give is to pre-mix components for each guest before the party. At each experiment station, I had plastic containers with lids (4 for $1 from the dollar store) labeled with each boy's name containing ingredients for that experiment. For example, at the Slimed station, there was a container for each guest with the glue solution and another with the Borax solution. Everything was pre-measured and the boys just had to mix the 2 solutions together to make slime.
• I made self-stick computer labels with the guests' names and labeled everything. It made it so much easier to keep track of which experiment belonged to which child.  Each guest also had a handled bag to put all of their experiments into.
• Get helpers. Before the party, I enlisted the help of my husband, parents and a couple of friends to help run the experiments. I had simple instructions at each station so that no matter what adult helped out, they would be able to lead the experiment.

You'll find more photos and great tips from Brenda's mad scientist party on her blog.

Comments

I'll bet the kids had a blast, (no pun intended).

Love this!

Lucky birthday boy!

This is great! I had a mad scientist birthday party for my daughter. I love the idea of the experiment stations. We did everything as a group and it was very crazy. I also did a lot of planning and prepping before my party. I used the Steve Spangler Science website (http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/category/party-planning) to get ideas, supplies and most importantly a solid plan!

Mad scientist themed parties are definitely awesome! That was so cool! I'm sure the kids will really enjoy all the lab stuff, making stuff and who knows what else hahaha. Thanks!