Mythbusters Themed Birthday a Blast!

Megan had a vision of what she wanted for her birthday party, and by gum, it came to fruition.

The guests arrived at 11 and had three "experiments" to explore. One was a high-powered microscope with lots of interesting things to check out under the lens, including a dead yellowjacket, a potato chip, coins, and Mentos candies. The second was a tray full of Jello Jiggler "ballistics gel" shapes (hearts and stars -- I wouldn't let there be people or animal shapes, go figure) for the kids to poke at with pretzel sticks and eat. The third was outside, in a big bucket. It was ooky, goopy, sticky, tacky "quicksand" made out of cornstarch and water! We used 8 boxes of cornstarch -- it was deep enough to stand in, and sink hands down into, and try to sink or float small objects like diving toys, strawberry baskets, pie tins, and such.

The plan was that the kids would play themselves out for an hour or so, then we'd eat, then we'd move on to the next portion of the party... Unfortunately it was hot out, as in over 100, as in too hot to really enjoy being outdoors at all. The kids were ready for lunch at 11:30.

Lunch was hamburgers, chips, and fruit, which lasted a good fifteen minutes. Now what?

Diet Coke and Mentos!!

Matt set up the famous Mythbusters experiment in the street in front of our house, and the kids and adults all lined up on the sidewalk to watch. Matt was cheered and egged on to add more and more and more Mentos, until the final experiment, which was somewhere around 9 candies. He lined them up in his homemade dispenser tool (PVC pipe with a nail through the bottom to hold the candies in until he released them) and let them splash in... ta da!! Check out the impressive geyser above!!

We returned to the cool house and opened gifts and ate cake, and it was still only 1:00.

The "drop off" parents weren't getting back until 3:00.

It was too hot to be outside anymore, so we found a saved Mythbusters on TiVo (God bless TiVo!) and some kids settled in to watch that; I brought out crayons and a stack of computer paper and some kids settled in to color their way through several trees; and I flicked on the computer and let a few kids take turns on some games. Some of Megan's presents got opened and played with, too.

Megan was delighted with her specialized party, and the kids didn't seem to notice the massive shift in plans due to the rising Mercury. The parents were all impressed with the whole shebang, and Matt and I were happy that everyone had had such a good time.