Planning a party is one of the parts of a parent’s job description that can be the most daunting. What’s age-appropriate? Where are the best places to consider as party venues in Huntsville and Madison County? How can you throw a good party and stay within your budget? We plan on helping busy parents find the answers to those questions and more in our series, “It’s My Party“, where we invite real, local parents to share their great party planning experiences with other readers.

Big thanks to Leslie C. for sharing her son’s birthday party experience with us!

Mad Scientist Birthday Party

Age & gender of child: Boy, 5 years old

Party Theme: Mad Science

Party Location: Cook Museum of Natural Science

Facility Rental Costs: Themed party room & program was $340 – this also includes TWO party hosts provided by the museum and a t-shirt for the birthday boy.

Number of Party Guests: 25

Invitations: The museum provided a digital design and I uploaded that to Vistaprint to send paper invitations.

Decorations & Food

The Cake: We had an amazing cake by Publix. It was one of their standard designs, but super colorful and yummy for about $60. To drink, I put apple juice in beakers with curly straws from Oriental Trading Co. – so cute!

Cook Museum provides a catering option for party food other than birthday cake. Turkey & cheese sandwiches, and a fruit & veggie tray area great and healthy party food for Littles!

Decorations: The museum doesn’t allow a lot of decorations in their party room but luckily you don’t need many. We used some simple science-themed table decorations and that was plenty.

Favors & Activities

The museum staff was wonderful! They were dressed for the occasion in lab coats, and each kid got a lab coat too upon arrival.

We made slime and learned about the three states of matter in a little mini-experiment. We also got to choose two animals to see and learn about. We chose a lizard and a snake. The kids LOVED it! Some kids didn’t want to touch it and, of course, didn’t have to. Parents for a group this size waited in the hall (where I had a bistro table set with snacks and drinks) but they could see what was happening in the room through the large windows. Some went to tour the museum in the meantime, although tickets to the museum are not included in this package.

Favors: I sourced party favors through the museum store. Big hit and very convenient! You can choose your favor bags, and there’s a $4 or $7 option.

Science Party Pro-Tips

This was really my son’s first big birthday party. He’s just getting to an age where birthdays are a big deal and we wanted to make it super special for him and our guests. The kids were precious in all their little lab coats and so excited to come see the museum. I loved how all-inclusive the party package was – I could really sit back and enjoy the party too! We can’t wait to plan a butterfly themed party for his sister next year!

[themify_box style=”lavender announcement”]Do you want to participate and share your personal party experience with other Huntsville parents? Just fill out our secure submission form here.[/themify_box]

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