We threw a belated Halloween party on Nov 2nd for Ryan and his friends, mostly because he was long overdue for a Halloween party. I LOVE science and any excuse for fun experiments. So, I was all over this!! But an unexpected bonus is that it turned out to be a great pre-surgery distraction. And a lot of fun!

Exploding Coke?

Check!

Slimey cauldron tricks? (As in, invisible slime balls (a.k.a. clear spheres) between them and the money at the bottom of the cauldron.)

Check!

Playing with the slimy “clear spheres?” (They are really fun to squish.) Double-check!

Instant Snow? (Wait? Snow?!) And a lovely Senior Lab Assistant?

Check!

Okay, the bobbing for apples was a ‘must-have’ activity for Ryan. No, it’s not mad science, but it can always be made into a lesson on density, we figured. A stretch? Perhaps.

But, really, how could I resist the idea of THIS?

Or this?

Or this?

(I DID have Rene put a bit of Clorox in the water, cuz… EW.)

And then we made glow in the dark test tubes (too dark for pictures). And atomic slime.

 

And no one wanted to leave. And we didn’t want anyone to leave. But Isabel and I had a Girl Scout campout to get to, before the campsite gates closed.

What did Ryan think? Apparently, not a whole lot – two weeks later, this is all I got out of him. (And I had to translate his air-spelling to get it!)

That Ryan is really verbose.

Notes:

1. Don’t accidentally drop the Mentos into the Sprite bottle when your face is right in the path of the explosion. It will be delicious, but very sticky for a very long time. And a lot of laughs will be had at your expense. (But this is a much better idea than accidentally dropping the Mentos in your Coke bottle, while in your dining room – which is what I did for Isabel’s Mad Science party long, long ago. So progress has been made.)
2. Shooting a party (with dark and various colored lighting) while trying to run the same party is tricky business.
3. For these science experiments and more, visit: http://stevespanglerscience.com.
4. I’m really glad I went with “Mad Science LAB,” not “Mad Science CLASS” for the glow in the dark party banner. (Cutting off the first letters would have been WAY worse in the second scenario.)

View More Photos