Young Scientists Birthday Party

The food was all ready with munchies on the table:
Some objects in the kitchen seemed to defy description. But they were simply water balloons that had been frozen solid.

There were even trays of cupcakes, cleverly disguised as ice cream in cones.

Early comers were shown to the back yard where Tim and Jake's trampoline was getting a serious workout.

This was not, however, without incidents. Some of the kids were bouncing a little too chaotic causing a bump and subsequent nose bleed. Fortunately, his mom was there to apply first aid kisses as well as a wet, colored wash rag.

Finally, when everyone had arrived, the group marched into the living room where a temporary "laboratory" had been set up. They all donned "lab coats" but drew the line at wearing name tags with various scientists' names on them. We could have added 30 more minutes to the party by using the name tags and then having each of them read a short bio of his/her named person such as Einstein or Galileo.

Here, the young scientists are stirring borax powder into a bottle of warm water. They will then bend a pipe cleaner into unusual shaped and suspend it by string in the borax water solution.

The frozen water balloons were next on the examining table. Each child first scraped, pulled, or cut the balloon from the ice. Then the children sprinkled salt on the ice follow by food coloring. If the food coloring was on the surface of the ice it didn't color much. If it was following a grain or two of salt you could get a fireworks display in reverse with the color descending as the ice melted the rock hard ice block. Gramma brought the mother of all ice cubes to give an even larger demonstration of the ice effect.

Next, the children were introduced to polymers by hydrating (adding water to) a small portion of "Instant Snow". The stuff is similar to powder used in disposable diapers which absorbs much more water in weight or volume than the original powder and the material that you can add to soil to hold moisture rather than let it pass right through.

Slime was next on the list. There were two liquid components shared with the kids. First they dumped in the green liquid and felt the consistency. It was sort of like soapy water. After the second component was poured into the green liquid, it turned into something between half set Jello and snot -- a sort of SLIME

It was difficult to keep all the kids was redecorating the room with slime everywhere. For the next exercise Grandma dished out a cup of cool, sugared milk into a Zip-loc baggie for each child. Then according to their preference, I poured a scant 1/4 cup of instant pudding powder for the flavor. Chocolate was indeed the most favored with vanilla and butterscoth tied for a distant 3rd. And no one picked pistachio. A gallon Zip-loc baggie was filled half full of ice and half a cup of "ice cream salt" or what we used to call rock salt. Moms, dads, and kids toss the bags back and forth vigorously.
After 10 minutes or when everyone's hands were freezing, the group came back inside to eat their soft ice cream.

By this time we had reached the final minutes for the party so Tim hurriedly opened his presents. Some kids had already had to leave so it was impossible to get a picture of each child with the present he/she gave Tim.

When all the presents were opened the kids were shooed outisde to the trampoline again until their parent(s) showed up to take them and their share of the experiments home. Each child was given a booklet with the recipes for most of the experiments. Who knows? We may have awakened an interest in science for one or more of the kids. Tim thought it was great.

Tiffany, Edward, and Carolyn sat down for a much needed hour of relaxation.