www.martinandfaye.com: Nicholas 6th birthday

Birthday Boy Nick

SIX! I can't believe Nicholas is already 6! He is such a special little boy with a wonderful wonderful personality. He makes us happy and proud in so many ways. I wanted to spoil him for his birthday. It's tricky on a school day but luckily it was mufti (civvies) day at school and Mr Grimmer, the chef, always makes a cake for the birthday boy. Conveniently, his birthday was also followed by an inset day, and a day off is a special treat for everyone. At home we showered him in balloons, post and presents and sang happy birthday to him as many times as we could. For breakfast he wanted pancakes and for supper he wanted lasagne followed chocolate éclairs. I think we succeeded in making him feel extra special!

Birthday Balloons

Scotch Pancakes for Breakfast

Lasagne for Supper

Chocolate éclairs for Dessert

Presents and cards in the post

Uncle Pete always comes bearing gifts

More presents from friends after the party

And even more presents from Mom and Dad

Enjoying all his new things

There's a whole lot of posts following this one
about Nicholas' birthday celebrations!

Inspired by Einstein

The party theme was inspired by Nicholas' obsession about volcanoes and his desire for a volcano cake. A mad science party was one of the themes that could facilitate the volcano cake and when one of our friends told us about Science Wizards we thought it would be a great way to entertain 25 six year olds. And the rest was history!

The Invitation

Dad designed the funky invitation. We always like to personalise our invitations with a photo and let them give a hint as to what the theme is going to be. I thought Dad's idea of using the periodic table, although way over the children's heads, added a great touch. You should have seen Nicholas' face when he saw it!

The Cake

The volcano cake was pretty simple to make. I made one normal round cake and another dome shaped cake using a glass bowl. Together these made a reasonable volcano shape. After covering the cake in chocolate icing we made the lava with different shades of red and orange icing. Heating it in the microwave until it melted and letting it cool slightly before drooling it over the cake worked pretty well. We finished it off with sparklers to give the effect of erupting. I don't think anyone noticed the coloured flames of the candle because of the sparklers but that was an added sciency touch. Nicholas was very impressed and that's what mattered most of all!

Décor and Party Food

I decided to stick to simple party food and décor but I did try to add a bit of mystery to make it a bit sciency. For decoration we had some bulb shaped test tubes filled with multi coloured water beads. I found some marshmallow lab rats and I made some marshmallow 'atoms' which I sprinkled along the table. Candy floss and popcorn added to the idea of weird and wonderful things we eat. The fruit on my fruit sticks were all round - meant to imitate molecules. The rest of the food was just regular party snacks. For the drinks we made coloured ice cubes out of cordial and the children could choose what combination to add to their sparkling water. We also had a 'Guess the number of Jelly Beans Jar". We had a big bowl of Wonka Gobstoppers and Jawbreakers on offer. Anyone remember fireballs and sourballs? They really surprised the children!

The Party Packs

We had fun making the party packs. We decorated the brown paper bag with science themed cut outs and an Einstein inspired photo of Nicholas and he wrote a thank you message on them. They contained: a test tube filled with Wonka Nerds, Fizz Wizz popping candy, sherbert straws and rocket balloons. During the party the children also got to add the helicopters, rockets and slime that they made. Based on the feedback they were all very well received!

Thank you letter to his class mates

Einstein

Nicholas

Mad Science Party

Finally, the long awaited day of the party arrived with great excitement. The children thought the lady was a real scientist and were engrossed by all the experiments. The rest all went smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. They especially enjoyed the uncontrolled and crazy running around and playing afterwards. We had balloons with lights in them, small static balloons and the screaming rocket balloons and they all ended up being popped with screams of delight. The manic part is always my favourite part of the party and I always end up wishing it could last longer!

The Feast