Spencer's Science Museum Birthday Party

I debated having birthday parties for the kids this year. I didn't really want to. I thought I had decided instead to have them on specific birthdays (3, 6, 9, and 12). But then I caved. Spencer's just such a social person and wanted a party so bad. I couldn't say no.

But I was not up to hosting a big party like I did last year. It was a lot of fun, but so much work and so exhausting. This has been a hard pregnancy and I just wasn't up for it. So we had it at the science museum. It was a lot of fun and a great compromise - they did the set up, decorations, activity, and clean up. We just provided the food and cake. Low stress and I think the kids had a lot of fun.

Spencer chose the theme "Earth Rocks" and so I made a cake topped with chocolate rocks in the form of a 7. I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough cake, so I made some cupcakes with earth toppers. I thought they were cute, but apparently they didn't look as tasty as the cake - no one chose them and everyone wanted the cake. Oh, well. There ended up being enough.

The kids started in the Our Marvelous Earth exhibit and then assembled in the party room for a demonstration by the Science Museum staff. The room was decorated simply, but it was nice and bright and cute. I had brought some streamers and balloons and banners because I didn't know what the room would look like and was planning on decorating a bit, but didn't end up doing it - I felt like they had enough.

They talked about static electricity and lightning and had the kids take a turn holding a wand up to a charged ball and seeing it spark.

I tried really hard to capture that spark with my camera, but it came and went so fast that I didn't have a chance. The kids seemed to really enjoy that and it was fun to see the smiles on their faces.

They also talked about wind and had a competition to see who could fill up a long plastic bag with the most air.

 

 

 

Then they did a few things with UV light (like the sun). Morgan the staffer showed them some rocks that changed color or had specks of color become visible under UV light. There were also beads that became colorful when exposed to the light and they were able to put the beads on a bracelet. Then they used photo paper to put designs on with various objects. After they arranged the objects how they wanted on the paper she waved the UV light wand over it to change the colors. Then they rinsed the paper to seal in the design. Pretty cool.

 

 



After that we had pizza. I didn't get any pictures of that because I was busy serving and eating. But it was from La Nova and it was yummy and we could have it delivered right to the museum, which was very nice.

Then we had cake. There was a pretty big draft in the room, so it was a group effort to keep those candles burning.

Then we opened presents. I didn't get any pictures of that, either - I guess I was too busy writing the gifts down. But he got lots of fun things (Angry Birds game, puzzle, books, hoe, lego set, airplane, etc.) and was quite happy.

After that, we went back to the Our Marvelous Earth exhibit and enjoyed ourselves there. There was a water table - you can see that was Marshall's favorite part.

All in all, it was a great day and Spencer had a lot of fun with his friends and cousins.