Happy Fifth birthday, Eddie!

Recently Eddie had her fifth birthday party.  We booked the Science Factory, a local children's experiential museum.  Nine or ten of her friends came, plus some younger siblings, making for about a dozen children total including ours.

The calm before the storm

The Science Factory itself has lots of exhibits, some temporary and others permanent, and encourage the kids to touch and participate in activities.  The temporary exhibit at the moment is about flight and propulsion, so here is Eddie firing a pressurized paper rocket.

She also spent a good chunk of time at one of the two ball machines on permanent display.  These are her favourite exhibits.  Here she is flanked by two friends from preschool.

 Eddie helped me purchase the cupcakes and chocolate cake the day before the party.  The cupcakes were Spiderman theme.  She happened to be also wearing a Spiderman shirt on the party day. We're not sure why she likes Spiderman or how she knows about him.

 As part of the Science Factory booking, we got to do some experiements led by a facilitator.  This is Talal - he was great.  Eddie has an alka-seltzer tablet in a cup and is observing how it makes bubbles, as the lead-up to the first experiment.

The first experiment involved putting a piece of an alka-seltzer tablet into a film canister with some water, and closing the canister, thereby trapping the pressure.  They then put the canisters upside down in a bowl of water, and after about 20 seconds all of the canisters popped into the air!

 Eddie listens carefully to the next experiment's description.  She also kept those goggles on for the rest of the party even though they didn't need them anymore.

 Here's Eddie with the setup for the second experiment.  Hydrogen peroxide, liquid soap and food coloring in a bottle - the kids chose their own food coloring.  The smaller cup is a liquid yeast mixture.  Hydrogen peroxide makes bubbles.  What happens when you pour the yeast, a catalyst, into the bottle?

 You get LOTS of colored bubbles!

 The kids were encouraged to touch the bubbles.  They were slightly warm due to the chemical reactions.

 Eddie decided to see what would happen if she put her little cup on top of her bottle.  It got slowly pushed up by the continuing bubble stream and she poked it back down a few times.

 Some kids got REALLY into feeling the bubbles.

Eddie was more fastidious, and managed to not get a speck of bubble on herself, even while dumping them out.

The final experiment was the infamous Mentos and Diet Soda one. Eddie got to pull the cord that dropped the Mentos tablets into the soda.

Dominic was a bit out of sorts the whole time; he had been asleep at home at the start of the party and was upset to find that I was no longer there when he woke up.  But at the end of the party when it was quieter, he grudgingly got stuck into a piece of chocolate cake.