Weird Science

So, this guy turned four almost two months ago.

How did this happen?!  

It wasn't that long ago that Big Sis would stiff-arm him every time he tried to walk on his own.

Of course, we celebrated the day of in style:

 fancy dinner at Jet's Pizza, cupcakes by Kroger, the whole 9 yards.

But, since I NEVER get invitations out before the Christmas break and an early January birthday party is kind of a tricky thing to plan, we went with the actual party late in January.

And, like it's done every year since the big man was born, it snowed the day of the party.

Fortunately, the weather did nothing to dampen the spirits of my wee host(s).  

(Sarah is an accomplished hostess and has lots of experience in party going, so of course she was on hand to provide the leadership and delegating skills sorely lacking in the party-planning committee.)

I thought I would have to sedate them to make it to our 2:00 start time, they were so pumped.

Let me just give you a little background on our Will-Bill:

He likes to break stuff investigate stuff.

It's partly a boy thing, but it's mostly a HIM thing. 

He's constantly assessing and predicting the cause and effect of every toy, gadget, tool, or action.  

The words we hear most often out of his mouth (second only to, "Let me tell you something.") 

are, "Daddy, where's the Super Glue?"

Since he's an up-for-anything kind of guy, and you can't plan for outdoor activities for a January party in Nashville, I thought a little Mad Science themed party would be right up his alley. 

Let's start with the gear/favors, shall we?

Eye wear is a big deal in the scientific community, whether you're trying to protect your peepers or read up on the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

 Party City came through with 10 cent glasses in fun colors.

Being Southerners, I don't think of bow ties as necessarily nerdy, but PC also had these in a rainbow of colors to accessorize our academic look.

 Plus, my little scientist looooooves himself a bow tie.

His go-to?  Black sequins.

My mom had the idea for our "lab coats," suggesting I make them out of adult t-shirts and do a little trompe l'oeil treatment for the pockets and lapels.

 These were my absolute favorite things about the party.

And don't they look scholarly?

 Unfortunately, 4-year-olds tend not to give a durn about what ensemble matches a theme and makes a good photo op, so we didn't have many takers on the lab coats.

Sarah WORKED that look, though.

Alright, so let's get to the good stuff.

Experiments:

First up, we made snow from Dollar Tree kits. 

Everybody got to mix their own and squish it all up. 

Nobody even tried a taste.

Next up was a Mentos-and-Diet-Coke rocket performed by Mike.

Then, we put the littles to work making glitter slime.

It's a pretty rare and exciting occurrence when an adult gives you 

free reign to squeeze every ounce of glue from the bottle.

Then we made our own personal volcanoes, even getting to choose what color lava we wanted.

I realize this looks like something other than a volcano.

The scientists took a brain break from all of this experimenting 

to feed those neurons with some pizza.

And then it was time for cake.

But, in an effort to stay true to the experimental spirit, the kids each got a plain cupcake to decorate with Pop Rocks, sprinkles, goo, icing, and googly eyes.

After bellies were filled, we tested the effects of sugar-highs 

on the bounce-ability of pre-schoolers on a trampoline.

I know my little scientist had fun, and I hope the rest of the munchkins did too!