Mad Scientist Party -12yr- Lab Decorations

This Mad Scientist party" was for my daughters 12th birthday. Her birthday is in October so she always has some sort of halloween party. She wanted something different this year. We invited about 12 kids to the party. Most of them were around 11 and 12 although we had a couple of younger kids come. There were both boys and girls. 

INVITATIONS: I found some test tubes and made up the invite. We rolled it up and put it inside of the test tube. 

DECORATIONS: This was the fun part. We did the party in our unfinished basement to make it a little creepy. As they were going downstairs there was a sign above the door that said "LABORATORY" and we had a strobe light blinking on it. Then we covered the walls with black plastic and splattered paint on it. We had the windows blacked out with old sheets covering them with blood splatter. I took the regular light bulb out and replaced it with a black light bulb that I found at Walmart.

There were a couple of tables set up. We decorated one of the tables with lost of jars and beakers that I had found at the thrift store. A couple of the jars with colored tonic water (because it glows under black light) and dry ice. One of the jars had a plastic snake inside one had a skull one had a couple of plastic bats and whatever else I could find. I had also found a couple of burners at the thrift store and had jars on it. We had a couple of old pie pans and one had a severed foot in it with some fake blood in it. And the other had a brain it in. We got them at the Dollar Store around halloween. We had black lights shining everywhere so the paint really showed up. We found a door hanger that looked like a skeleton and hung it on the wall.

Also I had my older daughter lay on the ground and we made an outline of her using masking tape to resemble a dead body. We had a cd playing on loop that sounded like haunted house sounds electricity buzzing so forth. It made good background sounds. At one end of the room we stacked up a couple of boxes and covered then with the black plastic and old sheets and made it look like a gurney table (like for frankenstein or something) It had splattered blood on it as well. This is where we put the food. There was also a table for them to eat on and we also used an old sheet splattered with blood on it for the tablecloth. At the other end of the room we had a table set up to do experiments on it. 

ACTIVITIES: When the kids first arrived they got to get a lab coat (old white t-shirts that I had cut up the front to look like a coat) and they got to sit and decorate them with markers. This gave time for all the kids to get there. After the shirts were done we let them draw a name tag out of a bowl that had funny scientist names on them They were stickers so it made it easy for them to apply. Then we gave them all a pair of goggles (they were safety glasses that my hubby got from his construction company) then they all went downstairs.

One of the tables had black boxes on it that had been painted and we cut a hole in the top so that you could stick your hand inside. We had them play the touchy feely game. They would feel what was inside then guess what it was. In one box we had peeled grapes that were eyeballs cooked spaghetti mixed with a little oil to make them slimy sliced almonds for severed fingernails and so on. We had 6 boxes in all. After that they went over and we did a couple of science experiments. I went to our local science store and found some powder stuff that when you added water it turned to snow. They thought that was cool. Then we did the egg in the bottle trick and a couple more experiments. Then it was time to eat. 

FOOD: We just had pizza but we gave the different kinds wacky names. We had them sitting on the gurney table. It had black light christmas light strands on it so that you could see it better. Then I had also purchased some plastic beakers from the science store as well. I found a recipe for an ooze. We made a green jello with tonic water ahead of time and poured a little bit of it in each beaker then chilled them til they set up. Then we added Sunny D on top of it and it looked really cool. They drank out of wacky straws that I found at the dollar store as well. 

CAKE: For the cake My daughter wanted a giant brain so I made a giant brain. I baked a cake in a metal bowl to make it round. Then I decorated it to look like a brain. I made a pinkish tan frosting and added a little bit of red and made it swirly. Then I piped it onto the cake. I also made cupcakes for all of the kids and made them look like brains as well. The kids loved them! 

FAVORS: for the favors I used rubber gloves that I found at the dollar store in the cleaning section. You could get  like 3 pairs for $1. I filled them with gummy spiders gumball eyeballs glow sticks and other candy. 

THANK YOU NOTES: Then I had little test tubes with a little bit of the dry snow inside with the instructions typed up and tied to the outside. We tied the outside with a little Thank You note on them and gave them to each kid as they were leaving. They got to keep their lab coats and wacky straws but I kept the beaker cups and goggles.   This was one of the funnest parties ever and my daughter got so many compliments about how fun her party was.  "