Budget Ideas for Myth Busters Birthday Party

[NVDisMom]

My soon to be 9 year old absolutely loves Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel. We are already taking her to Disneyland for a couple of days (thank goodness for annual passes) so I need this to be budget.

Here's what I am thinking so far. Place:local park with picnis tables Food:Cake and ice cream only Guests:My 2 girls (9 and 11), family friends (children ages 3, 5 and 7) and maybe 5 friends from school. So 10 kids participating plus the parents. Activities:The diet soda and Mentos experiment and one other. I just don't know what?! Goodie bags: I kind of like the candy buffet idea mentioned in another thread, but I'm thinking that won't be very budget...

I need your creative (and cheap) input.

Thank you

 

[pixeegrl]

Try going to stevespangler.com the guy who invented the mentos experiment! He has a ton of ideas for science experiment.

 

[NVDisMom]

I will check that site out. BTW, I love your Dr. Suess quote...so true, so true.

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

Oh, my daughters love that show as well -- you can have lots of fun with this one!

I would have some "contests" like Jamie and Adam always do.
* who can build the tallest tower with toothpicks and gummy drops
* who can fold a piece of paper the most times (remember that show?)
* who can build a flying machine/glider and who can make it go the furthest (depending on the level of the girls you could have paper, paperclips, etc OR dollar tree "put-it-together" foam airplanes)
* freeze small prizes in ice and see who comes up with the quickest way to get them out (you place small dollar tree items, "rubber balls, hairbows, rings, bracelets", in a balloon, freeze it, and then peel the balloon off)
* making toy cars move with water guns (alternative fuel??)

OOhhhh - and you must do something with "Buddy". Could you take an old Ken doll and "blow him up" in some fun way? See who can sling shot Ken/Buddy the farthest? Shoot him with high power water guns?

And you must have an explosion! Sparklers?

Have lots of fun!

 

[MommaSnowwhite]

In high school we did a science day where you could try to build a capsule to protect an egg from breaking if dropped from a certain height (like the top of a play structure). You could have a box of supplies like bubble wrap, straws, tape, cotton balls paper towel rolls and stuff like that and then let them choose.

 

[hsmamato2]

subbing....

 

[Karenj2]

That sounds like fun! *I* want a birthday party like that!!

 

[minniebeth]

Oh, my daughters love that show as well -- you can have lots of fun with this one!

I would have some "contests" like Jamie and Adam always do.
* who can build the tallest tower with toothpicks and gummy drops
* who can fold a piece of paper the most times (remember that show?)
* who can build a flying machine/glider and who can make it go the furthest (depending on the level of the girls you could have paper, paperclips, etc OR dollar tree "put-it-together" foam airplanes)
* freeze small prizes in ice and see who comes up with the quickest way to get them out (you place small dollar tree items, "rubber balls, hairbows, rings, bracelets", in a balloon, freeze it, and then peel the balloon off)
* making toy cars move with water guns (alternative fuel??)

OOhhhh - and you must do something with "Buddy". Could you take an old Ken doll and "blow him up" in some fun way? See who can sling shot Ken/Buddy the farthest? Shoot him with high power water guns?

And you must have an explosion! Sparklers?

Have lots of fun!

These are great ideas! I think I'll do a Myth Buster Day over the summer with my kids and some friends....

NVDisMom, what a FUN idea for a party! Have fun!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I think it would be great if you could do some neat experiments that you can try at home. I don't know how you would go about getting some (when we do this we go through teacher friends of ours), but if you could get ahold of some liquid nitrogen...well, that's a party in itself. It's harmless (as long as you don't stick body parts in it and hold them there). It's clean (it just evaporates when you're done with it). And you can do endlessly neat things with it. We like to use it to make ice cream (mix cream, sugar and flavoring then just add the nitrogen...no churning necessary).

 

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

My DS turned 10 in March, and we gave him a Mythbusters birthday that was very budget!! He loved it!!

We did the Diet Coke and Mentos experiments, as well as pop rocks and soda..... We also had a typical birthday menu, but I gave all the food items a "Mythbusters" name so that it fit the theme.....

Instead of party hats, I bought each of our kids a cheap pair of safety goggles at the dollar store. It added a touch of authenticity to the "experiments"

The best part of the party was the "exploding" birthday cake - my DH hooked a funnel full of whipped cream onto the end of an air compressor, and we buried it in his "cake" - he knew nothing of it, it was a surprise. When he went to blow out the candles, DH blew the air out and the cake "exploded"...... Here is a kind of grainy video......



And of course later I brought out a platter of real cupcakes to eat!

You can see, I also printed up a lot of signs on the computer that read "confirmed" and "busted" - just for atmosphere. He had a great birthday!

 

[NVDisMom]

Awesome ideas. Now to put it all into a cohesive picture for the park...I'll post back with my final plan. The exploding cake is a must, but I won't have an air compressor. Hmm, what to do, what to do. Any ideas for an invitation?

 

[mommycrawford]

Sciencebob.com is a site I visited for science fair ideas, and PBSkids.org has links to fun experiments from "ZOOM" and other science programming.

This is a great idea!...We had a science party a couple of years back, and with baking soda and vinegar there's a lot of cheap fun stuff you can do!
...rockets, how fire extinguishers work,--cornstarch, food coloring and milk are other safe fun ingredients.

The library should have kitchen experiments books: that way everything is non-toxic and easy to come by and inexpensive.

Have lots of paper towels on hand! Have lots of fun!

 

[duma]

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com
I found lots of great ideas for parties here. Family Fun might have some creative ideas too.

 

[TarraLee]

subscribing-- what a neat idea!