It was a 4 layer alternating white and chocolate cake. I opted to go for a caution tape style with fondant. Then as an attempt to recreate the sign look that the tv show does with sawdust I used crushed graham crackers to go around the letters.
I kept some of the elements of the party a surprise. As the boys were arriving we had the Mythbusters show playing with the mini myths show. Then I welcomed all of the boys and told them that we had some special guests to help us with the party today. Just then my husband and oldest son walked around the corner and the birthday boy fell over laughing hysterically. Why? Here ya go:
My husband is mostly bald (he keeps his hair cut to a very very short buzz). I got him a black beret and a nasty looking huge mustache and he made an amazing Jamie Hyneman. Absolutely recognizable, it was awesome. My son has red hair, so he has been growing his facial hair the last few weeks. This morning he shaved it into a goatee, added the thick black nerd glasses, and became Adam Savage. They looked amazing. I think it was my favorite part of the whole experience. I may have them use these as Halloween costumes.
I had purchased safety goggles for all of the boys from amazon (dang I love amazon, but it isn't always the best that ANYTHING I want practically I can buy with just a few clicks - LOL).
We started with "Jaime" helping all of the boys make tubes for doing the mentos and diet coke experiment. They made them out of 2-liter bottle caps, pvc pipe, pvc cap, epoxy putty, and a couple of drilled holes out of which the soda would explode. 10 year old boys tend to like to build things and blow things up, so it was a pretty good combination.
Then we moved on to making homemade gak (thank you Pinterest for some great ideas!) and exploding snow. I had purchased a package of 10 small plastic containers at the dollar store so each of the boys could go home with a little bit of the gak.
I sent them outside to build a toast dropping machine. They tested the myth that toast always lands butter side down. By this point we were starting to run short of time a little bit and the boys started eating the toast rather than dropping them. So, that was a big clue that we needed to get lunch on the table pretty quickly. I brought out the ballistics gel and a pack of cards so that they could test whether a playing card could cut into flesh when it was thrown.
While my daughter was cooking the pizzas I took the boys back out front to do the elephants toothpaste experiment. That is always a big hit.
One problem with running a crazy party for 10 boys is that there just isn't time to take pictures. It is all you can do to keep on top of everything!
We did the gift opening thing, ate pizza, and served up the cake and ice cream as their parents started to arrive. I sent them all home with a goodie bag that included:
A folder with all of the experiments we did and some more that they could do at home.
A container of gak.
Their pvc pipe contraption for the mentos and diet coke experiment.
Mentos
A tootsie pop with a note asking how many licks it takes to get to the center (does anyone else remember that advertisement from their youth?).
A package of pop rocks with a note directing them to youtube to watch the pop rocks and soda myth that the Mythbusters did on their show.
A bar of ivory soap so that they could do the ivory soap explosion (which was included in their folder).
And finally a package of gum, because that is just fun. :)
I think it was a smashing success.
I got a bunch of my ideas, and most of what was in each folder from:
http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2012/02/super-science-birthday-party.html
I added the mentos and diet coke experiment and the recipes for gak and exploding snow as well.
I think you more than made up for the lack of friend parties in the past. Sounds like SO much fun. I haven't had any extenuating circumstances, my boys just haven't had a friend party in years because I am bad at that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteI love that show! Heck, I'd go for a birthday party like that too! Love Gavin and Eric's get-up. Hilarious! So much fun.
ReplyDeleteLovely! Pinterest has everything one is looking for. I often take help from there for organizing themed parties. I was even able to find a good event space from there for my daughter’s birthday party. She wanted to have a party in a palace like place and I was able to find it online there.
ReplyDelete