It’s My Party: Going Mad For Science
Growing up in the ’80s, birthday parties typically took place in a friend’s backyard, where you ran around, occasionally played pin the tail on the donkey, ate some cake, opened presents, and went home with a bag of candy and cheap plastic toys.Nowadays, kids’ birthday parties are big business — especially here in Brooklyn, where parents easily drop hundreds of dollars on just a venue.Settling on a place to hold the celebration is only the beginning. Expectations are high when it comes to everything from decor to entertainment, and it’s enough to send the most level-headed mom or dad into a tailspin.If Junior’s birthday is approaching, and you’re feeling short on inspiration, City Kid Corner is here to help. We’re asking parents from around the borough to share their party themes.With a little work, parents can put many of these parties together on their own — raising the potential for a fun, but budget-friendly, birthday bash.Our first theme is all about slime, explosions, and world domination. South Slope’s Valerie Hymas shares the details for her son Charlie’s mad scientist party below.CKC: What inspired you to choose your theme?Valerie Hymas: I spent a month figuring out the theme, but inspiration came after my mom bought him a scientist Playmobil set that he turned into a mad scientist set so then I ran with it.
Tell us about your decorations.I bought a party planning guide off of Etsy, and much of the decor came from that. I also scoured the internet for images of science stuff. I had specimen jars filled with plastic animals and colored liquid, a periodic chart, a ‘take over the world’ plan graph, security clearance signs, balloons with chemical compounds grouped to form molecules (H2O and the like), and a ‘Happy Birthday Charlie’ banner with hazardous waste symbols.
Were your food offerings also part of the theme?Yes, fruit molecules, a cake in shape of a science flask, and petri dish Jello with gummy worms and specimens growing in them.
We also had juice dispensers in different colors so that they could combine them to see the colors change (chemical reactions mixology). Everything was labeled with some reference to the theme.
What activities did you have for the kids?We made slime, and watched balloons filled with baking soda expand after the baking soda mixed with vinegar.
A friend volunteered to play mad scientist, so we also had volcanoes erupting, and an experiment with Mentos in a Diet Coke bottle.
Did you have party favors, and if so, what were they?Yes, they were in specimen bags and included Pop Rocks, touchable bubbles in a container that looked like a ball point pen, and mad science stickers. Plus each kid was given a mad scientist costume, with a tie dye shirt made to look like a lab coat, a pair of nerdy glasses, a sticker nerdy tie, and a badge that hung around their neck giving them clearance to the party, and stating their names and area of specialty — all mad science related.
What advice would you offer to those planning a similar party?Give yourself plenty of time to put it together, buy a party planning guide, scour the internet for ideas, have a good color printer or the ability to use one at work.Think twice about it. It was very time consuming (so much cutting out the decor items) and it was an expensive theme. It wasn’t too bad, given that I had somebody volunteer to be the mad scientist and do to the experiments, but without that the theme won’t work, and the professionals are pricey.Have a great party theme that you’d like to share? Email editor@bklyner.com with the details.
