Art & Science Birthday Party at Mixin Mingle: Part 2

Did you miss Part 1? Click here for Art & Science Birthday Party at Mixin Mingle: Part 1 to learn about our venue and how we set the scene!

Food

We scheduled our party after noon, but we still wanted to have lunch food. We decided to go simple and ordered some sandwich trays, plus chips, water, pop, and juice boxes. I wanted to have some snacks to match the “Art & Science” theme so I ordered some beakers and test tubes from Amazon and American Science and Surplus and filled them with Smarties and Nerds candies.

Petri dishes with green Jello were a hit with the kids, as were the Rice Krispie Treat paint brushes (with colored white chocolate).

Activities

One of the things I love about a kids party is that once you get a group of kids in a big enough area they’re going to have fun. They play and make up their own games and usually have a blast. I did plan some activities for the kids though, mostly to keep them from getting too crazy.

I wanted to have a photo backdrop to get some cute pictures of the kids and let them play dress up and get creative. I bought some plastic tablecloths in rainbow colors  and folded them over a few inches on one of the short ends and duct taped it down to basically make a curtain. We put them on a metal bar and brought it to the party ready to go. Mixin Mingle has these cute little decorative alcove areas and one of them already had nails so we just hung the bar on them. So easy! I brought some of the boys’ dress-up stuff (hats, masks, capes, etc) and John made a couple props using some markers and foam board.

I wanted to have an art project for the kids to do so we bought 4 boxes of Alex Paper Bag Puppet Craft kits. The kids had a blast and some of them even named their puppet and played with it throughout the party.

We also had a science project for the kids to do. We prepared water bottles with vinegar and put a balloon filled with baking soda on each one just before the party (note: if you do this too early you won’t get a reaction and it won’t work). John, always a good sport and fantastic public speaker, demonstrated to the kids how to tip the balloon up and hold it while it inflated as the chemicals combined. Then each kid got their own bottle to try it themselves. (Want to try this experiment yourself? Meanful Mommy and Gift of Curiosity have instructions.)

Party favors

Each child took home the art apron and science glasses they received at the start of the party and the paper bag puppet they made during the party. As they left each child received a goody bag of party favors including recycled crayons in the shape of dinosaurs and stars, a specimen jar water tornado (made by filling the specimen jar 3/4 full and adding a couple drops of dish soap), glow-stick bracelets, and magic color-changing playdough.

Instructions for making recycled crayons can be found at Glittering Muffins, Pink and Green Mama, Gift of Curiosity, Nothing If Not Intentional, and Mum in the Madhouse.

I made homemade playdough (this recipe is from Craftulate and It’s Our Long Story has one too), but I left out the food coloring. I packed the playdough into small containers with lids, pushed a hole in each with my thumb, dropped a couple of drops of food coloring into the dough, and then covered up the hole. The playdough stayed white, but when the kids take it out and start playing with it the color will spread around. I considered doing some dough for the kids to play with at the party (this foam dough recipe from Lemon Lime Adventures looks like fun), but we had a guest with a corn allergy and I wanted to be sure all the kids could participate.

Overall

This party was a winner. The kids loved it, the adults had fun, and it was fairly stress free. We have fun pictures (I emailed photos of the kids to the parents after the party) and all the kids seemed thrilled with the favors they got to take home. Mixin Mingle made the party SO easy and I look forward to planning and attending events there in the future!