I love throwing themed birthday parties for my kids. It’s my thing. So when my oldest told me he wanted a science party for his 7th birthday, I got excited. 

Pinterest is my friend when it comes to parties. I start a new board and pin anything and everything that seems useful or relevant. The science theme was surprisingly hard, since most of the resources I found skewed toward Mad Scientist, which wasn’t what I wanted. Here’s what I came up with. 

The Setting

I found a chalkboard sign at Party City, which I hung over the doors, welcoming guests to the science lab. Extra test tubes from Oriental Trading were filled with colored water or Nerds and placed on the food table. 

I had some glass bottles which I stuck little plastic bugs in and filled with colored water to simulate preserved specimens. 

The photo booth was green streamers and multi-colored balloons. I hung extra balloons over the “food lab;” the sign was from the dollar bins at Target. 

The Food

Food is an essential part of any event. I like to keep things kid-friendly and relatively healthy, but on theme. I stumbled onto a treasure trove when I found PBS parents, which has free printables and recipes for lots of different party themes. That’s where I found the radioactive pizza idea, and also the photo booth and place card/label printables. 
The veggie tray was set up to look like a beam of light (dip) hitting a prism (I carved a cucumber) and splitting into a full spectrum of colors. I used cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, yellow peppers, sugar snap peas and red cabbage, filling in the extra space with blue tortilla chips. 

The cake was simple and impressive. A layered round cake, white frosting, black writing gel, and gumdrops to look like a model of an atom. 

For drinks we had sparkling water and lemon-lime soda, with those little bottles of flavoring, and let the kids mix their own drinks. Major hit. Major mess as well. 😄

The Activities 

I set up four experiment/activity stations. The kids could graph a cupful of m&ms, make their own molecules with mini marshmallows, gum drops and toothpicks, blow up balloons with (baking soda and vinegar) science, and blind-taste different powders: salt, sugar, powdered sugar and baking soda. That kept them busy for a while. Fair warning: they ingested a lot of sugar, between the marshmallows and m&ms!

After they’d run themselves out, we played Toxic Slime – hot potato, but with goop/slime instead of the ubiquitous beanbag. Everyone tried to get caught with the slime so they could go into “Quarantine!” 

Then we pinned body parts on my very messy gingerbread-person outline 😂. 

And we can’t forget that photo booth!

The Goods

When the kids came in, we gave them a nametag, scanned their fingerprint using this cool app, and had them put on a lab coat – just men’s white v-necks, cut open down the front with pockets drawn on. They got to take the lab coats and name tags home afterwards, along with a “science kit” containing a magnifying glass, a small notebook and pen, a plastic bug, a top, a pull-back car, a test-tube filled with Nerds and a small pack of gum. 

And…

Major success! The kids ranged in age from 3-9 or so, and they all loved it. They were especially thrilled with the slime and the lab coats that they got to take home!
Note: I’m not being paid by anyone for this post. More’s the pity. 😂